Get to know the "Hello Penguin" team behind the game Vernal Edge coming out tomorrow, 14 March 2023 at 7 p.m. CET/ 11 a.m. PT :)
This is what they had to say about their journey.
Matthew Martinez: Project Founder, Lead Artist, Level Design
Avid enjoyer of being lost. I started Vernal Edge in 2018 and worked on it solo for almost a year before anyone else joined. After receiving funding I've been hard focused making environments and doing social media stuff. Originally, I learned to create pixel art so I could make mods for cave story, I even worked on such a mod with Taeler that led to the creation of Vernal Edge!
I love exploration and little secrets, so I filled the game with a bunch of little movement optimizations and chances at skill expression through movement, maybe you'll take notice!
Alex Mccaskey: Combat Design, Main Scenario Writing, Music, Sound Design.
I was the first collaborator brought on after Matt started the project in 2018. Together we refined the concept for Vernal Edge and put together the Kickstarter. Matt and I have wanted to make a game like this for at least the past decade, so in a way Vernal Edge represents a lot of our ideas and skills we've gained along that time. I hope you enjoy the culmination of our efforts.
Taeler Dixon: Programmer, Tools Dev and "a little bit of everything else".
Voice actor for the famous "Penguin from OneShot". I joined the project in Jan. 2021 after the success of the Kickstarter. Since then, I've been fixing bugs, optimizing things and making funny-looking shaders. I'm also responsible for the fishing minigame, so if you end up having to face that on Vicious difficulty then you know who to blame. Believe in yourself, you can do it!
Some development trivia: There was a cut island with a minigame that involved harvesting mushrooms with a harpoon gun from atop a talking train. Some things are better left on the cutting room floor.
T.J. Bertino: Key Artist, 3D Modeling, Character and dialogue writing, Level Lighting
When Vernal Edge was on Kickstarter, I was hard at work on some other projects that were just wrapping up. I didn't have the ability to help fund the game, so I drew some fan art to help spread the word. Matt then saw the fanart, hunted me down and forced me to work on the game ever since. Initially it was just character art and portraits, but my role grew as the project needed more concept art, testing, writing, and a bunch of other stuff. You can thank me for the overworld too, we were gonna make it a lot simpler at first, but I was determined to 3D model every single island in the sky in glorious 5th-gen style graphics. I hope everyone loves the game!
Wishlist the game now (if you haven't already), to get all the news about the game launch!
NOTE: Don't forget to be there at the launch - The game releases tomorrow 14 March, at 7 p.m. CET/ 11 a.m. PT
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1546710/Vernal_Edge/