Hello Custodian!
So since last we spoke, there has been an incident in production. Let me give you some context before telling you how my monster of a PC was humbled by a simple poop.
Dynamic mayhem
When we started making Monster Mop Up, we couldn’t help but find a fully dirty level cheap and blunt. We knew we could do better!
So we created a dynamic dirt/poop system that could be both an obstacle and a means of expression for creative players. One that would also spice things up on every play-through.
One very important aspect of the system is the smelly gifts, lovingly excreted by the cute Ragamuffins.
Same Day, Different poop
You already know that Ragamuffins poop everywhere when they are scared, and that we are tasked to (besides saving them) clean everything in sight.
When we were personalizing them (a tale for another blog post), we ended up in five distinct excrement categories and expanded on that- each type of Ragamuffin should have distinct poop! Here's the list:
Floppy
This is the first kind you will encounter during game-play, the stealthiest and most flexible of poop generally leaves an impression of how wiggly and gracefully it moves in your (thankfully) gloved hands.
Jumpy
These orange balls don’t want to stay in place. Jumping around, (could they be exercising?) looking very lively, have forsaken stealth for a happy happy dance!
Floaty
Wouldn't you like to fly? These poop found a way! Whenever you encounter them soaring in the ceiling or levitating directly into your eyesight you bet it's a green one. You thought you had some floaters? Well this is some next level skills!
Bloaty
A support class poop! Whichever type touches it gets a bump in size! Now we’ve already limited the size to just three tiers as if this was left rampant the whole level might be engulfed in Blue Brownness (or is it brown blueness?). Let's be honest, big ones are cool, GIGANTO poops aren’t.
Boomy
You might be thinking that this has escalated quickly, but the purple poop is a cluster grenade at heart. After touching it, and after a small period, it explodes leaving numerous small ones that fly to every direction. Thankfully it has a short range, and you don’t get any damage from the explosion besides the… you know, being touched by them. Yuk!
You can dispose of them in a fire or chug them down a toilet and also there are a couple of ways to counter each specific type and some tools to help as well, but there is more!
Poop Synergies
Some poop play nice with one another. Maybe too nice.
So there was this level (that will remain anonymous so we don’t hurt its feelings) that had Bloaties and Boomies one near the other.
When the Boomies burst into smaller chunks their blue friends made those chunks into level 3 big boys which in turn exploded. An infinite circle!
I think I saw a Jumpy near there who was effectively shoveling chunks onto the Bloaties during its workout and my PC slowed down to a crawl and then froze.
Now there are a lot of backups, but for a minute there, I had flashbacks of all the burned drives that have happened to me in the past.
Luckily I was the first one to play the build so after keeping everyone in the team safe, we worked together to fix the issue (in a cunning and nefarious manner), so everyone can now enjoy a carefree and satisfying fireworks poop show!
Playing the game daily helps to find those bugs early, but mostly I like the way that everyday has something new popping up that we didn’t know could happen, which is really rewarding!
Plus I can get some satisfying and OCD cleansing time during the day, which is soothing to my soul.
If you haven’t played the Free Demo yet, why don’t you head over to the Monster Mop Up Steam page to give it a go as well!
Until next time!
Cheers!