Hello, Pergonauts! Welcome to another Tuesday dev blog for Dandelion Void.
This week we have a peek into some decorative clutter that you’ll find aboard the Pergola, as well as some exciting team member intros!
Junk Items
Up to now, if a player looked into a crate, cabinet, or other container, they’d find some assortment of food, water, weapons, etc. These tools and resources are the bread and butter of any survival game, but the starship Pergola is more than just a game level. To depict an environment that real people lived in for generations, we are working on a collection of tchotchkes, junk, and accoutrements to put in our loot tables!
At no point during your play experience will owning a stack of wooden coasters be a life or death matter. They’re just fun! Junk items add flavor, allow us to tell environmental stories, and make the moment of looting a truly crucial item all the more satisfying. Nothing hits like finally finding that machete after a string of pens and combs!
As the game developers it’s possible that some of these items could gain functionality, but for now they’re just a bit of drawer clutter. You can sprinkle them around your base as decorations, hang on to them as keepsakes, or just leave them be!
Creators of Clutter
Now, who made this junk? Dandelion Void began its life as a side project by our game director Brian, and much of the art and functionality you see in the trailer was created by him alone. But as we spin up into full production, our team has also grown!
Dara Descends
This set of junk items is one of the first contributions from a new artist on the team, Dara! Dara Insixiengmay (they/them) is a 3D artist and a worker-owner at Manzanita Interactive. Robin and Dara met working on the game Stranger Things VR at Tender Claws; among many other contributions, Dara rigged and animated creatures like the demogorgon, demodog, demobat, and more! For a game like Dandelion Void full of spindly, tentacly, plant creatures, it’s great to have someone who’s already tackled monsters with eight legs, three tails, and a flower-petaled lamprey mouth.
While Dara’s specialty is rigging and animation, they’re also a strong hard surface modeler and 3D generalist. Working on a set of junk items is a great way to get onboarded to the art style of Dandelion Void, and Dara pumped out what you see above in just a couple days. When not working on games, Dara is also a prolific creator of short films – you can check one out right here!
Robin enters Retrograde
You might recognize Robin from the Discord and some of the sign-offs on this blog. Robin LoBuglio (she/her) has been working on the project part-time for years as a producer, designer, and narrative lead. Starting this week, she’s also coming onto the project full-time as a Unity dev!
Robin’s worked in the games industry for a long time, including Virtual Virtual Reality 1 and 2, The Under Presents, Stranger Things VR, and more. She is also the game director for Manzanita’s other game, Lentopet!
Yaw, Pitch, Roland
Roland (he/him) is a senior software engineer with game and software experience across PC, mobile, web, and more! Among many other things, Roland is taking a look at Dandelion Void’s core systems, optimization, and game architecture.
In addition to his programming chops, Roland also has solo dev experience on an extremely stylish action game that I hope you get to see one day, and is a skilled 2D and 3D artist. Cross-training is a bit of a theme at Manzanita Interactive!
Time to Tidy up
That’s all for this week! As always, the best way to keep up with the game is to join our Discord. Until next time, may you all embrace the clutter, and let us know what junk you’d like to discover aboard the Pergola!