If you couldn't tell from our previous posts, we had a lot of fun hiding easter eggs in Senpie. In this week's Behind the Bakery we'll take a look at some of our favorites, but don't worry because there's still more to find!
The original idea of hiding references in Senpie actually started with the bad apples. We needed a way to destroy them, and when we switched art styles to anime the obvious choice was a ninja scroll (ofuda). After deciding the game was also about shop keeping, we realized we could make lots of items. This would give Granny something to spend her money on (we added the gachapon later), and it would also allow us to push the original Yoshi mechanic further.
The scroll was the first item we created, inspired by the baddest scout in the sailor squad. And just like the ones used by our favorite Sailor Scout, our scroll says "Evil spirits disperse," making it the perfect tool for an up-and-coming spirit baker.
Granny's shoes are based on KangaROOS. They came in the best colors, and definitely add a fun element to Granny's style. I loooovvvved mine as a kid!
We'd also been watching the live action Gudetama that Netflix put out. Shakipiyo, Gudetama's outspoken brother is cute af, so we made Piyo-kun, our egg timer, as a homage.
The shop's lucky cat is based on the one we brought back for my mom - it was the only thing she wanted as a souvenir from our trip to Japan, so we picked the cutest one we could find. You may notice we flipped the raised paw; that's because traditionally, a raised left paw is for bringing customers to your shop, while the right paw is for money and placed in your home. Granny is always hoping to get more customers, so her cat has its left paw raised!
Our in shop currency is called the Inu Coin, and was designed after the Yoshi Coin from Super Mario World...and a little bit as joke on doge coin. We also had to have a reference to Yoshi, our main inspiration for the game!
The gachapon capsules themselves are chock full of little easter eggs! For example...you may notice a familiar effect when you open one:
If you win earrings, you could get some Potara, maybe a play on Howl's earrings, or even some Demon Slayer inspired cherry-blossom Hanafuda.
You can also win a new kimono in the gachapon! In general, we wanted to keep the patterns fairly simple so they'd be easy to palatize, providing lots of fun options. We pulled from a list of traditional kimono designs, except one, which is modeled after a kimono we purchased at a vintage shop in Japan. 
We also couldn't miss an opportunity to reference the cooking anime (at least in our minds): Food Wars. It started as a joke with a silly photoshop of Granny's head on the body of Isshiki, the buff apron-wearing chef, and it turned into several cute apron designs for our little baker.
You may notice Granny has a banner (noren) outsider her bakery. We got to stop in the Kawaii Monster Cafe before it closed, and we thought a little nod to it would be perfect for our spirit cafe.
Lastly, we got the idea of showing the success or failure of Granny's orders from the anime Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle. We loved the silly "quests" and the way stamps and a little vignette was used at the end of each episode.
And with that we come to the end of the Behind the Bakery series. We're so happy to be able to share this series and our game with the world. Senpie will be part of Steam Next Fest on February 23rd, so please support us by playing the demo during the festival!
❤️ Thom & Alex, StudioGrok