What kinds of explosive expressions can one expect from a creator who is constantly pushing to break free from mediocrity and mundaneity? We decided to ask video game designer and digital artist TJ Hughes, who creates under the alias Scary Jellyfish, about taking on the aesthetic ascent adventure Nour: Play With your food.
In this profiler, we talk to TJ Hughes about Nour, how he works with his team, his origin story, and the advice he gives developers hoping to leave a mark in the game. Hughes’ first project, Feesh, features micro video game gameplay and vibrant visuals, showcasing TJ’s attempt to break the mold in an equally microscopic workspace, as it’s shaped completed and completed within 48 hours stuck in the game Ludum Dare. With no tight time limits, he’s exaggerating color and playfulness with his sophomore project, Nour: Play with Your Food.
PlayStation Blog: What Inspired Nour: Play With Your Food?
Nour is described as “an experimental food art game designed to make you hungry,” giving players the space to play with their food like a kid but without any of the mess. Which to clean up. Another testament to the difference in working between Nour and Feesh, Nour’s development is slow and methodical, without a single “eureka moment”.
“I am learning how to create shadows and am brainstorming the best themes to try and simulate,” explains Hughes. “I just started traveling and eating more varied foods, so I thought it was the perfect theme. I started uploading my art quizzes to Twitter, where people would tell me how the images made them yearn. Intrigued by that answer, I started trying more things, such as using the concept of subsurface scattering technology to simulate the ingredients of the noodles and using deep blending to simulate the texture of the noodles. simulate the turbidity of milk tea. I started developing a library of tech art tricks to make something look good.”
Hughes chose the physics-based experience because it “provides a sandbox that gets as chaotic and ridiculous” as the player wants without food being wasted or messed up.
“When introducing a physics-based game, we usually have one of two goals: Arrange things as neatly as possible, or make things as messy as possible. I think the best physics games let you do both!”
Team Nour
As a leader, how do you motivate and encourage your team?
“It is helpful to have a group that shares many of the same interests and passions,” says Hughes. “It makes it easy to relate to and understand the same page about designs. A lot of us were friends before colleagues, we put a lot of faith in the project. Anyone on the team can suggest anything, which creates an environment where even the most obscure ideas are considered. We all love food, I’ve noticed that before meetings, we’ll often tell each other what we’re going to eat/plan to cook, if the meeting isn’t in person at a restaurant.”
Origins & Inspiration
What is your earliest memory of loving video games?
“Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is probably my earliest memory of loving video games,” Hughes said when asked about his first gaming memory. “As the younger brother, I’m usually the second player, which means I have to play as Tails. I can only help by collecting rings and hitting enemies for my brother. The tail has infinite lives, which is great because I wasn’t good at video games as a kid. We’ll flaunt the boss fights by sending Tails to attack while Sonic just focuses on dodging. We bought the book filled with cheat codes for these popular games and discovered the cheats in debug mode, which allows you to spawn anything and go through walls. This sparked a fascination with how the game worked in secret, we spent hours tinkering with the game until it inevitably broke due to how many objects we created.”
From there, Hughes would tell any adult listening that he wanted to be a game designer. Thankfully, he doesn’t have to travel far from home for inspiration or support. Speaking of his parents, who express their art in their own way, Hughes says that what he does “is a real combination of their passions; art from my mother, technology from my father.”
He added: “Both are supportive of what I want to do, which has been great for me to build my confidence.
When it comes to his journey, he also gives a lot of credit to Carol Mertz, Ben Valenti and Dana Valenti of Rampant Interactive, who gave him his first game job and introduced him to the industry.
“There are so many experiences that I wouldn’t have had without them, including my first trip to San Francisco for a game developer conference,” he said. “Joey Paniello, my co-worker, taught me most of the coding techniques I still use today. I’m so excited to be working on Nour with him!”
Tips for game developers: Simplify and share your work
With his first game as Feesh, Hughes hit a roadblock when he noticed a lack of content. He thought his arcade title really needed multiplayer, but after doing more research, he realized that he simply didn’t have the skills or experience to make it.
“I said to myself, ‘that’s my art,’ and the game reflects where I am in my career,” he said. “I chose to launch the game instead of being too ambitious.” Priced it at 99 cents as it was a small project he didn’t expect any form of payback, but ultimately it was the right decision as he learned a lot from the experience and put the His personal projects on the map. “Although it was nothing fancy, the core of the game shined through and it was well received!”
Two core observations from that experience offer advice he wants game developers to ignore when they read this: Share what you’re doing and keep it simple.
“There are deep conversations about [your projects] with people you trust! That’s much better than working on something completely isolated,” Hughes said. “The game is a constant communication between you and the player, seeing how your players react is crucial to that back and forth.”
“Game developers can have a lot of work, and you may find yourself taking on more workloads than you can handle. Don’t be afraid to keep things simple,” he said. “Be calm and don’t overwork yourself, just do what you can. Indie developers have to take on a lot of tasks to start their business, make yourself a priority and as time goes on, try to organize things in a way that takes you a little bit of work. more strength. Also, look up TikToks on being a small business owner and how to do your taxes and all of that right. Don’t ignore those.
Look forward
Panic Inc is the publisher of Nour, a relationship that Hughes says was crucial in making this unique project a reality. “This is the biggest project of my life and having the backing of a reputable publisher makes me extremely excited to be able to show everyone the final product.”
Finally, when it comes to Nour or any project, what makes a game a “TJ Hughes” game?
“You’ll know when you notice a small visual detail that looks like someone spent too much time on it,” he says. “I was also told my use of color was quite trademark. I’m inspired by games like Mirror’s Edge that play with light in a unique way to achieve a certain fidelity, a game inspired by realism, but pushing the boundaries of just one or two area to achieve a completely new aesthetic. Just rotating a few sliders above 10 can be enough to give your work a ‘look’.”
And what comes next?
“I wanted to do more games/projects that interact with space and make excuses to bring people closer together,” explains Hughes. “Right now I’m really fascinated by the sociological concept of Third Place; a community environment where you can hang out without being at home, nor at work. For me, there aren’t enough places to get vibes without spending money. I would love it if the game could provide such a place or bring more like-minded people to those spaces.”
