Dev Storytime #2: The Y2K Style
[h3]Let’s get stylish, girlypops!!!
It’s Jane, the lead developer at Funny Fintan Softworks, and I’m back for another installment of…
✨Dev Storytime✨
In this update, I want to talk about the inspiration behind the unique Y2K style in Don’t Stop, Girlypop![/h3]
The first thing you’re probably all wondering is, why make a movement shooter with a Y2K style?
As I mentioned in the previous dev storytime, I’m a huge fan of games like ULTRAKILL, TURBO OVERKILL, and DOOM Eternal, but they’re all grimdark and gritty. From an aesthetic perspective, we’re in hell, we’re in a dark fantasy castle, we’re in a cyberpunk dystopia. They’re all beautiful in their own right, but there’s just this common set of aesthetics that seem to dominate in FPS games and especially arena shooters. It’s a lot of browns, blacks, reds, etc.
When I was in Melbourne 2 years ago trying to pitch our game to publishers, I kept getting knocked back because it was “just another sci-fi shooter.” When you’re in the indie space, being able to stand out is crucial, so you need a hook that really screams in peoples’ faces. I was on an escalator talking to our marketing consultant Michal over the phone when I had this revelation. What if the enemies EXPLODED into pink blood?
I prototyped it straight away and it looked AWESOME. I discovered that having the enemies explode into love hearts and pink blood was just as satisfying as seeing them explode in gibs and regular blood. I decided that I wanted aesthetically to lean much more into using a lot of color and particularly a lot of pink, which is not a palette that’s used a lot in FPS games. It’s a very maximalist aesthetic. That’s really where the Y2K style started.
In terms of other games, Bratz: Rock Angelz was a huge inspiration for us, particularly when it came to the dress-up mini-game. Outside of gaming though, I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from music. I was obsessed with Britney Spears, so her style and music have had a major influence on the game. PinkPanthress as well has been a huge inspiration. The music video for her song “Nice to Meet You” has all of these crazy VFX effects in it, which reminded me a lot of those old school Microsoft screensavers. A lot of her music videos are like a romanticised version of the Y2K era, which is the same style we’re shooting for in Don’t Stop, Girlypop!
Growing up in Australia, I was also heavily influenced by a kid’s TV channel called ABC3. In terms of style, ABC3’s visuals were like a combination of pop art with clip art. Think of like the 2010s line art and clip art. If you want to get technical, I guess the style we’re going for is a mixture of Frutiger Metro and Fruitger Aero.
When you wave-hop in the game, there are these filigree lines that grow around the edges of the screen, which was inspired by the Frutiger styles. There’s also a section with a boom box where big fat music notes visually appear and pulse with the music, which also follows this style.
I’d like to add here that I think Windows Vista is beautiful and nobody is gonna change my mind on that!!!
Speaking of pop stars, the character of Adiuvo (your guide who speaks to you via the flip phone) is inspired by Magdalena Bay. Mica’s look and make-up in the music video for “Image” is where I got the idea for Adiuvo. I also love the deliberately sort of DIY-looking greenscreen visuals in that music video. Like the PinkPanthress videos, it has this old school Microsoft Windows feel to it.
The faeries in Don’t Stop, Girlypop!, who provide you with new fabrics and accessories for your guns, were mainly inspired by the 3D Tinkerbell movie. For me, that’s always what I imagine whenever I think of faeries!
Speaking of fabrics, we obviously wanted to include the fabrics that we felt were staples of the Y2K era. Obviously the first one was denim, thanks to that iconic image of Britney and Justin in ALL denim at the VMAs. The flannel was thrown in for the country/lumberjack flair. It’s one of my favorite fabrics to use on the fluffy parts at the bottom of the arms. Another style I really like is that sort of PinkPanthress’s TKMaxx crossed with grandma-core aesthetic. There’s this one fabric in the game that’s purple and has this flower pattern embedded in it. For me, that screams Y2K grandma-core.
For the tech in the game, like the flip phone, my process is usually to start off with a bunch of reference images, try to rip them off, do a bad job of ripping them off, and end up with a completely different thing!
For example, I used a very average flip phone as my first point of reference, but I wanted it to have that transparent see-through plastic look that was really popular in the 2010s. Think like the iMacG3 or the old Rock Candy controllers. I love that plastic see-through look! I don’t think there was ever actually a flip phone with transparent plastic like that, but I guess now there is in Don’t Stop, Girlypop! The weirdest part is I’ve never even opened a flip phone before. My first phone was an iPhone 4!
In fact, I get a lot of people asking me why I wanted to lean into a Y2K style when I wasn’t even around for most of that era. For me though, it’s like a very romanticised version of the Y2K era. It’s all of these things I barely have memories of that become so much more magical and meaningful to me precisely because my memories are so faint. When I see an iPod Nano or an iPod Shuffle, I get this like magical feeling. There are so many things we don’t have anymore because our phones or computers do it all for us, it’s all digital. I love collecting DVDs and discs, and generally just having physical things.
I wanted to take a very non-commital approach to the era though, because for example the flip phone has videos, which isn’t realistic. It’s more like one big nostalgic dream of the Y2K era. It’s not just about the aesthetic style either. I’ve always been fascinated by technology, so a large part of the game is also this element of imagining what technology could be like from the perspective of a child growing up in the Y2K era.
One of the best parts of having this style is that it attracts all of these gamers who wouldn’t normally play an FPS game. When we’re at events, we have people come over and try the game out because they think the game looks cute, and then they’re like, “Wait, WTF is this?” It’s been a really interesting experience trying to onboard these players and have them see that it’s fun. A lot of gamers seem to have this idea in their heads that they shouldn’t play FPS games because they’re bad at them or they can’t aim, but they see the style of our game and they really want to play it. It’s all about convincing them that you don’t need to be good at FPS games to enjoy playing them.
I know what it feels like to be tricked into playing genres that you don’t normally play. I really don’t like horror or being scared, but Alan Wake 2 drew me in so much with other aspects I wanted to explore that I was willing to play a genre I normally avoid. I’m hoping I can bridge that gap as well with gamers who find FPS games off-putting.
At the end of the day though, I’m mainly making a game that I wanted to play and sometimes I think it’s good to just really lean into your niche. I’d love to bring more people into the FPS genre, but the real motivation behind Don’t Stop, Girlypop! is that I’m just making the game that I’ve always wanted to make.
That’s all for now, girlypops!!!
Don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for our next dev storytime in August though, where we’ll be chatting with the incredible composers working on the soundtrack for Don’t Stop, Girlypop!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2610650/Dont_Stop_Girlypop/
[h3]Click the buttons below to join our Discord and follow us on social media for the latest updates on Don’t Stop, Girlypop! ❤[/h3]
It’s Jane, the lead developer at Funny Fintan Softworks, and I’m back for another installment of…
✨Dev Storytime✨
In this update, I want to talk about the inspiration behind the unique Y2K style in Don’t Stop, Girlypop![/h3]
The first thing you’re probably all wondering is, why make a movement shooter with a Y2K style?
As I mentioned in the previous dev storytime, I’m a huge fan of games like ULTRAKILL, TURBO OVERKILL, and DOOM Eternal, but they’re all grimdark and gritty. From an aesthetic perspective, we’re in hell, we’re in a dark fantasy castle, we’re in a cyberpunk dystopia. They’re all beautiful in their own right, but there’s just this common set of aesthetics that seem to dominate in FPS games and especially arena shooters. It’s a lot of browns, blacks, reds, etc.
When I was in Melbourne 2 years ago trying to pitch our game to publishers, I kept getting knocked back because it was “just another sci-fi shooter.” When you’re in the indie space, being able to stand out is crucial, so you need a hook that really screams in peoples’ faces. I was on an escalator talking to our marketing consultant Michal over the phone when I had this revelation. What if the enemies EXPLODED into pink blood?
I prototyped it straight away and it looked AWESOME. I discovered that having the enemies explode into love hearts and pink blood was just as satisfying as seeing them explode in gibs and regular blood. I decided that I wanted aesthetically to lean much more into using a lot of color and particularly a lot of pink, which is not a palette that’s used a lot in FPS games. It’s a very maximalist aesthetic. That’s really where the Y2K style started.
In terms of other games, Bratz: Rock Angelz was a huge inspiration for us, particularly when it came to the dress-up mini-game. Outside of gaming though, I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from music. I was obsessed with Britney Spears, so her style and music have had a major influence on the game. PinkPanthress as well has been a huge inspiration. The music video for her song “Nice to Meet You” has all of these crazy VFX effects in it, which reminded me a lot of those old school Microsoft screensavers. A lot of her music videos are like a romanticised version of the Y2K era, which is the same style we’re shooting for in Don’t Stop, Girlypop!
Growing up in Australia, I was also heavily influenced by a kid’s TV channel called ABC3. In terms of style, ABC3’s visuals were like a combination of pop art with clip art. Think of like the 2010s line art and clip art. If you want to get technical, I guess the style we’re going for is a mixture of Frutiger Metro and Fruitger Aero.
When you wave-hop in the game, there are these filigree lines that grow around the edges of the screen, which was inspired by the Frutiger styles. There’s also a section with a boom box where big fat music notes visually appear and pulse with the music, which also follows this style.
I’d like to add here that I think Windows Vista is beautiful and nobody is gonna change my mind on that!!!
Speaking of pop stars, the character of Adiuvo (your guide who speaks to you via the flip phone) is inspired by Magdalena Bay. Mica’s look and make-up in the music video for “Image” is where I got the idea for Adiuvo. I also love the deliberately sort of DIY-looking greenscreen visuals in that music video. Like the PinkPanthress videos, it has this old school Microsoft Windows feel to it.
The faeries in Don’t Stop, Girlypop!, who provide you with new fabrics and accessories for your guns, were mainly inspired by the 3D Tinkerbell movie. For me, that’s always what I imagine whenever I think of faeries!
Speaking of fabrics, we obviously wanted to include the fabrics that we felt were staples of the Y2K era. Obviously the first one was denim, thanks to that iconic image of Britney and Justin in ALL denim at the VMAs. The flannel was thrown in for the country/lumberjack flair. It’s one of my favorite fabrics to use on the fluffy parts at the bottom of the arms. Another style I really like is that sort of PinkPanthress’s TKMaxx crossed with grandma-core aesthetic. There’s this one fabric in the game that’s purple and has this flower pattern embedded in it. For me, that screams Y2K grandma-core.
For the tech in the game, like the flip phone, my process is usually to start off with a bunch of reference images, try to rip them off, do a bad job of ripping them off, and end up with a completely different thing!
For example, I used a very average flip phone as my first point of reference, but I wanted it to have that transparent see-through plastic look that was really popular in the 2010s. Think like the iMacG3 or the old Rock Candy controllers. I love that plastic see-through look! I don’t think there was ever actually a flip phone with transparent plastic like that, but I guess now there is in Don’t Stop, Girlypop! The weirdest part is I’ve never even opened a flip phone before. My first phone was an iPhone 4!
In fact, I get a lot of people asking me why I wanted to lean into a Y2K style when I wasn’t even around for most of that era. For me though, it’s like a very romanticised version of the Y2K era. It’s all of these things I barely have memories of that become so much more magical and meaningful to me precisely because my memories are so faint. When I see an iPod Nano or an iPod Shuffle, I get this like magical feeling. There are so many things we don’t have anymore because our phones or computers do it all for us, it’s all digital. I love collecting DVDs and discs, and generally just having physical things.
I wanted to take a very non-commital approach to the era though, because for example the flip phone has videos, which isn’t realistic. It’s more like one big nostalgic dream of the Y2K era. It’s not just about the aesthetic style either. I’ve always been fascinated by technology, so a large part of the game is also this element of imagining what technology could be like from the perspective of a child growing up in the Y2K era.
One of the best parts of having this style is that it attracts all of these gamers who wouldn’t normally play an FPS game. When we’re at events, we have people come over and try the game out because they think the game looks cute, and then they’re like, “Wait, WTF is this?” It’s been a really interesting experience trying to onboard these players and have them see that it’s fun. A lot of gamers seem to have this idea in their heads that they shouldn’t play FPS games because they’re bad at them or they can’t aim, but they see the style of our game and they really want to play it. It’s all about convincing them that you don’t need to be good at FPS games to enjoy playing them.
I know what it feels like to be tricked into playing genres that you don’t normally play. I really don’t like horror or being scared, but Alan Wake 2 drew me in so much with other aspects I wanted to explore that I was willing to play a genre I normally avoid. I’m hoping I can bridge that gap as well with gamers who find FPS games off-putting.
At the end of the day though, I’m mainly making a game that I wanted to play and sometimes I think it’s good to just really lean into your niche. I’d love to bring more people into the FPS genre, but the real motivation behind Don’t Stop, Girlypop! is that I’m just making the game that I’ve always wanted to make.
That’s all for now, girlypops!!!
Don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for our next dev storytime in August though, where we’ll be chatting with the incredible composers working on the soundtrack for Don’t Stop, Girlypop!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2610650/Dont_Stop_Girlypop/
[h3]Click the buttons below to join our Discord and follow us on social media for the latest updates on Don’t Stop, Girlypop! ❤[/h3]