Amid the pandemic, video games have been a source of entertainment and an alternative to physically meeting with friends and family. However, seniors Luke Gil, Finley Walshe, Owen Higley, Clyde Thrasher, Nathan Yang and Joshua Kim decided to take their quarantine hobby one step further by creating their own game while on summer break.
Senior Finley Walshe stated, “When we figured out that we’d be doing online learning and quarantining, we figured we would be home a lot. We had all played video games forever, but we wanted to be more productive with it, not just playing video games.”
The team started production on their game over the summer and have made an Instagram account for their group, Studio Gup. They have been working to finish their first game, Rose.
Walshe describes the process for making Rose by stating, “We’ve probably been working on it for around three months now, and we started an Instagram to get a bit of a following for a release date sometime in the future.”
Rose is a simplistic, top-down game made with pixel art, which means that the game point of view is at a high angle, the art is 2-D and the camera is fixed on the main character.
Walshe states that Rose combines elements such as, “character interactions and dialogue from games such as Undertale, combat and exploration we see in games like Hollow Knight, and there is even a boss battle that is similar to Enter the Gungeon.”
The mechanics blends genres, and the story of Rose is unique. Rose, the plant-based main character, must overcome the system that he is stuck in.
As senior Luke Gil describes it, “there has been a power overthrow, and Rose starts in the outskirts of society, and Rose must overcome his position. It’s an underdog story, and the journey is building to trying to reinstate the hierarchy.”
The character art of Rose was made by Gil, who has experience with making characters, but never in the form of pixel art.
Gil cites his inspiration by saying, “I got a lot of influence from Undertale and Deltarune, and anything Toby Fox has made, who is the developer of those games. I also brought in my regular art style into this game.”
Rose was coded in part by Walshe, who had never coded a game until this summer. He had to learn and write in GameMaker Language, a coding language based on C# and C++, to code Rose.
Walshe notes, “it’s like learning a language, it’s a lot of practice and it’s a lot of work. I used different tutorials online and Code Academy and other code-teaching websites that are super helpful. It’s still something I’m learning, but it is super challenging and super fun. It is also super rewarding after you write code and press play and watch what you’ve created.”
Rose was not made by just these six seniors. Their group, Studio Gup, received help from friends and family, like senior AJ Rivas from Providence High School.
Gil shows his gratitude by saying, “On our Instagram biography, we say the main players in making the game, but we also say ‘and friends.’ Our friends and family helped us a lot with character design and other input, so they are a member of this game.”
Currently, Rose is scheduled for release online in Jan. 2021. To follow the game’s development or support the team, follow their Instagram: @officialstudiogup.
