SplatShop-2D Land: Developer Tales!

Written by Finley Farrah

A regular column on the development of my in-development video game, SplatShop-2D Land.

20/9/23: First Entry!

It's been a while since SS2DL (my game) has been developed, but it's my first time writing about it.

For those who don't know: SplatShop-2D Land is a retro-inspired 2D platformer starring this lil' guy.

His name is SplatShop-2D (or just "2D" for short) and he is a game developer. He found this old game called "Castle Storm" where a valiant knight frees a portal-filled castle and its surrounding town from an evil being known as Kub3 (pronounced "cube").

Picture him as Pizzaface from Pizza Tower. (Link contains spoilers for final boss of game)

However, a portal opened up while he was playing the game, sucking him in!

He woke up in the world of Castle Storm, where he learned about how he was destined to slay Kub3.

More story details (and perhaps gameplay?) next time, but the big thing about this game is... That you too can get involved in not one, not 4, but 3 different ways!

First, you can cameo in the game! Your character can have a chance of appearing in secret levels in the game! (Like the Pizzasonas in Pizza Tower!)

Cameo Applications

Or, you can have some of your SS2DL fan-art appear at the end of these columns!

Fan-Art Submission

Finally, you can help shape the game by becoming part of the SplatShop team!

Staff Applications

This is Finley Farrah, signing off!

21/9/23: More stuff

Here's some key art for the game!

2D

Here he is! (Yes, he wears fingerless gloves.)

Kub3

Reminder that he's evil.

We also have a bunch of new characters. Introducing Manny and Big Red!

Manny

The "court jester" at The Castle and 2D's "companion". He's a huge part of the story.

Big Red

A huge tomato monster who shall be the first boss you will face. A reference to Pepperman, the first boss of Pizza Tower, and Spoiled Rotten, the first boss of Wario Land 4.

We also have a new gameplay mechanic!

The Power Pack

That backpack 2D's wearing? That's a Power Pack, which lets him steal the abilities of others and use them as his own, like some kinda Kirby. But if he gets hit, he'll drop the pack and be virtually powerless until he picks it up, like Yoshi in Yoshi's Island.

We swear we'll have some actual in-dev gameplay soon.

This is Finley, signing off 😉

22/9/23: Final Entry of Week 1

Tomorrow, I'm attending a digital Zoom workshop for a comic I like called the Phoenix. On the same day, I'm going to Gulliver's World! Yes! But before all that, remember how I promised you that I had some gameplay?

Well, about that... SS2DL won't load for some reason, so I tried to show you SS2DL in-engine using my bespoke VTuber avatar. That didn't really get sent well, so I tried to screenshot and eventually settled on this.

The "screenshot".

Yes. That's a lot of "this". I literally took out my Samsung Galaxy tablet and took a picture of the screen. This is genuine proof that I am actually making a game. I literally woke up at about 7 am to take this.

As you can see, I am bad at managing time.

Y'know what this whole newsletter thing reminds me of? Ratatan. My game of 2025. That's how excited I am for this game to come out!

In other news, we have a trailer...

SS2DL Inscapism Trailer.mp4

Impressive, huh? That was meant to be on the "Slice of Life" page but I have decided to put it here 😂

I've recently been thinking of SS2DL merch opportunities ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

These could be real with your help. Possibly.

Finley signing off 👍

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