The Upturned Q&A (Patreon)

Hello, it's The Upturned's... third birthday? Oh man.

You asked for an Upturned Q&A so here we go. Spoilers ahead!

Q1: How did you get the idea for The Upturned?

A: A recurring theme throughout this Q&A is that I just can't remember what thought process led me to certain things, and my memory of making The Upturned is kind of a blur. For some reason, I remember that very early on, the game I had in mind as an inspiration was something that Markiplier played, way back. I had to dig for it. It's called Lasting:

https://youtu.be/oXTfEWgd4Ac?si=iJvCttp_1vAsEnD0

I think I was mainly imagining Lasting as a way to set my game's scope, because I originally intended my game to be simple and "jam-sized." But maybe I was also inspired by how the monster in Lasting appears so suddenly and looks hilariously simple.

I thought that in real life if something started running at you in a situation like this, it wouldn't play out dramatically in slow motion. It would happen very quickly. I don't know how, but I suppose after some brainstorming, I envisioned a big guy storming after you and destroying everything in his path while you throw things at him and run away, all at a comically realistic speed. Many of my inspirations for The Upturned were not conscious to me.

This is just conjecture, but Fat Pajama Man could have been inspired by this enemy from Super Monkey Ball Adventure that terrified me as a kid. Or maybe Captain Underpants, but I doubt it.

I'm trying to remember how I decided to make the story be about the afterlife, but I don't know. I looked for old notes, but the oldest ones I have stored are from the middle of the game's development. I know I had read some books again around that time, and The Great Divorce was one of them.

If you're trying to figure out how to get good ideas, the important lesson I've realized is that the only way to come up with unique ideas is to put yourself in a unique position. If you're doing something no one else has done before, you're more likely to come up with ideas no one else has had before. By just STARTING work on a basic game idea, you're already setting yourself apart from like 99% of people. And by the time you've put three or four of your own ideas into your game, you're already going to be in a position no one else has ever been in before.

A good example would be how I came up with the idea for Ik's loud bass dubstep music to start rumbling and shaking all the furniture in the level with the water slug. It would be impossible to come up with that idea if I hadn't already made the water slug and the physics systems and Ik himself. Once I had done all those things, the idea was waiting to be found. And of course, having friends just multiplies your potential for good ideas.

Q: Where did you get inspiration for Iks design?

A: I didn't have a specific inspiration in mind. I just started drawing weirdly shaped characters, thinking about how to make a unique and recognizable character design. There was this one 2D animation I saw on Twitter that I can't find now, set to this music from Jet Set Radio starting at 1:10, and in my memory, the dancing character is similar to Ik. So I was probably inspired by stuff I was seeing on Twitter.

The tall, bendy, lanky character is sort of a common trope. I think the Snatcher from A Hat In Time was an inspiration, and maybe some of the character designs from Pixar's Soul (which also has to do with the afterlife/beforelife).

I know I had seen this guy from a thing called Sam And Max, and I loved the giant mouth design.  

Q: Was there anything in particular that inspired the peck heck?

A: There were several ideas for mechanics that were initially just jokes or easter eggs. For example, enemies trapped in jars was a simple visual gag until I realized it made perfect sense as a mechanic. You can get a crow on your head on any floor because it was originally a gag that I thought people would rarely discover by accident. The obvious comparison is Zelda, but I might have also been thinking of Home Alone 2 because of the pigeon lady.

Q: Where did Shrimp come from? Like what inspired Shrimp

A: The concept for Shrimp was to be like an actual creature, very unpredictable, to make the player feel ambivalent. I might have gotten this idea from Rain World, because there are many moments in Rain World when you come across something and have no idea what it does, how it works, and if it's friendly or mean. Although Fat Pajama Man represents the comedy and pacing I wanted from the start, Shrimp represents the real heart of this game, which is friendly and hopeful, not antagonistic and cold.

Another inspiration for Shrimp is No-Face, although I didn't realize this for a long time. Finding Spirited Away's influence in my work is almost like a litmus test that tells me I'm on the right path, since Spirited Away is so close to my heart.

Q: Does the Traveler do anything with the chocolate bars he collects

He smears the melting chocolate all over the elevator circuit board, and it malfunctions and takes him to the bonus floors as punishment

Q: how many names did you end up putting in the game for all the creatures? and why are some of them left unnamed?

I can't remember how many there are, but I named them all manually. I inevitably missed some. One of the ideas in my head was that speed-runners would use the names of certain enemies, like, "Here you use Fredrick to hop up into this corner and clip into the next room, but there is a 1/300 chance for Fredrick to have dropped into the floor below, which is a run-ender. That's why we all love and hate Fredrick."

Q: If you had to rank all the games you have made based on what you like the most, where would you put them?

A: Lethal Company is now the defining accomplishment of my life, and I see It Steals and The Upturned as steps that built up to it. So it's not very hard for me to come up with a ranking of the top three:

1. Lethal Company

2. The Upturned

3. It Steals

Q: Did the ending change in development? Did you start The Upturned with it in mind?

A: I can't remember, but I think I had planned out from early on that the traveler's room was a trap and that Ik wasn't really running the hotel--all just an excuse for the events of the game to play out. Then as I went, I started to figure out what the deeper meaning of the story should be. So by the time I got to the end of Act 1, I knew for sure that the traveler had died from spontaneous combustion and that this was a story about chaos and misfortune among other things.

I basically had a list of plot developments and character development (in broad strokes) alongside a list of game mechanics and enemies, and I just chose things out of the two lists and paired them together.

Q: What are your opinions on the sun?

A: It hurts my eyes. An eye doctor said my eyes are a little more sensitive to light than normal people, and I believe it

Q: What inspired Sobbergritch? Were there any changes to his character in development?

Mr. Sob is supposed to be a "force of nature" evil villain, so he lacks a lot of personality and is less of a character and more of a concept, a bit like Satan or Death. I don't think he changed at all. I have noted that his dialogue is particularly boring for people--like players just tune out when he starts talking, and I can see it on their faces. It's a rare moment that the game utterly fails to keep people emotionally invested. If I made The Upturned 2, it would have a more interesting, multi-faceted villain. The best thing I can say about Mr. Sob's personality and tone is that he represents everything The Upturned is not.

Q: Why was Ik thrown out of his dad’s car?

A: Some have noticed that Sigurd (from Lethal Company) and Ik both seem to have troubled relationships with their fathers, which is an astute observation. So I will say that I've never had issues with my dad. He's awesome and would not do this. It's deeper than that. But anyway, I think telling you exactly why Ik's dad did this would be a disservice. As Ik said, it's not important to the story.

Q: Is there any chance for more upturned content in the far future? Whether that be more bonus levels, sequel, or more?

A: The Upturned files aren't on my new computer (nor are It Steals or Dead Seater), so I don't think there's any more updates coming.

I really, really want to make another game in the same style as The Upturned, and I think The Upturned 2 would be so cool to announce. The idea of a direct sequel is so much more fun and thrilling than a spiritual successor. But I have thought for years on what a continuation or prequel or "same-universe" story for The Upturned 2 would look like, and I still have no idea. The ideal is a story that takes the game way further from where it started, while somehow still giving us an excuse to chuck furniture and chuck birds at birds; Portal 1 to Portal 2 is like the golden standard to me. The moment I get a really solid idea for The Upturned 2, I think it would be irresistible to just start working on it in secret right this very instant. But that hasn't happened.

The issue is that the game ends in an apocalyptic, "goodbye" tone. I was practically writing Ik as if it was the final thing I would ever be remembered for. And just continuing the story where it left off would cheapen that. The Upturned now represents the person I was at the time I made it; something would have to be different or changed irreversibly. But as for gameplay, once things kicked off, I think The Upturned 2 would make itself.