Platypus Studios, a newly-formed indie developer, is comprised of Jean Francois Poulin (lead programmer), Khris Finley (music and sound design), Joel Boucher (level design, programmer – during the competitions) and Paul Ungar (art and animation). The idea to officially become their own game studio came after they’ve competed in 2 game challenges and won awards. Rock Bottom, their latest game, is currently being expanded upon.

Northern Game Design Challenge

The group entered into the 2^nd annual Sudbury Game Design Challenge, now known as the Northern Game Design Challenge, in 2017. The contestants of the challenge were given a theme and 48 hours to create a complete and playable game. They also had to have no more than 4 team members. They presented Frozen Dungeon Saga, an asymmetrical puzzle game. You play as 2 mages simultaneously, each with their own unique abilities. You need the abilities of both mages to escape the dungeon. This game, created by then Platypus Paradox, took home the first prize. The team decided to enter in the same challenge in their local hometown of Sudbury, Ontario, the following year.

The 2018 challenge was to create a 2D Platformer and Platypus Paradox (original name) won the “High Concept Art” award for their game Rock Bottom. We’ve all had difficult times in our lives that seem impossible to overcome. Rock Bottom starts you off in a pit where you have to climb up and go through the stages of grief. You have to collect letters and read through someone describing their emotions. Players will hopefully have a better understanding of how these struggles can take form.

My Potato Games decided to interview this up-and-coming indie developer and to further discuss their passion project, Rock Bottom. The focus now for them will be to create a longer, more fleshed-out game. They would also like to deliver an experience that will teach people about mental illnesses such as Depression.

Platypus Studios Q&A with Paul Ungar

Q: It sounds like the Northern Game Challenge would have been a grueling experience, how did you manage to stay sane during that ordeal?

A: I won’t lie it does help that I’m a new father to a rather rambunctious 3 year old, so I’m used to running on little to no sleep. However, my team (Jean Francois Poulin, Khris Finley, and Joel Boucher) developed a great schedule for keeping ourselves on track so we knew what milestones we had to hit at different points in the competition.

For example, once the theme for the competition was announced and kicked off at 5:00 pm, we gave ourselves 2 hours to lock in the direction we wanted to take and rough out the game we wanted to make. Then we set up and got to work. A few times each day we had a group meeting to make sure things were on track and we were all happy with what the others were doing. Feedback and criticism was encouraged. By 6 hours into the competition we were pretty well organized and had our game mapped out. We finished with only 30 minutes to spare. Also, there was unlimited coffee at the event. The coffee helped.

Q: After creating a short game about the stages of grief, what made you decide to expand that game to instead tackle mental illnesses?

A: While the character in the Northern Game Design version goes through the stages of grief it was always with the thought of someone coming to terms with their own mental illness, eventually reaching acceptance. Unfortunately when you’re writing the story after a day or so of little sleep it doesn’t come across so clearly. It was a really important issue for the team to do it justice. Therefore, we wanted to emphasize the mental illness aspect in the full release of the game. We’ve really been digging deep into the research and talking with others to make sure that we do it right.

Q: What are some of the differences we will be seeing in the bigger and better version of Rock Bottom?

A: The team has a lot more planned for the full release of Rock Bottom. While I still love the 48 hr version of the game, it is not without flaws. Lots of flaws. When we started making the new version of the game we had to toss out almost all of the code and assets and rebuild the game from the ground up.

The plan is to create a more engaging story with NPCs, focusing on exploration, puzzle solving and improving the platforming elements. We’re also working with mental health professionals locally in Sudbury to include education about it as well as tools for coping with depression and anxiety. We’ll also be changing the art design from pixel style to a much nicer animated style. Someone with much more artistic skill than is currently working on it.

Q: You all seem to be working so hard to get this game released, when can we expect the full version. Do you intend to make it available on Steam or consoles?

A: Platypus Studios will be looking at a full release of Rock Bottom on consoles and Steam (and any other platform that will have us) sometime in 2020.

Q: Can you tell us what other future projects you may have in mind for your studio?

A: We have a lot of ideas that we’ve been kicking around we would like to flesh out our first game jam entry, Frozen Dungeon Saga. We want to develop games that focus on storytelling, puzzles, and teaching players about a wide range of different topics. We’ll keep you updated when we have a more solid idea of what’s coming down the pipeline.

More Information

See the video in this article for a full playthrough of the original Rock Bottom by Joel Boucher. You can also go here to try it out for yourself! For more information you can also follow them on Twitter. Click here on our review of Celeste, a game that also deals with similar issues.