snoozykazoo

[snoozykazoo]

may devpost: us and godot sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-

KYAA–! Oh, uhm sorry… didn’t see you there… we were just so excited about this new engine that we’re using that one thing led to another and uhm… well… teehee!

F-forget about what you saw! What’s important is that this is a new MONTHLY DEVPOST!!

If this is your first time seeing us, hey hey hey! We’re Snoozy Kazoo, a game dev studio of six guys who make dumb, silly, and fun games. We made the Turnip Boy games—the latest of which we JUST ANNOUNCED—and we’re currently in the midst of making Hobnobbers and Turnip Boy Steals the Mail!

We’ve got a lot to cover, so buckle up!

What’s Snoozy been up to?

Dude. Soooo freaking much. All that stuff I said we couldn’t talk about last month… we can finally talk about it…

Like, for example:

THE NEW GAME WE JUST ANNOUNCED?!

Watch the trailer if you haven’t already!

That’s right! We’re making a new TURNIP BOY game! A spin-off prequel to the first game, this one covers Turnip Boy’s foray into crime as he STEALS THE MAIL! Catch mail and chase high scores as he dashes through the familiar landscapes of Veggieville, the Grim Graveyard, and more!

And… gulps… this one is… f-f-free??? We’ve finally fallen to the dozens and dozens of comments BEGGING for us to release a Turnip Boy game for FREE… I can’t believe it… our integrity…! We’re just privy to the whims of the masses!

Of course, free games usually are associated with a ton of microtransactions and whatnot, but we will be upfront and say that is NOT our goal with Turnip Boy Steals the Mail! Instead, if you sign up for our FREE NEWSLETTER (which some of you are surely reading this on!), you will receive free goodies and new episodes as we continue development on the game! It’s both a gift to you guys for your support throughout the years and a way to increase our newsletter base- a win-win!

PLEASE WISHLIST THE GAME HERE!! WE WILL BE SO HAPPY AND LOOK AT YOU SO CUTELY IT HELPS US SO MUCH PLEASE PLEASE PLE

AND ALSO WE HAVE A NEW TURNIP BOY PLUSHIE. WHAT.

LOOK AT HIM. HE’S SO CUBULAR. AND WAY BIGGER THAN YOU THINK HE’S GOING TO BE. He was so big that when I (the marketing man) had to bring him home to film some promo stuff on my own time, I was STRUGGLING through the train systems.

He’s big and soft enough to be a pillow. I am NOT joking. He is practically a steal. Which is funny because that’s what he does to the mail.

When this newsletter goes out, we’ll have about THREE DAYS REMAINING TO GET THIS PLUSH! 72 HOURS LEFT TO BE PREORDERED! SO GET HIM WHILE YOU CAN OR ITS OVER!!!

Okay but can we go back to when you were making out with the Godot mascot. Like what was that about.

Haha okay yeah erhm ehe. Well. This month we ended up going to GODOTCON!!!!

“But Snoozy Kazoo,” you might be asking yourself. “What even is GodotCon? What is a ‘Godot’?”

Godotcon???

‘Godot’ is the latest game engine that we’ve decided to try our hand at! And thus far, honestly… we’re really loving it. As some of you might know, we’ve switched game engines for every single one of our games. From Unity to GameMaker to Unreal, we’ve struggled to find something that clicks for us. But it turns out Godot might be… th-the one?!

In fact, we like the engine so much that we’ve started developing an open-source tool called Blankit to facilitate not just our own Godot projects, but to help others with their own! More on that some other time, though.

After we decided to start developing Turnip Boy Steals the Mail in Godot, we came across Godotcon Boston, who announced that they were looking for games to showcase at their event. Excited at the opportunity to show off our game and meet other fans of the engine, we submitted and got accepted! Extremely exciting!

The Event!!

The lead up to the event itself was a blur. It was a two-day showcase where we talked to a wonderful slew of game developers, both new and old. We received tons of priceless feedback and made connections that will surely last a lifetime! A huge thank you to everyone who played our game and offered tips. We’ve been hard at work these past two weeks going over and implementing suggestions!

And of course, we had to do our time-honored tradition of eating cold Chef Boyardee, started by our former marketing expert Jordan Kegler back at PAX East 2020.

All in all, GodotCon was an amazing experience. The organizers were super kind and accommodating, the community was lovely, and the general energy for the engine was infectious. We’re looking forward to making games with this engine in the future!

Jeez that’s a lot.

Yeppp no community corner this week. We are wiped guys.

However, we’re mixing it up… to send us questions, just REPLY TO THIS EMAIL!! Please note whether you’d like your name to be listed or if you want to be listed as Anonymous if we pick your question!

“But this isn’t an email! It’s a devpost on tumblr?” SHOULD’VE BEEN SUBSCRIBED TO THE NEWSLETTER THEN… OTHERWISE, YOU WON’T GET LITTLE TREATS WHEN TURNIP BOY STEALS THE MAIL COMES OUT!!!

As per Devposts, see you next month!!

[snoozykazoo]

happy springtime allergies! 🌸

The flowers at this time of year are so lovely! sniff sniff sniff… They’re pretty enough that I’m THIS close to forgetting the pollen up my nose. So it goes. Regardless of springtime allergies or not, it’s Snoozy Devpost time!

If this is your first time seeing us, hey! We’re Snoozy Kazoo, a game dev studio of six guys who make dumb, silly, and fun games. We made the Turnip Boy games, and we’re currently in the midst of working on our latest game, Hobnobbers!

This month, we're getting into our task management workflow to help all you fellow indie devs out there!

What's Snoozy been up to?

Ah…! We’re so, so close to being able to announce something really exciting…! But you have to forgive me. I can’t say anything yet. Keep your eyes peeled — there’s going to be a LOT of exciting Snoozy News™️ come May. Even if I can’t say the big deets yet, I can at least drop this link right overrr here for you merch heads out there…

Cool Makeship Link 👀

Buuuut since we can’t talk about our projects, let’s talk about the next best thing: Project Management! This past month, Snoozy switched from our old task-tracking system to a new system called Codecks. Imagine if you could track your project progress with a deck-building roguelike, and that’s what Codecks is! It’s a nifty little tool specifically made for Indie Game Developers, which we just happen to be.

And to clear the air: no, we are not sponsored in any way by Codecks. Though if Codecks is reading this — we’d totally love to be!

We wanted to share how this system has been working for us, so any aspiring indie devs out there can see if this system is appealing to them and potentially benefit from it!

How it works

What’s made Codecks click for us is how it blends structure with playfulness. It doesn’t just let you organize your work — it encourages you to think about it in terms of clear progress paths, visual layouts, and deck-building metaphors.

We kept falling off of our past task systems because jugging a game’s worth of art, code, design, writing, marketing, and bug-fixing while ALSO needing to come up with constantly updating organization methods is. Hard. Codecks simplifies that process!

Codecks organizes itself into Cards, Decks, and Projects. Cards are tasks (like “Animate a Hob’s death!”), Decks are chunks (animating a Hob would go in our ‘Art’ Deck, but you could split it up further into a ‘3D Animation’ deck while also having a ‘3D Modeling’ Deck), and Projects are, well, projects! (‘Hobnobbers’ is, well, our project!)

What we like

Myyy personal favorite bit of Codecks is how it handles Conversations. Conversations can be had on any card, which makes it really easy to find discussions and notes on particular topics. In the past, we’ve used Discord to talk about ideas, critiques, and problems as they’ve come up. When notes are discussed quickly, they don’t necessarily quality for opening up the whole task itself, which has made remembering clarifications like “Wait, what resolution did this sprite need to be, again?” as simple as pulling up its relevant card.

Other people on the team love the ‘Required Effort’ settings, which allow you to set an amount of effort for each card and then see how much total effort a single person has. Basically, all of us adore the fact that you can use Markdown (which I, Yukon, am currently converting this post into for the Snoozy website haha). There are just a ton of little quality of life features that really feel like this tool was made by indie devs, for indie devs, and it’s really smooth to use!

But I’m just a little guy. Just a Small Man. With Few Dollars?

Codecks is free for up to 5 users on a team! If you’re a solo developer working on a project in your spare time, it’s probably more than suitable for you.

Aaaand that was our non-sponsored shilling of this tool we really like! There’s only so much we can say without going too into the weeds of it, but we hope that giving you a peep into our processes helped you out!

Team Corner!

It’s back a second time! Almost like it’s always going to be here!

This week we’ve got… badadadum, Jake! Our musician and developer!

What are you most excited for in Hobnobbers?

I’m most excited for the physics. Some of my favorite games have really robust physics simulations like Gang Beasts, Motor Town, and BeamNG.drive. I love sandbox games that have fun and unexpected environments to explore in a tactile way.

What’s something you’ve worked on in Hobnobbers recently that you’ve found particularly frustrating?

Audio Volumes and spatialization. In a 3D game, each space needs to sound different, and sometimes dialing that in just right can be a pain. Large open rooms and tiny little tunnels sound different in real life, and they will do the same in Hobnobbers, after lots of tweaking and iteration. Coming from 2D development, this literally opens up a whole new dimension of sound design.

What kinds of feelings do you hope for the Hobnobbers’ music to bring about?

I really want to mix dreamlike folktale and plastic consumerism. I am super inspired by I spy books, grimms fairytales, folk/americana music, and toy instruments for the Hobnobbers musical palette, and the music comes very naturally when the inspirations are so vivid. A lot of Hobnobbers is about simulating something tactile and physical in a digital space, and I hope to channel that into the music.

Yay! Thank you for your time!

Andddd we’re all wrapped up!

As a reminder, feel free to send in questions for us to answer right here on our Tumblr, or join our Discord and ask questions in the “ask-the-devs-❓” channel!

Keep your eyes peeled for this upcoming month in particular — we’ve got a lot of cool announcements coming up!

As per Devposts, see you next month!!

[snoozykazoo]

merry ides of march devpost!

Ahhh, it’s that time of year again; another lap around the sun and another day closer to the Ides of March, the day that Julius Caesar got skewered through by his beloved friends! Sweet, sweet memories… But no matter! It’s Snoozy Devpost time!

If this is your first time seeing us, hey! We’re Snoozy Kazoo, a game dev studio of six guys who make dumb, silly, and fun games. We made the Turnip Boy games, and we’re currently in the midst of our latest release: Hobnobbers!

This month, we'll be getting into how we concept our characters!

What's Snoozy been up to?

A lot we can’t talk about, actually, but a lot of behind the scenes work as we’ve been nailing down various elements on Hobnobbers! Part of this work has manifested itself in, of course, Hobnobbers art style!

As with any game- or visual project, really- it’s important to spend time on concepting ideas and styles, so that the project has a strong foundation. Hobnobbers is no exception, and our lovely Creative Director, Jen, has come up with a workflow to ensure this works out!

We’ll be introducing a new character to convey this idea: the Gacha Goose! The host of one of our in-game shops, the Goose is an intimidating bird that controls a puppet girl.

(Note: Despite the name ‘Gacha Goose’, there will be no microtransactions in Hobnobbers! Fret not!)

The Process

Concepting is broken down into 6 phases:

Outlining the goal

Research

Sketch

Feedback

Refinement

Finishing

Outlining the goal is a process of figuring out what we want the design to be. In terms of utility: is this character an early-stage boss that is meant to introduce the character to the whimsy of a game’s world? Are they a shop-keeper? An intimidating mob enemy that can kill you in one hit? In addition, what sort of feelings do we want this character to invoke? For the Gacha Goose, we wanted the player to despise the Goose and feel pity for the girl. What specific vibes would help convey these emotions?

Taking the time to write down your goals before starting to draw can set a strong foundation that snowballs into the rest of these stages! Conveying as much information as possible with visuals alone is particularly important for games, where players don’t have the time to read a novel before playing.

Research

...is self-explanatory, yet sometimes the longest stage in the process: we collect reference materials that achieve the goals we mentioned in our first section, and see what we can learn from them!

For the Gacha Goose, medieval and doll-like pieces of clothing served as big inspiration. We ended up looking at a lot of clown-adjacent pieces, porcelain-esque prosthetics, and watercolor illustrations to get closer to our final idea.

Sketch

...is when all the ideas that have been worked on reach fruition for the first time. It can be messy, but just slamming together a variety of different vibes and looks to see what invokes the right feeling. Many different concepts should be made here, in order to keep in mind the next round…

Feedback!

It’s time to show the concepts to an audience. We do several different types of feedback: an internal one with just the team, a semi-internal one with friends and family of the team, and one with Camp Kazoo over in our Discord.

Not only do we ask for what people like best, but also what they feel about the design. Sometimes context is given for the character’s role in the world, sometimes it isn’t; finding out what that ‘first gut feeling’ is important.

Refinement

...is the actual application of the feedback that’s been received. It is a process of reflection, reassessing our goals, and figuring out how to marry what people think with what the purpose of our design is.

It should be noted that one stage of refinement isn’t the end of the process- going back to Feedback after finishing up another iteration and getting even more notes on what people think is just as important! Just be mindful of reaching a done state at some point. You’ve got a whole game to make, after all, and iterating constantly on the same idea will make for a game that never gets shipped.

And we're done!

The final result of our beloved Gacha Goose’s design is…

…

…oops! We’re keeping that secret for now! ;p We’ll be showing her final design in future updates, so keep your eyes peeled for those!

That’s our concepting process, out in the open! We hope it was insightful, and perhaps even helpful to other game developers out there! Now, onto other news…

Some new looks...?

We’re not just updating our game’s aesthetics; we’re updating our own! If you had peeped our website within the past few months, you’d have seen that everyone on the team had somewhat different icons; but no longer! We are all now united under the banner of having an Anime Profile Picture… okay yes perhaps incredibly minor compared to the epic task of making a game But. Look At How Cutie We Look Anyways.

Team Corner!

It’s back! Our favorite little place to meet different team members and bombard them with questions to foster a parasocial relationship with them! What fun and whimsy!

This week we’ve got… badadadum, Jen! Our Art Director!

What are you most excited for in Hobnobbers?

I’ve been really enjoying our concepting phase! It’s always fun to create new characters/environments and figure out what makes them tick. We’ve also been playing around with some UI design, which is personally one of my favorite things to work on. I’m excited to continue to see these things make it into the game! There’s always a point in development when all the pieces kind of click together, and you can see the fruits of everyone’s disciplines start to create something truly unique!

What’s something you’ve worked on in Hobnobbers recently that you’ve found particularly frustrating?

I feel most in my element when I’m working on 2D assets. Whenever I touch anything 3D, there’s some growing pains that come along with it. All in all, I get really passionate about learning new things, so it’s been pretty fun. When I start concepting characters or mocking up UI screens I feel like I can take a breath of relief though. I’m hoping some day 3D feels as natural as 2D to me!

What’s a source of personal inspiration for you as you design characters for Hobnobbers?

When it comes to the world of Hobnobbers, I’ve been really inspired by Studio Ghibli films! I love the soft world building in films like Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke, and how they handle spirits and folklore within these films. I’m hopping that we can create some interesting characters that players can really speculate about, but not necessarily get all the answers easily. I kind of want the players to create the answers themselves.

When it comes to the stores and what we call “whimsical consumerism”, I’ve been inspired by games like “Bombrush Cyberfunk” and, funnily enough, a game called “Breaking da Rules”, an old Fairly Odd Parents game made by THQ. Bombrush I just love those Y2K vibes, and it was a big inspiration for creating the runner. Breaking da Rules has a great way of creating these very whimsical and silly spaces. They also have this great ability to mesh 2D and 3D elements, which gives us some inspiration as well!

Lastly, I’ve been really inspired by old fantasy books. I love absorbing and learning from materials that inspire me, and recently I’ve received this book called “Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You!” (A long title I know.) I can always go on Pinterest, but having physical resources from fantasy artists that I feel like to me are “the greats” gives me a lot of inspiration.

Yay! Thank you for your time!

Andddd we're all wrapped up!

As a reminder, feel free to send in questions for us to answer here on our Tumblr, or join our Discord and ask questions in the “ask-the-devs-❓” channel!

See you next month!!

— Kiki

[snoozykazoo]

we're on tumblr again yay✨

Hey everyone! And welcome to Snoozy Kazoo's first ✨TUMBLR DEVPOST!!✨ We'll be releasing these every month from now on as a way to keep everyone updated on Snoozy Kazoo news!

If you're new here, hi! We’re Snoozy Kazoo, a game dev studio of six guys who make dumb, silly, and fun games. You might know us from the games Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion and Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, available HERE and HERE!

Let's get caught up! In this issue we're covering a new mobile release, anniversaries, and... our NEW GAME? 😳😳😳

What's Snoozy been up to?

Ok I know what I said earlier, but let’s be honest: if you’ve stumbled deep into the mines enough to find your way here, you’re surely familiar with our beloved Turnip Boy. We just passed by his anniversary of robbing a bank on January 18th! Aww! They grow up so fast… But it’s a good thing he’s not robbing banks anymore, that’s a crime, you kn-

Aw crud he's doing it on your phone now

Snaps my fingers disappointingly. Aw man. Yerrrrp. Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is now on iOS and Android devices near you. His mindless yet fervent desire to wreck crime upon the world seems insatiable. It’s really unfortunate, except for the fact that it’s honestly really fun watching him go at it.

The game is available TODAY on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store! Re-experience the game or force your friends to — its fun either way!

Ahhh the beloved Turnip Boy. Surely your next game will be about him right?

Heehee nope!

Excitingly, in November, we announced our next game: Hobnobbers! A co-op mall-looter where you rob malls for your goddess!

If you haven’t already wishlisted the game yet, well… go wishlist it! Go make your friends wishlist it! Wishlist wishlist wishlist! It really helps us beat the Algorithm Overlords, so literally every single wishlist counts!

I already know about your little crow-gnome mall-looting game you do not shut up about it. What else is new?

We also released a new devlog over on our YouTube! We’ll be releasing one of these every few months, so make sure to subscribe!

In it, we’ve covered the game’s conception till its early development, which means a lot of concept art. Honestly, let’s toss a little bit more of it over here; it’s always exciting to see behind the curtain!

Now get ready for... 🥁🥁🥁

Woah! What’s this little place? Perhaps the chance to get to meet different members of the team and bombard them with questions to foster a parasocial relationship with them? No way!

Introducing… Alexis! Our Unreal Developer!

What are you most excited for in Hobnobbers?

I’m very excited for a lot of different technical aspects and seeing people’s reaction to the game! I want to see all of the systems come together to create a perfect storm of chaos. The randomly generated map ontop the hexes system, with events like Money Storms, Floods, and Fairy Circles of Doom, is going to make each run completely unique and you’ll never know what kind of madness you’re getting into! On launch day I intend to be hopping into games with people (and fixing any bugs that crop up).

What’s something you’ve worked on in Hobnobbers recently that you’ve found particularly frustrating?

The level generation for the mall has been a particular nightmare, but in a very fun way. The mall is generated from bottom-to-top and each floor tells the floor above it about the different combinations of rooms that it can generate. This allows us to have those iconic vertical levels that overlap eachother with walkways above the floors below! This has required a lot of tuning in both making the parts that generate, and how to place them to get results that are always interesting (without bugs). Not only do we have to generate each floor, we also have to generate each store! Accounting for the size and placement of these is a constant challenge when making segments but I made a blender template that speeds it up quite a lot.

What pitch did you end up bringing to the pitch competition?

My pitch was a game about a vampire who was ousted from their castle by another vampire, and is trying to take it back. You would have to sneak back in through various pathways that challenge you in different ways, some would require parkour skills, others would require puzzle solving. And while you’re doing all of this, the AI learns and adapts to your behavior setting traps or blocking off paths in a constant game of cat and mouse. I am still extremely passionate about this idea, and fully intend to pursue it one day!

Awesome! Thank you for your time! 😊

Okie dokie that’s a wrap for now

In future devposts, we’ll be including questions sent in by the community! Feel free to send them in over here on Tumblr, or join our Discord and ask questions in the “ask-the-devs-❓” channel!

See you soon!

— Kiki

[snoozykazoo]

are you actually using tumblr again from that dev post

yes

[snoozykazoo]

Saying goodbye to Tumblr... 😭

sup gamers?

with 🏦 Turnip Boy Robs a Bank 💰 launching EXTREMELY soon (January 18th!!! 🤯), we've been massively restructuring how we do social media. sadly, part of this is the archiving of our tumblr. 🥲

we really love this site, but unfortunately we have to focus elsewhere due to several factors.

that being said, there's tons of places you can follow/join to get more snoozy kazoo goodness! here's a list!

Discord 💜

Facebook 💙

Instagram 🩷

TikTok 🖤

X 🖤

YouTube ❤️

The Snoozy Kazoo Blog 💚

but yeah, at least on tumblr, this is goodbye for now... we really love the platform, so there's a chance we return, but until then, peace gamers! 💖

[snoozykazoo]

sup gamers? 👋

we got some banger news for y'all today! we partnered with Shattered Journal Games to bring you the soupiest crossover ever! 🍲

we helped add the Vegetable Stew level to Super Raft Boat Together which is full of Turnip Boy goodness! 🫢 you can face off against enemies like the worm and pig, drown in soup, and fight God Onion! woah!!! 🤯

you can also hire Turnip Boy as a mercenary who will appear more likely at the end of Vegetable Stew! 😎 you can also find Apple Cats hatching out of eggs! 😸

there's all this, and more Turnip Boy goodness in to Super Raft Boat Together RIGHT NOW!!!! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR GO PLAY THE GAME!!! 🏃💨💨💨

don't have to Super Raft Boat Together? it's on sale RIGHT NOW, and if you already own Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion on Steam, you can get it for 💸 EVEN CHEAPER 💸 through our brand spanking new Steam bundle! 💰

GOGOGOGOGOGO!!!

[snoozykazoo]

We're hosting Alvario's Annual Community Tree in the Snoozy Kazoo Discord server!!! 🎄

Come submit an ornament!!! 🌟

[snoozykazoo]

🏦 TURNIP BOY ROBS A BANK LAUNCHES ON JANUARY 18TH, 2024!!! 💸

Check out our blog for the full deets!

[snoozykazoo]

✨ART CONTEST WINNER!✨

you have truly captured my energy with this art uwu

you have won the #TBRABartcontest! feel free to DM to get set up with your prize and thank you!

Day “25”. Sorry I meant to post this yesterday. I drew my favorite tax evader, Turnip Boy. I’m very excited for the new game!

[snoozykazoo]

girl dinner uwu

[snoozykazoo]

MY GAME IS FREE ON EPIC! !! PLAY IT SO U CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE SEQUEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

steal from snoozy kazoo ⏬

[snoozykazoo]

felt cute might delete later 🫢

[snoozykazoo]

it says on this snoozy social media calendar that there is supposed to be an art contest right about now… uh… jen has been in hiding since i kidnapped her boss… but she left some notes!!! woo notes!!!

it’s time to make art about me robbing banks! yay!!!!!

“Hi gamers! As we get closer to the end of the year, the anticipation for the launch of Turnip Boy Robs a Bank grows! We’re hopping to have some official news for you soon!

In the meantime, we thought having a Turnip Boy Robs a Bank art contest could be fun! We’re thinking of having a general “Turnip Boy Robs a Bank” theme. So go wild! As long as it’s related to the game it works!

We’re super excited to see what y’all come up with! Hopefully some six foot vegetable doesn’t impede the launch of this art contest!” -Jen

lol right right. now to the fun stuff. here is the prize!

the prize is:

🏆 me not taking your family for ransom AND a Pinny Arcade Turnip Boy Robs a Bank pin! this ends on the 9th of November 2023 at 11:59 PM EST and we will pick a winner shortly after!

niceeee. she also left some dumb rules.

“Each enamel pin will be substituted for a $25 Steam gift card if you do not live in the United States. Use the tag #TBRABartcontest to qualify!” - Jen

[snoozykazoo]

mario

[snoozykazoo]

[snoozykazoo]

happy monday (🔉 sound on)