• about
• Q&A
• characters
• gameplay

• ~ explore the KOSMOS ~

a game where you only have your words;
use them wisely.

• a word from the dev

• a call from kaja

• a cry for help

• princess of perfection

SPODYSSEY Q & A

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What does Spodyssey mean?The title of my game, Spodyssey, is a combination of the words “space” and “odyssey”. “Odyssey” meaning “adventure” and space being, well, space. I carefully consider the names of my characters, and usually do large amounts of research into different languages and roots. However, most memorable IPs have unique and sometimes silly names. Think of Pokemon, Petscop, and Splatoon. I was unsure about “Spodyssey” at first, but one of my online friends encouraged me to go with it. She said it was unique and fun to say.

The use of the word “Odyssey” was also considered as the structure of Spodyssey is similar to one of my favorite games, Super Mario Odyssey. In this game, you go around various unique themed lands to collect moon pieces. The game was praised at the time for being a breath of fresh air into the Mario series, as well as having stylish and fun world and character design. The gameplay is also engaging and varied, making replays of the game a regular part of my routine. It is a big inspiration to me creatively, so having part of its name in my passion project as an homage felt fitting.

What is the gameplay of “Spodyssey” like?Spodyssey will be a top-down role playing game. You will play as your player character, a small bunny-like alien. As an intern of the Spodyssey program, you will explore different planets and meet all sorts of folks. Doing your internship tasks will transition you from a top-down view to a rhythm game with limited controls. Engaging in difficult conversations will transition you to a turn-based battle system.

• learn more about gameplay here!

What genre is “Spodyssey”?Spodyssey will be a rhythm-based indie RPG. Drama, comedy, and occasional psychological horror will all be prevalent. I want it to be a fun, emotional experience.

What are some of the main inspirations for “Spodyssey”?Spodyssey has many creative inspirations. For overall tone and structure, Undertale and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon are two that come to mind. I love the mix of humorous dialogue, fun characters, and heartbreaking stories. The surreal indie horror game, Yume Nikki, is also a large creative inspiration. I love how that game, and the fan games made after it, tell so much with their visual storytelling and chilling soundtracks.

For gameplay, my main inspirations were Paper Mario Thousand Year Door, Taiko no Tatsujin, and Rhythm Heaven. Spodyssey’s gameplay is rhythm based, and the player must hit the correct button inputs at the right time to complete certain tasks. Paper Mario in particular was very influential; while playing the game, I felt consistently engaged. My strategies I spent time thinking up were dependent on my accurate button presses. It wasn’t just luck; the turn-based system needed my input to move the battle forward.

• Gameplay from PAPER MARIO: THE THOUSAND YEAR DOOR.

• Gameplay from TAIKO NO TATSUJIN.

So, yes. Rhythm games and heartfelt RPGs are the main inspirations for Spodyssey.

What software is Spodyssey being developed in?I plan to develop Spodyssey in GameMaker Studio 2. This software is incredibly beginner friendly, and the same software Undertale was developed in. The die-hard undertale fan in me wants to keep using this software as an homage, but part of me knows if development gets tough or software changes, I’ll need to switch to a different engine. So, the plan is GameMaker, but that is subject to change.

GameMaker Studio 2 Logo.

I’ve been learning GameMaker through Youtube tutorials, and I’ve been taking a beginner’s programming class at my university. Programming isn’t my strong suit, but I adore game design and want to pursue making games, even if it doesn’t come easily. I am very lucky to have resources online and in-person to help me in my endeavors!

Who is working on Spodyssey? Do you have a team?So far, the main developer of Spodyssey is your’s truly. I have a friend who is very gifted in programming, and they want to help out. But honestly, I don’t feel super comfortable having team members until I save up enough to properly compensate them for their work.I planned on starting a kickstarter for Spodyssey after the Demo is completed, but I’m not quite sure if that is the route I want to go.

When will Spodyssey be released?I plan on completing the demo of the game first before anything else. I have the basic structure of the demo planned out (it is basically the first hour or so of the game) so the next step is scripting and programming.Before I focus my energy on Spodyssey, though, I plan to complete my first game. This is a prequel of sorts to Spodyssey, titled In Stitches We Awake. It will focus on the creation of the first ever planet in their community, and their troubling customs they had to fight to leave behind. Stay tuned!

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GAMEPLAYSPODYSSEY contains rpg elements mixed with strategic rhythmic gameplay. When you meet someone who is difficult to reason with, you will enter a “battle” where you try to reasonably conversate with them...or not. Your choice.

YOUR TURN:
Choose to say something, and in order for it to “get through”, you will need to complete a rhythmic button press, similar to games like Taiko no tastujin or paper mario. The easier things to say get easier patterns.

THEIR TURN:
Like any good interaction, the other person gets to say their peace. Sometimes, words can hurt, so you will be thrown into a 2d-platformer style ordeal, where they attack you to the beat of the music!

the main goal of your internship, helping the citizens, will also be done through rhythm games!

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• about the game
• about the developer

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Spodyssey is a rhythm-based RPG, where the player is an intern at the "Spodyssey program", and is tasked with helping the citizens of the different planets with various projects. These range from smaller tasks like helping a scientist make potions or giving citizens haircuts, to large tasks like assisting in the preparations of an intergalactic ball. These tasks are interactive, taking place in rhythm-based minigames. The player will also have many choices to decide how far they want to go to help the community. Do they want to do the bare minimum tasks? Or do they want to dig deeper and get to know the citizens? Do they have the power to change a person's world view with a little effort? Or is the community destined to crumble?

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I'm WHEELIESCOOT! I’m an artist, animator, character designer, and game developer. I love cute things and pastel colors; I also love dark concepts and gritty horror. I love exploring complex ideas through fun and exciting characters. I run an independent online shop selling my artwork. I’m currently developing my first game, a prequel to Spodyssey, titled In Stitches We Awake. I believe making great games takes three main concepts: interesting aesthetic, powerful story, and interactive and fun gameplay.

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a word from the dev

Hiya there—I’m Wheeliescoot. Artist, animator, and all the other specialties I put on my business cards. Thanks for your interest in Spodyssey :3 (I’m assuming that’s why you’re here?)In summer of 2020, when the world was a bit too much to handle, I picked up a game I had forgotten about. My brother had bought it for me for my birthday, and even helped me set up my steam account (An inside joke of our’s led to my online username, which is actually an LLC now, crazy, huh?).My love for animation and art was still dwelling in the back of my mind, somewhere. Underneath the worries of my peer’s opinions, daydreams about crushes, troubling thoughts about my physics class, all of the usual highschool fluff that felt world-ending at the time. My experiences were probably a lot more universal than I thought, but at the time I felt isolated and alone. I was very busy trying very hard to play the part of “normal teenage girl” to focus on anything I was actually interested in.For a while.After washing off the graphite from my hands and closing my school’s to-do list, I settled into my couch to continue a game I had long abandoned. And while playing this game, my heart seemed to open up to the possibilities I had been ignoring. My love for engaging characters, witty writing, fun gameplay, and emotional stories rushed back to me, replacing the shallow worries of highschool and releasing a true self that felt long forgotten.That game, of course, was Undertale, a game that before I had met with a blunt “Isn’t that the Earthbound rip-off?” to a genuine “Oh my God that game changed my life.”During a speech given by the creator of Undertale, he says, "When [there is] a player who's heart matches the creator's, something strange happens. The game screen flashes like a cursed mirror, [and] the player's heart begins to shine. That player will be changed forever."Fox continues, stating "I'm speaking from experience. Indie games have set my heart ashine before."“What a cool cycle,” I thought. Someone I look up to stating he has been influenced by indie games just as I have been influenced by him is powerful. It encourages me that I can make an impact on lovers of indie games.Getting back into art was hard at first. As exciting it was to stay up until the early hours of the morning scribbling out game ideas and Undertale fanart, finishing projects was a whole other beast. Sitting on the floor drawing frames of animation (a habitual passtime for me in middle school) had suddenly become a daunting and disorienting task.But even as I would get discouraged, Toby Fox’s words would lift me out of this funk. In a zine titled A Profound Waste of Time, he said “Finishing things is a skill that’s really important, and you can build it up by completing small projects…It’s much better to have something done, even bad, rather than nothing at all. That’s really the only other option.” Those words stuck with me, and I finished my first animation in almost 4 years that night.As hard as it is to finish things, it’s also hard to start things. It’s hard when I feel as though the whole world will look at this some day. Then it’s hard to think about how entitled that sounds. The pressure comes from nowhere except myself, and yet it feels burdening, soul crushing; why do I always get in my own way?It’s hard to write this because I feel so many emotions about it. How do you sit down and casually write about something that changed your life forever?Despite the doubts spinning in my head, I never want to stop creating. Sometimes it can get difficult to create when there’s so many things out there already. When you spend a lot of time online, sifting through critiques and commentaries, it becomes natural to overthink your own work as well. Will people think of my work this way? Will people hate my work this way?The people-pleaser in me screams out for validation, but in my heart, I know I wouldn’t feel right creating something entirely off of someone’s own expectations.“It’s because it’s not money that matters, even what you call polish doesn’t really matter, all that matters is whether something resonates with people emotionally or not.”And so here I am, writing this because I want to start. I want to get something out there, to at least get people interested. To at least “start” and “finish” with a Spodyssey-related project.

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a call from kaja

hey anty,it’s me again—I know. I just called you and I know you don’t want me to stress…but I am stressed.You know I would talk to Scorpii about it, but the problem kinda lies with her. I’m really, really worried about her.I wake up every morning to her already in her office. The bags under her eyes tell me that she either stayed there all night, or passed out on top of a pile of paperwork. I ask if she wants breakfast, or already ate, and she answers with a “no I’m good, thanks kaja” without looking up once. She only perks up when the phone rings, in which she plasters her customer service voice, trying to win over whoever the hell is calling today.Throughout the day she’ll lock herself up in her room, her long, unkempt hair tied back from her face. She really does need a haircut, haha, oh man it’s gotta be almost down to the floor by now. But I guess she likes it long…that’s what I keep telling myself anyways.The rare times I can finally drag her out of her office, we’ll watch our show, you know, and it feels like everything’s back to normal. It’s nice to see her smiling again. Like, authentically smiling.But it comes to an end eventually, as usually 30 minutes to an hour in, she zonks out. One time, haha, she actually fell asleep mid-eating! Haha yup! With a little mini tortilla bowl thingy in her mouth. It was so funny, but even my inane chuckling didn’t snap her out of her sleep.The harder she works on getting another recruit for the Spodyssey program, the more light I see draining from her eyes. I really wish there was some way to reach her, but with the election coming up…I know she feels the pressure building. She feels so…responsible for Cressidia. Sometimes I just want to shake her, like “why on earth would you want this responsibility?” I’m so tired…I know, Anty, thanks. I would say “hopefully this will simmer down!” But I know relations between the kingdoms are only going to get more strained from now. It’s so stupid. So insanely ridiculous, so pointless, all the hate and the stress and the—Oh. Sorry, scorpii is calling me back inside. This is weird. I hope it’s some good news. Hey, I’ll talk to you later okay? Next time you can rant to me about your dumb job. I know how much you hate it, haha……okay. Mmmhm. Okay, love you, bye.

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a cry for help

As I pace across the tile floors, my boots make slight squeaks that echo through the halls. Carefully crafted marble pillars holding up the ceiling above me, encrypted stars and moons on the walls and floor, an intimidating door in front of me. Yet my attention stays only on the squeaks my boots make.It was only a few years ago, when we met in this castle. Freshly built, new and scrappy and not quite there yet. I was in awe. I had never met you, or seen you. All I knew was my internship would take place on Cassiopeia, the Moon Kingdom. I had no idea you were just a young girl like me.Squeak squeak squeak, my boots sing as I wait for you to open this door. I shamefully replay our first dance in my head. Over and over again. One two three, one two three, squeak squeak squeak.It’s a miracle I made it inside at all. Outside this castle stand thousands of your adoring subjects. They like you, and how couldn’t they, but it’s a different kind of admiration than the one I felt. Waiting amongst them, I can see they view you as some sort of God.Murals of you are hung elegantly on the walls. Suns and moons and stars and you, all chiseled into the bright marble door in front of me. The door knobs are gold and shiny, just like your horns. It takes me a second to register that you built this place yourself. You put so much effort into crafting this door you used to shut me out.I remember when you would open this door for me.Why won’t you open it anymore?

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The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition for cosmos is "an orderly systematic universe." Farther down the page it notes that "the word is generally used to suggest an orderly or harmonious universe, as it was originally used by Pythagoras in the 6th century B.C."The name of the solar system in Spodyssey, "Kosmos'' is named after the archaic spelling of "cosmos". I wanted to juxtapose the community's crumbling with a word that originally related to unity, solidarity, and harmony. Subconsciously, perhaps Kosmos is meant to be saved by the player, due to the name alluding things will go back into balance. The "harmony" aspect also relates to the rhythm-based gameplay.

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characters

SCORPII (full name is SCORPIUS)
AGE: 26
HEIGHT: 5’9”
SPECIES: anthrollian*
PRONOUNS: she/herFounder of the Spodyssey Organization. Despite being a leader, she can get frazzled easily. However, her determination and persistence with her goals, especially for Spodyssey, keeps her going. This can lead to her overworking herself, which means less time for friends and fun. It will all be worth it though...right?

KAJA (KAH-JAH)
AGE: 23
HEIGHT: 5’6”
SPECIES: anthrollian*
PRONOUNS: he/theyHeir to the throne of the kingdom that may lead KOSMOS…the pressure is overwhelming, causing the prince to appear lazy and apathetic. His stressed parents send him over to work for his best friend, Scorpii, to help him “learn responsibility”.

PLAYER CHARACTER
IT’S YOU!

CRESSIDIA
AGE: 25
HEIGHT: 6”
SPECIES: fundatarian*
PRONOUNS: she/herthe moon princess.

• *Learn more about species here!

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