PPP2 Inspiration: Analgesic Productions

The first company that I gain a lot of inspiration from is Analgesic Production which is an Indie Game company set up by two people called Sean Hogan and Jonathan Kittaka. Together they released the game Anodyne which is a 2D pixel art game and it very addictive. It is very similar to the older Pokemon games and you play as Young, the game's protagonist as he explores a dream-like fantasy world. They got a lot of positive reviews for the game and it was very highly praised as an action-adventure game.

The gameplay centres around Young abilities which involve using a broom and wearing shoes to be able to jump, although this is where they got a bit of critique as the jumping mechanics aren't brilliant, also the storyline is unclear at times, making it difficult to know where your going. The art style is very nice in the game and follows traditional pixel style games where you explore dungeons to complete puzzles and defeat enemies. But alongside this it also has areas that are less focused on combat and puzzles and purely exploration.

What I actually like most about this is the game's development and the people behind the game. The two boys where in their final year at college at the time that this was released and they worked solidly on it for around a year. It originally started as a solo project that Sean Hogan wanted to complete but through a mutual friend he met Jonathon Kittaka, who worked alongside him to get it finished within the year. Throughout development the two worked together on story themes and level designs, while Jonathon worked alone on the dialog and artwork, and Sean wrote the games programming and soundtrack. It's a really nice story that shows well that you do not need a massive team of people, if you know how to produce the artwork, all you need is a programmer and your good to go.