What kind of explosive expression can we expect from a creator who relentlessly pushes us to break away from the mundane and mundane? The video game designer and digital artist decided to ask TJ Hughes, who works under the alias Terrifying Jellyfish, about creating the aesthetically dominant adventure Nour: Play with Your Food.
In this profile, we talk to TJ Hughes about how Nour works with the team, his origin story, and the advice he gives to developers who want to make their mark in games. Feesh, Hughes’ first project, is a microscopic arcade featuring his gameplay and vibrant visuals, and TJ’s similarly microscopic work, as conceived and perfected within the 48-hour Ludum Dare game jam. It showed a willingness to break the mold with space. With no time constraints, he expands his color and playfulness with his sophomore project, Nour: Play with Your Food.
PlayStation Blog: What inspired Nour: Play with Your Food?
Nour is described as an “experimental food art game designed to make you hungry,” allowing players to play with their food like children, but without having to clean up after themselves. Further demonstrating the difference between working with Nour and Feesh is that Nour’s development process was slow and methodical, with no “moments of discovery” for anyone.
“I was learning how to write shaders and brainstorming the best themes to emulate,” explains Hughes. “I had just started traveling and eating more diverse foods, so I thought it was the perfect subject. I started uploading art tests to Twitter. I started experimenting with more things like using the tech art concept of surface scattering to simulate noodle ingredients and using depth blending to mimic the turbidity of milk tea. I started developing a library of tech art tricks to make it look appetizing.”
Hughes chose a physics-based experience. That’s because it “provides a chaotic and silly sandbox” the way players want it without wasting food or making a mess.
“When presented with a physics-based game, it is often set with one of two goals: to lay things out as neatly as possible, or to confuse them as much as possible. The best physics games do both. I think it should be possible!”
nour team
As a leader, how can you motivate and encourage your team?
“Having a team that shares many of the same interests and attractions helps,” says Hughes. “It makes it so much easier to relate to each other and get on the same page about design. Many of us are friends before we are colleagues and bring that trust to the project. Everyone on the team can suggest anything.” It creates an environment in which even the most difficult ideas are taken into consideration.We all love to eat too.If the meeting has not yet met in person at a restaurant, before the I’ve noticed that we often talk to each other about what we plan to cook.”
origin and inspiration
What is your first memory of being obsessed with video games?
“Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is probably my first memory of loving a video game,” Hughes says when asked about his memory of the first game. “Because he’s my younger brother, I’m usually player 2 and ended up playing as Tails. For my brother, I could only collect rings and attack enemies. Tails had infinite lives. I wasn’t very good at video games when I was a kid, so this was great, cheese boss fights by sending Tails into attack while Sonic focuses on dodging. I bought this book full of cheat codes for one game and learned about the debug mode cheat that allows you to spawn on anything and walk through walls, which is how the game works under the hood. It ignited the fascination, and I spent hours tinkering with the game, from the number of objects spawned to the inevitable crash.”
From there, Hughes told an adult who would listen that he wanted to be a game designer. Speaking of his parents, who were artistically expressive in their own way, Hughes said what he does is: Art from my mother’s side, technology from my father’s side. ”
“They were both supportive of what I wanted to do, which was incredible for me to build my confidence,” he adds.
He also credits Carol Mertz, Ben Valenti and Rampant Interactive’s Dana Valenti a lot when talking about his journey.
“There are many experiences I wouldn’t have had without them, including my first trip to San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference,” he says. Joey Paniello taught me most of the chording techniques I still use today, and I’m so happy to have worked with him on ‘Nour’!”
Advice for Game Developers: Keep It Simple and Share Your Creations
Hughes ran into a roadblock in his first game, Feesh, where he felt a lack of content. He thought his arcade title would definitely need multiplayer, but upon further research he realized he didn’t have the skills or experience to implement it.
“I used to say to myself, ‘This is my art.’ Gaming is a reflection of where I was in my career,” he says. “Instead of getting too ambitious, I decided to launch the game.” It was a small project, so he priced it at 99 cents because he learned a lot from the experience and was able to develop his own personal style. It was the right decision in the end as it put the project on the map. “It wasn’t flashy, but the core of the game shined and it was very popular!”
Two key observations from that experience make up the advice a game developer wants him to walk away from when he reads this: Share what you’re working on and keep it simple.
discuss in depth about [your projects] With friends you can trust! It’s a lot better than working in complete isolation,” says Hughes. “The game is a constant communication between you and the player, and seeing how the player reacts is essential to that interaction.”
“Game development can be a lot of work, and sometimes you find yourself with more workload than you can handle. Don’t be afraid to keep things simple,” he says. “Take it easy, don’t overdo it, do what you can. Indie developers have to wear a lot of hats to start a business, prioritize themselves, and over time, I try to organize things so that I have less work to do. Also explore TikTok for things like being a small business owner and how to pay your taxes.Don’t ignore that.”
looking ahead
Panic Inc is the publisher of Nour, and Hughes says they have had a monumental relationship in bringing this unique project to life. “This is the biggest project of my life, and with such a reputable publisher behind it, I am very excited to show you the final product.”
When it comes to Nour and other projects, what makes the game a “TJ Hughes” game?
“If you notice a small visual detail that looks like someone spent too much time on it, you’ll know it,” he says. “I have also been told that my use of color is quite trademark. It’s a thing, heavily influenced by realism, but it pushes the boundaries in just one or two areas and achieves a whole new aesthetic: just raise the slider from 10 to a few times and you’ll have a ‘look’ to your work. can give ”
And what comes next?
“I’d love to do more games/projects that interact with space and have an excuse to connect people directly,” Hughes explains. “Right now, I’m really fascinated by the sociological concept of the Third Place. A community environment where you can hang out, not at home or at work. For me, there’s not enough places to get a vibe without spending money.” I hope that can provide such places and bring like-minded people to those places.”
