We had the pleasure of chatting with the creator of Smushi Come Home! If you are fan explortation, adorable art and character designs, and relaxing gameplay be sure to check out the game!

1. Tell us about your games. What inspires your work?

I like to create all types of games really. But my favorites to develop right now are more in the cozy genre, since I’m really into shorter wholesome games! I was heavily inspired by Eric Barone, the creator of Stardew Valley. His story showed me that you CAN make a game on your own! I always wanted to create them myself but I thought you had to work with a studio or company, and that didn’t fit my style since I enjoy doing almost everything on my own. But aside from him, I’m heavily inspired by a lot of different creative work. From my favorite TV show Adventure Time, to my favorite game series (Pikmin). A lot of these things made me who I am today and so I enjoy pulling inspiration from those sources!

2. What piece of advice would you give to someone who wants to do what you do?

If you’re looking to create games yourself, I highly suggest starting small with your projects. Don’t jump right into your dream game! Instead, build tiny practice games and post them on http://itch.io to get some player feedback and see how it feels to actually release a game to the public. Do that a few times to practice your skills and interact with your playerbase, and slowly move up from there.

3. Goals for 2024?

My goals for 2024 are to release some merch for Smushi Come Home, my first commercial release, and start working on my next game!

4. What is your biggest success story?

My biggest success story is definitely Smushi Come Home. It’s my first commercial release and it’s completely changed my life. I spent 2 years working on the game, which had many ups and downs. Luckily I wasn’t fully alone on the journey, as I hired a talented musician to cover the music (Failpositive) and I worked with a publisher who helped bring the game to Switch. So I’m truly grateful for all the help I had along the way. But everything in my life has changed since the release, and I never thought the game would sell this many copies or reach so many hearts.

5. Where can folks support your work?

You can support my work by purchasing Smushi Come Home on Steam or Nintendo Switch! And if you want to stay up to date with my projects or Smushi, you can join our Discord server or follow me on my socials: https://linktr.ee/SmushiComeHome

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