If you keep up to date with all things on our lovely space on the internet, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of platform games like upcoming title, Teeto. Whether it’s Bubsy coming back in 4D thanks to the team behind Demon Tides (another 3D platformer), or the bigger budget Nintendo-developer titles like Super Mario Bros. Wonder, I’m always up for trying a game within that genre.
Teeto looks to be one of the kind that I love, being a collectathon 3D adventure platformer, and I got to pose some questions to Mitch and Ali, the developer also known as “Eat Pant Games”. I asked them about the ideas behind the game, why there are so many “Michaels”, the transformations, working with Super Rare Games, difficulty, and a whole lot more. So let’s get into it, then.
Teeto is an adorable protagonist. What made you decide on a cute blobby main character?
Ali had the idea of making a character super blobby and gelatinous. Mostly because it would be funny. Kinda inspired by Flubber a bit. It also lent well to the absorb mechanic as we could keep Teeto relatively plain looking as a blank canvas for different forms and costumes.
The world of Teeto is introduced in a surprisingly dark manner. What made you choose this sort of semi-apocalyptic setting?
One of the largest bits of feedback we got early on was that it felt a bit too much like a game just for kids – that it was too cute and stuff. We always wanted it to be more along the lines of the classic Nintendo platformers, where it could be enjoyed by both kids and adults. We decided to try and fit in some slightly darker, edgier stuff (while still being totally family friendly) to give it a bit more depth. I think it’s way more interesting this way.
The different transformations are a lot of fun, even in the demo. What are some of your favourites?
I think my favourite ones are the ones that don’t seem to add a lot of value other than humour. The couch, the trashbag, cardboard are all so great but kinda don’t really help you at all.
There’s quite a variety of difficulty in 3D platformers, how did you tackle this with Teeto?
This was a struggle and something that we’re still working on. It is something that we’ll finesse right up until the game is done. We want the game to be easy to get into and to enjoy for anyone, so it does have that casual player appeal. I want players to be able to get to the end of the game and it not be incredibly challenging to do so. We have to be wary of making it too easy though because we don’t want the game to be boring. We basically landed on making it accessible enough to get to the end, but the challenge comes with completing all the objectives and 100%ing the game.
Now for the most important question I have, why are the collectibles called Michaels?
They weren’t always called Michaels, and they weren’t always little blue baby blobs either. Over time, we sorta iterated on these collectables and really wanted to give the player enough reason to WANT to collect them all – so we landed on something that had a lot of variety to it. That’s how we got to little baby blobs, each with a different look or feature. The name Michael came from us trying to decide on a name that was so common or generic that it was funny and seemed ridiculous to name a collectible. We think Michael works great for that.
These aren’t the only collectibles though of course. What will these various bits and bobs be used for in the main game?
Michaels are the side collectables, one of those things where you need to find and rescue each one to be able to 100% the game. The Vionites are the main collectable that also act as the progression gate for the game – meaning you must be collecting a good chunk of these to get to unlock the subsequent levels and acts. Then we have the classic stars which act as both general wayfinding in levels and in game currency where you can trade them in at the shop for costumes and such for your player.
There’s local co-op in Teeto, which I didn’t expect. How is this implemented, and why did you decide to add it?
Having split screen co-op was super important for us, mostly as gamers ourselves. Since the majority of games we play, we play together, it felt necessary for us to figure out how the whole co-op thing works and get it into the game. After all, the game is kinda perfectly made for us. It’s been a struggle sometimes to work with but overall seems totally worth it.
You recently won the Excellence in Audio award at The Pavs. What did this mean to the team at large?
It was awesome! We were nominated for a whole bunch of awards at the Pavs and ultimately it’s just so validating for us as first time devs. It’s so rewarding to be among so many great games, and even better to win something!
Teeto feels like a wonderful throwback. What games gave you inspiration for it?
We’ve taken huge inspiration by a lot of the games we grew up with and a couple newer platformers that we’ve fallen in love with. You’ve got Banjo Kazooie, Super Mario 64 (or any of the 3D super marios really..), Spyro, Kirby, Crash Bandicoot, A Hat In Time – the list goes on and on!
Super Rare Games have been publishing a lot of delightful platformers in recent years. What has your experience been working with them?
Super Rare has been fantastic and such a tremendous help. It’s our first game so naturally there’s a bit that we’re simply naive to. They definitely help bridge the gap and have given us all the tools we need to just get on with it and make the game.
When you aren’t busy making an exciting new game for us all, what games are you currently playing yourself?
We honestly haven’t had a lot of time to play games, at least recently. We loved playing Split Fiction when that dropped last year – but other than that it’s mostly been some quick play throughs of demos/games our dev friends have dropped or helping our kid beat the stuff that’s too hard in Kirby on the Switch. We do have a big list of games we want to jump into once we finish Teeto though!
Thanks to Mitch and Ali for taking the time to answer our questions.
Teeto is coming to consoles and PC via Steam on July 15th.
