High Times dev log 08

An unfamiliar High Times

You see the familiar kitchen layout but what’s this? The donut looks different… even the names are different. That’s right! It’s High Times before we removed all the drug jokes. The flavour and topping names used to drug puns. We’re pretty fond of ‘Chococaine’ and ‘Matchajuana’.

We did have to change everything to avoid getting slapped with an M rating, but here’s a fun fact: we actually still use the original drug names in the code 😂 So a customer might ask for a passion donut, but internally it’s all about that ‘ContainsFlavor()==ubecstacy’.

It’s in the details

The High Times logo was also changed. The pill on the top of the donut has been changed into a star. What do you think of this change?

Of course, we didn’t have to change everything. The Hotbox, which is a slang for an air-tight room where people can smoke weed, remained as the name of our beloved mood cafe. (Fun fact: the YYM discord server’s voice chat is also called #The-Hotbox!)

And of course, there’s our main characters!

Based on drugs

A lot of people were curious about the lore behind the main characters’ names so here we go (shoutout to The Lemon Lord on Steam for getting all the correct answers!)

MJ Hayes = Marijuana

Her full name is Mary Jane Hayes, what else do we need to say? 😂 Her green hair is also meant to evoke weed.

Aside from the obvious, we also wanted their names and personalities to match. Remember when High Times was originally a closure simulator? Well, part of the story was exploring the toxic trait of each ex that led to their breakup. By the way, we’re not saying MC is completely innocent in this: the final boss is figuring out what drove MC to pretty much ghost the people they cared about and avoid making real connections with them.

In MJ’s case, she was originally set to be a girl failure who flakes out on band practice out of apathy. We’re not saying this is a common thing with people who smoke weed, of course, but since we wanted to explore toxic traits we considered the negative things associated with each drug.

Emmette Meine = methamphetamine

Emmette is methamphetamine! You can still see some of her original setting in how she likes Focus donuts: she likes to be highly focused and alert. But meth also causes a feeling of euphoria. This was changed in the final game but Emmette and MC’s relationship used to be one of co-dependence: Emmette where she needs someone to pamper and take care of, while MC needed the pampering due to problems with their home life.

In fact, an earlier outline of Emmette’s story had MC dropping her like a hot potato once their personal problems started calming down… Not a very good look for MC, is it? 🥹 Maybe changing the story was for the best.

Lucy Dee = LSD

Her name references the street name for the drug. Don’t let Lucy’s colourful design and her energy fool you: her older design had her playing some mean pranks on MC and the Hotbox in revenge for MC ghosting her when they were kids! What can we say? Lucy took her Grudge Note seriously. Back then, she was the fun childhood friend who took things too far without thinking much about it–a far cry from the final version of her, who tends to overthink 🥹

What remained unchanged is that Lucy and MC go way back: the two of them didn’t have a lot of friends back in grade school.

Harry Yen = heroin

Just like meth, heroin has euphoric effects. And there are also a few more similarities between her and Harry. That is, in their initial concept and before we finalised their stories 😅 Harry started dating MC in college, but got ghosted when MC’s home life took a turn for the worse. And similarly to Emmette, there’s a sense of co-dependency between MC and Harry, except this time there’s rivalry added to the mix. The two of them are bakers and Harry is a very competitive person.

The rivalry between Harry and MC mellowed out a lot in the final draft, but the sparks definitely stayed! 😌

Stacy Ortiz = Ecstasy

Stacy is the one-night stand, the summer fling who popped back in MC’s life bringing her own baggage and drama. She’s a bit of a party girl too; it takes a certain type of person to keep up with Stacy’s energy, exactly like the drug she was named after. Her story more or less remained intact from the initial conception aside from minor tweaks here and there! There’s really nothing like the soap opera type of influencer drama when you’re just watching from the sidelines!

What do you think, gang? Which relationship do you think is the most spicy?

💚 MJ

💙 Emmette

💛 Lucy

💜 Stacy

🤎 Harry