Water Cooler Diaries: Entry 0

Welcome to the very first entry of the Water Cooler Diaries. This series is meant to keep everyone updated on all things Suck It Up!, so I figured we should start by catching you up on the entire journey from day one all the way to where we are now.

SCAD Game Jam

Suck It Up! began as a Global Game Jam project created during a 48-hour jam. Global Game Jam is an event where developers all over the world have a small amount of time to form teams, come up with an idea, and build a complete game from scratch. The theme that year was “Bubble” so we threw every idea at the wall until we landed on speech bubbles. That spark pushed us into a story about a customer service worker dodging projectile insults. Eventually, it evolved into the version we have now, an office worker fired for being too nice who storms back in with a megaphone and plans to climb the company ladder by insulting everyone until he reaches the top.

Steam post imageSteam post image

We worked through the entire two days with very little sleep and somehow ended up with a trailer and a playable demo. To our surprise the game won Best in Show at the SCAD Game Jam showcase. View store page

The reaction spread through the school and past it. One of the prizes was a spot in the broader Georgia State level of the competition run by the Georgia Game Developers Association (GGDA).

GGDA Competition

From there we focused on what was fun about our game and what needed to go. The biggest shift came from changing the camera from a straight on perspective to the forty five degree view we use today. Readability got better, playtests were clearer, and it made the whole thing feel more alive. The systems and art teams had an easy transition, but the design team had a mountain of new problems to solve, which led to a long stretch of brainstorming and iteration.

All of that work paid off. With a new trailer and a rebuilt demo featuring the CEO boss fight, we won Best in Georgia. That win came with business consultation and a booth at Momocon which became our next big milestone.

View store page

Forming a Studio and Hitting the Road

Before Momocon we made an important decision. We formed our own studio called MettleWorks so we could legally own the game and start building a path toward a full release. With an extremely humble setup we arrived at the convention to show the GGDA build to hundreds of players. It was our first time getting large scale feedback and seeing all kinds of different play styles. While we were presenting, votes were quietly stacking up and we ended up winning Best Indie Game at Momocon.

Next came the Southern Fried Gaming Expo. It was a smaller event but way more focused on actual games. It also gave us room to meet other Atlanta developers and talk about the highs and lows of making games. Again we walked away with Best Indie Game. Steam post image

After that came DreamHack which was our biggest event yet. We put together a more polished booth and really leaned into the style and energy of the game. Showing Suck It Up! to that many people all at once was a wild experience and a huge moment for us as a team.

The Present and Future

And that brings us to what comes next. This blog is where you can expect updates on development, behind-the-scenes stories, team insights, and whatever chaos happens along the way. We’re still pushing hard on this game every single week, and we have a lot of new exciting stuff to share soon. We also will be soon exhibiting at Anime Weekend Atlanta so we hope to see you there!

Cheers, Gavin