Devlog #2 - The Beginning

Yo, rock fans!

Before we start talking about what you can expect from Vegelypse, we’d first like to take a few steps back and introduce you to our game. More specifically, we want to explain what Vegelypse actually is and what story lies behind the title.

This is where Jakub takes the floor: our 2D artist, one of the game’s developers, and - one could say - the main culprit behind this whole thing.

Jakub, the stage is yours!

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How did it all begin?

A few years ago, while I was still at university, I came up with the character of a cartoon Cactus. From the very beginning, I wanted to make some kind of game with him, but none of the ideas felt good enough to take further. Over the years, I worked on various projects, in different companies and teams, and the cactus motif kept coming back to me in new sketches.

There was no extraordinary event or situation that led to this specific idea. It was just an ordinary day at work: I was listening to different podcasts and documentaries playing somewhere in the background. At one point, an image appeared in my head - an enormous tomato with eyes and fangs, bursting open after a heavy hit and spilling in every direction, flooding the space with ketchup.

That was the spark that made my eyes open wide, like Puss in Boots from Shrek. A whole vision of possibilities connected to that theme gradually started forming in my head. And when I added the cactus character to that image, I immediately felt that this whole abstract idea worked.

Why a beat’em up?

Below you can see the very first original sketch, made right when the spark of the vegetable idea appeared. It was pretty quick and looks awful, especially the cactus character. But I sent it to Kamil with a general description of the idea... and the decision was made to develop it further. Steam post image

When I started drawing the first sketches connected to the idea, memories immediately came back of playing classic arcade beat’em ups like Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (1993) or Final Fight (1989), as well as more modern titles like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (2022) or Streets of Rage 4 (2020). To capture the dynamism of the vision and all that juicy impact, I felt this would be the best direction.

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (1993)

Final Fight (1989)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (2022)

Streets of Rage 4

The Cactus should be running through a crowd of vegetables, jumping, punching, and kicking left and right, leaving a trail of pulp behind him. No cards or turn-based decisions about which action to play-let alone a strategic top-down view with unit selection like in some RTS-could capture that energy. A beat’em up could, and it does so in spades.

Below are some frames from very early prototypes.

Steam post imageSteam post image

What titles inspired us?

Among beat’em ups, aside from the titles I mentioned earlier, there were also The Punisher (1993), Ninja Baseball Bat Man (1993), Double Dragon (1987), and Renegade (1986). We also have to mention Castle Crashers, which Kamil and I played a lot together.

The Punisher (1993)

Ninja Baseball Bat Man (1993)

Double Dragon (1987)

Renegade (1986)

Going a little beyond that category, the titles we drew inspiration from other genres include the Metal Slug series - mainly the early entries from 1996–2000. That game is still somewhere in the back of my mind, together with all those juicy animations. On top of that, we can also add Darkest Dungeon (2016), Don’t Starve - especially Together from 2016 - or the excellent Cult of the Lamb (2022). And of course, I can’t forget PvZ (2009), which I also spent countless hours playing back in school.

Outside of games, there were also plenty of works that influenced this project to a greater or lesser extent. I think many people will remember the old cartoon - and film series - Killer Tomatoes. The similarity between some of the motifs appearing in the show and what you’ll see in the game is very noticeable, but it wasn’t a direct inspiration for Vegelypse. As for films, we could go through a whole list of 1980s horror classics like Critters, Little Shop of Horrors, Killer Klowns, and The Thing. I’m sure I could keep listing them for quite a while...

Besides that, there were various anime series and old cartoons, including Dragon Ball & Z, Looney Tunes, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Freakazoid!, and many, many others.

There is definitely one more powerful inspiration that strongly shaped my taste: The Mask. Of course, the movie with Jim Carrey and the cartoons, but above all the classic comics drawn by Doug Mahnke, including Lobo/Mask. A masterpiece.

So it’s hard to point to one specific thing. It’s more like an avalanche of different motifs that continue to shape my artistic approach.

What were the original ideas for the game?

I have a wonderful edition of the book Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’Em-Ups, which I always keep close at hand. And while I haven’t played as many titles as the author, this category of games is very close to my heart.

So at first, Vegelypse was meant to be a classic beat’em up with a few closed locations and a more self-contained story. There were plenty of notes and ideas for different mechanics to support replayability, but they were only supposed to strengthen the basic formula.

And those foundations worked. However, during deeper design work, when we were outlining different story threads and-most importantly-playing the prototype and later builds, we started to realize that it might be worth shifting the scale a bit: putting more emphasis on roguelite elements, metaprogression, development, and constant change. Each new attempt to save the world could bring new challenges; enemies change and adapt, and players receive new possibilities. This also pushed us to move the story further into the already existing Vegelypse: an active cataclysm and a world in chaos.

But I’ll talk more about that another time :)

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So, as you can see, Vegelypse has come a long way-and we still have at least just as far to go. In the next episode, we’ll tell you what lies behind all the terms Jakub mentioned toward the end, and how much the concept of the game has changed from a classic beat’em up into... well, exactly what?

We will write more about that in the next devlogs. So it's worth following us, or even better – add Vegelypse to your wishlist:)

View on Steam

Take care, and see you next time!