WGTC: Sundae Month is described as a “student game development collective.” Can you go into how the team met, and how the 5 person studio formed?
RH: There is a generally a bit of confusion about Sundae Month, but it is a collective, not a studio, and the Dad Quest team is not the only team in the group. We also have the Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor and Boatventure teams along with Matt Rohr’s Ten Hours of Natural Sleep.
The formation of Sundae Month itself though is a very nuanced and LONG story, but the gist of it is that I started a dumb little student company when I was a freshman at Champlain College tentatively titled ACPC Productions. That company is where about half of Sundae Month’s talent comes from (James Shasha, Brook Chipman, Meghan Willis, Jack Yeates and myself), but it never really took off.
Fortunately for us there was this event called the Green Mountain Games Festival here at Champlain College that brings indie developers from the area around to show off their stuff. James, Matt and I ran the event before Sundae Month existed, and we brought in Rami Ismail and Zoë Quinn as hosted speakers (meaning we had to all hang out) and from there it just snowballed due to how much we enjoyed hanging out.
It was pretty funny because before the event, Matt and I didn’t really like each other and for the first half of the event were just sarcastically nice to each other for Zoë and Rami. Eventually our disdain for each other became real respect and friendship and soon after we merged our groups (ACPCP and Matt/Eric) and made Sundae Month.
The Dad Quest team is very interesting as it was originally only Eric and I with Eric as the programmer and me as the designer/artist. At some point though, something changed and I think that Matt got interested in the concept as well. We added them to the team and the added design and production influence rapidly snowballed the size of the game quite a bit so it was no longer feasible for me to make the art. With that development, we went and interviewed some artists from our school and ended up choosing Christie McCown, someone we had never worked with before, but have been very happy with. The illustrious Jack Yeates was then added on for sound and now we have this wonderful five person team that is working on Dad Quest.
WGTC: One of the more unique systems of the game is the Heirloom mechanic. How will different Heirlooms affect gameplay?
RH: One of the issues we’ve had with Heirlooms actually, is that we’ve designed them so that they can literally do anything. There are not any limits to what kind of changes an Heirloom can implement, but typical ones include altering the abilities of the Dad.
For example, in our Kickstarter we talk very briefly about Melee Dad in one of our images. Melee Dad is a Dad that is the result of equipping four specific heirlooms that give the Dad some rudimentary combat abilities and allow them to function as a weapon independently of their child. Other than this, Heirlooms can also alter enemies, gameplay, progression, what Child you get next, where you can go, etc. This system in general is a big part of what makes Dad Quest unique as a “rogue-lite” game.
WGTC: Members of Sundae Month have released several smaller games in the past, what are some that gamers should check out to get a feel for the collective’s style?
RH: I think that one of the most important parts of Sundae Month is that we don’t necessarily have a style or a niche audience that we are targeting. We are a diverse and artistic collective of friends that make random games for random target markets. Of our current games though, I would recommend Petrichor for the pensive, ShapeDown for the twitchy, Saboatage for the stealth-inclined and Height for the fighting game fans. All of these games can be found at our website.
WGTC: There are a lot of famous dads in gaming (including a certain totally normal Octopus Dad), have you thought about any possible crossovers with other indies?
RH: We have definitely not yet considered any crossovers, but we did email Bud Harris, the author of The Father Quest, telling him about Dad Quest. Bud’s heartfelt response really got to us and has inspired us to work harder than ever on Dad Quest.
WGTC: Give us your pitch! Why should gamers back Dad Quest on Kickstarter?
RH: There are plenty of crude comedy Dad games out there, but we strive to provide a more rich, heartfelt Dad experience; we want to explore the sacred bond between Dad and Child in a way that’s never been done before. Real life Dads don’t get enough credit, and while we do make jokes, they are never at the Dad’s expense. Instead, they are Dad Jokes, ones that will be enjoyed by Children and Dads alike as they romp through the exciting and beautiful world of Dad Quest.
That concludes our interview, but we’d like to give a big thank you to Ryan Huggins for taking the time to speak with us. Ryan can be found on Twitter at @TheRyanHuggins. Music from Dad Quest can be found on Jack Yeates’ Soundcloud and website. Additional information on Dad Quest can be found on the game’s Kickstarter.
