Yesterday I finished the 2.0 (sequel) version of the Electric Love Potato!
Electric Love Potato (Two Point OH!)
You can get it on one of these two great places:
* Electric Love Potato (Two Point OH!) on GameJolt.
* Or Electric Love Potato (Two Point OH!) on itch.io (at the moment there’s an error with my itch.io page so maybe try gamejolt instead)
I am really excited about being able to announce that, since I’ve been wanting to make this since… like ever.
Somehow it never really “clicked”, but a week ago I got these great stupid ideas, and I also got a barrage of potatoes coming into my life (long story, don’t ask, I have no idea how to explain), so I finally made it!
This little Electric Love Potato endeavor has actually been interesting… I mean, observing people, what they expect, and how they react to it has been interesting…
I made the original one because the idea was so dumb… I mean that in a good way. I love “stupid”.
Also, because desktops are super lonely places. It’s almost depressing how monotonous they are. Everything here is functional, and the only interesting things that happen is if something malfunctions. It’s like a little cry of a personality.
So I occasionally make desktop pets, weirdly themed software, and “assistants”, because it cheers up this space. (you can check most of it out on my itch.io page or github )
They’re fun to have open when you’re not doing anything… or need a little company while you’re working.
This is all kind of a little throwback to software like Microsoft Bob.
You should look into that!! To me this sort of thing was profound, and maybe even ahead of it’s time. A bit like Winamp skins. Software themed to look like a “home”, not look like software (personality), or physical space. There are other examples, but this is most prominent one on my mind right now.
Also worth noting is the Banana Jr. Series Computer Look at it too! You’ll recognize some UI elements that I hope someone out there will notice in my stuff and be like “omg I remember that!”
While I’m here giving links THIS is one of the best places on the web!
Lol, this is such a weird nostalgia to cater to because literally nobody ever notices. Makes this work all the more alien and strange to people.
Imagine old video game nostalgia, and you make stuff like that, but nobody knows it or recognizes the elements. The resulting impression is always super weird. This is totally worth pointing out!
Well, it’s food for thought…
So the Electric Love Potatoes are a surprisingly functional parody of desktop assistants.
I’m also surprised that it ended up in circles where people feel the need to point out that it’s “a useless assistant”.
It’s so funny because I mean…. It’s a potato. What do you expect?
When I set out to make this “sequel” I originally wanted to use a rock. To lower expectations a lot more, but the rock part didn’t really “click”. Will save that idea tho…
Although, your potato can turn into a rock if you allow it to be attacked.
Ok, so talking bout this ELP 2.0… It is a lot more complex of a potato!
There are little things you can “do”, and it will generate a reaction, but also the app will output some cute artwork. ASCII, drawings, and poetry. It’s really cute. The outputted content is not infinite, or procedurally generated, but I think it’s cute.
I admit I also didn’t want to spend a lot of time on making art that’s procedurally generated. I have other things to get back to. :s
Occasionally the potato panics and you get an alert saying something like “Your potato is being chased by fruit!”. You have to fix this else the potato turns into a rock.
That’s a summary. It’s really cute.
Also, I lost my voice recording an hour of compliments!
Yeah… There’s a lot of good voice acting happening. I feel like that’s the charm of this app. I tried “friend” apps where it was just cute squeaks and chirps (to reduce voice acting), but the end result is never as good as when you just have tons of stuff you recorded. It’s a lot more personable.
~ IN OTHER NEWS ~
Good news! EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK (that game-thing I’ve been working on since… a long time now) has been nominated as a finalist for the AMAZE festival in Berlin. It’s super amazing!
I put so much work into this, it’s incredible to see people like it (more like relieving). It’s a hard project for me because the topic (lots of it) is so personal.
Part of me was afraid that people might think that I’m a sadist, or something… the humor is dark… I don’t know. Now that I confess this out loud it sounds silly, but you have to admit that when you make games that have personal experiences in them it’s kind of intimidating. I didn’t think it would be this much, but it is. So if you are an artist, reading this, thinking of doing that, get ready to wrestle with your emotions… Hmm… Wrestle with your emotions… That sounds like a great game jam idea! xD
