Heather Flowers had a busy 2018. Early within the 12 months she teamed up with Ryan Rose Aceae to launch the good Genderwrecked after which afterward she launched her episodic tour de pressure Extreme Meatpunks Forever. This to say nothing of the smaller tasks she additionally discovered the time to make and launch final 12 months. We’ve talked about Heather’s work earlier than on the weblog, however we’ve by no means talked to the dev herself. That is, till now. Heather was variety sufficient to reply a few of our questions on Extreme Meatpunks Forever now that the finale has been out for just a few months. Read on for Heather’s ideas on working episodically, expertise made out of meat, and what’s subsequent for the Meatpunk universe.

Let’s begin with the fundamentals: Who are you and what’s Extreme Meatpunks Forever?

My title is Heather Flowers. I’m an impartial recreation developer from Oklahoma. One time an outdated man taught me struggle wild canines in an alleyway. Extreme Meatpunks Forever is a visible novel/mech brawler about homosexual disasters beating up neonazis in large robots fabricated from meat. It’s set on this alternate universe model of the American Southwest referred to as the Hellzone, the place most expertise is made out of meat. I’ve seen some folks name the world of Meatpunks a dystopia, or post-apocalyptic, and I do not really feel that is fairly correct. If that is the way you want to learn it, then it is a legitimate studying, however the goal of that world is to be simply as unhealthy as our world, however in way more apparent methods.

You initially launched Extreme Meatpunks Forever with two episodes and have subsequently added 4 extra. What’s it been like working in an episodic mannequin?

Episodic fashions are tough to get proper, particularly as an impartial developer. I’m glad I made a decision to go for it, because it supplied a large amount of neighborhood engagement over the course of the sport. Additionally, the episodic mannequin offers a built-in construction: you instantly know roughly how a lot content material you want to put in a given episode to make it work. Each customary episode takes roughly a month to make (the finale took two and a half months simply due to all the brand new characters and mechanics it provides in), so it is undoubtedly loads of work, however I personally really feel prefer it’s a rewarding mannequin for a recreation like this, the place neighborhood engagement is extraordinarily necessary.

What made you need to inform this story episodically?

It was, admittedly, at first an experiment. There are only a few indie episodic video games, and most of them put out an episode each few months moderately than each couple weeks. Once I obtained going, although, I discovered it to be an incredible construction for telling an extended story. After making the choice to make the sport episodic, I wrote up a doc detailing your complete six-episode plot arc of Season 1 inside a pair days, and was in a position to persist with that actual design doc’s manifest for your complete size of the sport. Splitting the sport into episodes allowed me to focus intently on one episode, then the following, and many others. So one large tasks grew to become, in a way, six a lot smaller ones, which is a distinction my mind likes very a lot.

In addition to creating the Meatpunks recreation, you wrote a Meatpunk Manifesto. How does your worldview inform the manifesto, and the way did that translate into the sport?

My worldview is actually this: the world is in a really unhealthy place proper now (what with world warming, imperialism, the ever-strangling vampiric hand of capitalism) and lots of days it is a wrestle to even survive. It’s very simple to really feel hopeless, and that is an comprehensible feeling, however we are able to by no means cease preventing for what is correct. It does not matter whether or not we “win” ultimately, as that is out of our particular person arms. What’s necessary is that, it doesn’t matter what, we by no means cease preventing to do good. The motive I made the Meatpunk Manifesto is as a result of I’d grow to be annoyed with style actions comparable to cyberpunk wherein defeatism performs a large half: saying that the world is horrible due to these large companies, and that we are able to survive, however making an attempt to struggle is pointless as a result of we’re like bugs beneath their toes. They neglect how terrifying a swarm of bugs might be in the event that they’re unified in direction of a singular objective. The manifesto was a mission assertion for the sport: what I used to be going to check out, the aesthetics I deliberate on incorporating, what I felt was moral observe for recreation growth.

You’ve teased on Twitter that there’s extra Meatpunk motion coming in some unspecified time in the future. Do you could have any thought what that’s going to appear like?

Absolutely! I can not spoil EVERYTHING down the road, however I’ll say this. EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER: Season 2: Bound By Ash is at present in pre-production, with a deliberate Kickstarter launch early this summer time. It follows our heroes from Season 1 as they journey by means of the bloody mountains of Rozarx, assembly outdated associates and new enemies on their quest to steal the solar. Additionally, I’m engaged on a Meatpunks tabletop role-playing recreation, a Meatpunks comedian (set within the ghost-ridden panorama of Tornado Valley), and some different bits and items I feel folks down the road are going to get pleasure from. I actually love this universe, and I need to spend as a lot time creating in it as doable, plumbing its depths.

Finally, do you could have a favourite character?

Oof, a troublesome one to wrap all of it up!! Out of all characters, I actually like Emily, the eldritch horror teen gasoline station employee. She has loads of persona within the quick period of time she’s onscreen, and when her scene ended I *actually* wished to simply hold her as a part of the principle forged, however I’ve different plans for her. Out of the principle forged, I’ve to go along with Sam. He’s so regular and so bizarre on the identical time! I like writing him.

Extreme Meatpunks Forever is offered now.