Normally we talk about a game that you should have in your video game backlog. However, in this episode, Sebastion is highlighting an upcoming indie game that you should have in your wishlist. That game is Color Story: Pixa's Quest.

In this episode, Sebastion talks with the Creator and Sole Developer of Color Story: Pixa's Quest, Ricky Mallory! Ricky talks in Depth about his game, the inspiration behind it, what it's like to create a game as a solo Dev.

There's All this and more on this episode of the Single Player Experience!

Link to Pixa's Quest:

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What's up and welcome to the Single Player Experience.

As always, I'm your host Sebastian Malden, and today we're doing a

indie game Spotlight on one of my most anticipated upcoming games.

Color Story picks Quest.

Instead of me just talking about why I'm looking forward to the

game, I thought I would up the ante.

So my guest today is none other than the solo developer and

creator of Quest, Ricky Mallory.

In this episode, Ricky is gonna tell us all about Pixel Quest, why you

should be looking forward to the game.

The inspiration behind the game, and he's just gonna talk about some

general advice he would give to people looking to get in the game

development field as a solo creator.

We got all this and more coming right at you after the intro dj.

Start the intro, man.

This is the single Player experience, the podcast that helps single player

gamers manage their video game backlog.

I'm your host, Sebastian Malden, and my main quest is to help you manage your

ever growing video game backlog by letting you know which single player games are

worth your time and money so that you can have the best single player experience.

Now, without further ado, let's start the show.

DJ Cut the.

Like I said, at the top of the show, we have a very special guest.

Joining me today is the Creator and solo developer of Color Story Pixus Quest.

This is Ricky Mallory.

How you doing Ricky?

Hi, I'm good.

Uh, thanks for having me on.

No, thank you for being on.

So I'm glad to have you on the show.

So before we really dive deep into everything, can you introduce

yourself into the audience?

Sure.

Yeah.

So.

Uh, like you said, uh, my name's Ricky Mallory and I'm the developer

of, uh, color Story Pixels, quest.

Um, yeah,

. Sebastion: So how long have

Uh,

so this will be the first game that I'm planning to release.

Um, I've been making games for about like 20 years, um, just as a hobby.

Okay.

Uh, and yeah, so I've always used, uh, game Maker Studio to make my games.

And when I originally started using it, um, you know, way back

20 years ago, you could literally only export to Unex Executable.

So like actually releasing games made through game Maker wasn't very viable.

Mm-hmm.

, um, , but nowaday, like now it's, you know, you can release games on

steam, on, on consoles, on everything.

So that's kind of why, like at this point now that I'm, uh,

trying to actually release games rather than just do it as a hobby.

Yeah, I understand that completely.

Is there any chance we might see some of your older works as well?

Um, probably not just because.

Those computers that I made those games on, uh, The software's

not even supported anymore.

Oh, gotcha.

Like, yeah, it's like they're so, it's so outdated that I can't even load them.

Oh, that's a shame.

That's a shame.

So Ricky, we have a segment that we'd like to call putting you on the spot.

So for all first time guests, we ask a top five question

based on your area of expertise.

So Ricky, what are your top five games of all?

Yeah, so

this was, this was a tough one.

. . Tough, tough to pick.

A tough five.

But I think, uh, number one, I'm gonna go, Celeste.

Oh, okay.

Good choice.

Uh, just overall amazing game.

Amazing platforming, great storytelling, amazing music.

Um, The next four?

I don't, these aren't really in any particular order.

Okay.

Um, I'm gonna say shovel Knight, the king of cards.

Oh,

really?

Good choice.

Uh, let's see.

Yoshi's Island.

Okay.

Okay.

I, I feel like as a platform developer, I have to pick Mario Game.

not a bad one to pick either.

Uh, yeah.

I think Yoshi's Island just does so much unique.

Stuff like throughout the whole game that mm-hmm.

. It's, it's just a really good one.

Um, symphony of the Night.

Oh, okay.

Just, uh, great classic, great music, great graphics, uh, great panel.

That

soundtrack will never get

old.

Oh, that's one of the, that's one of the best soundtracks, , um, and great

kind of open, uh, Open world type of metro venue, you know, it really is.

And then I think really is the last one I wish, I feel kind of bad to pick

because I never actually finished it.

Uh, breath of the wild.

Whoa.

You

didn't finish

it?

No, I never finished it.

I, I, you know, I got so enthralled in exploring and running around

and finding the shrines and, and just exploring the world.

and I never, uh, , I never finished all of the, the, uh,

the thing, what are they called?

The, um, the Beasts?

Yeah, the Divine Beast.

Yeah, the,

I know

Yeah.

So I feel kind of bad about picking that one, even though like I was so

totally enthralled by the exploration.

So I, I probably get that answer more times.

More times than not, when I ask someone their top five video games,

breath of the Wild normally comes up.

Do you think that is like, Quote unquote, like, now, can the consensus,

like one of the best games ever made?

I mean, you know, I haven't played very many other open world games.

Like I haven't mm-hmm.

, I didn't play the new, uh, uh, what's the new, um, souls Game?

Uh Oh, elder Ring.

Yeah.

I haven't played that and I haven't played, you know, the Witcher

ones, so I can't really compare.

It to the other ones.

But definitely I think the, the um, the feeling of exploration

that it gives you is just so

cool.

It is next level, it really is.

So

like, I think my favorite Zelda game before that was

the original, the n e s one.

Mm-hmm.

. And I think that's because, you know, when I played it as a kid, The minimal

graphics, you know, you kind of just, your imagination really takes over

and it was totally open world, you know, you could kind of go anywhere.

Um, and I always liked that about that game, but I think Breath of the Wild

actually managed to take, you know, what was in so many people's imaginations

and actually put it on the screen.

I think, I think, you know, that's kind of what sets that game apart.

It really is.

It really is a dope game.

So, Let's dive into it.

Let's talk about the topic of the show.

Let's talk about your game, color story, pixel quest.

Would you describe your game for the audience?

Sure.

So, um, pixel Quest is, uh, it's a fast paced, uh, level based platformer.

Um, it's about a girl named Pxa who discovers that she has magic

powers and she goes on a quest to defeat, uh, this guy, the evil Earl.

and throughout the game you collect various, um,

platforming and combat abilities.

Uh, it kind of, uh, kind of like how in Megaman X how you, you know, find

the various abilities throughout the levels, like the dash and all that.

And, um, I guess kind of the key, uh, kind of gameplay loop or core mechanic

of pixels quest is that you have these color based, uh, magic abilities.

um, that drain your mp and you regain the MP by attacking enemies.

So it's kinda that loop of, uh, you know, using these abilities to kill

the enemies and then getting your MP back so that you can do more, um,

platforming and, and all that stuff.

Um, and yeah, and, and so yeah, it's a, it's a little based platformer.

A lot of, uh, collectibles and upgrades and special abilities that you'll be

able to unlock throughout the game.

I gotta commend you for one thing before we really dive into

some of the nuances of the game.

This is, it looks absolutely gorgeous.

I love the art style.

I love the colors, the, the way you, you like.

Use colors to really emphasize like, mechanics in the game is impressive,

but like the way you make those really pop is like next level.

I really gotta commend you.

Oh, thank you.

Yeah, I mean, um, yeah, I'm kind of, um, I, I would say

artist first before programmer.

Mm-hmm.

. Um, like, um, yeah, I went to art school.

Um, I work as a graphic designer.

Um, I don't really have a programming background, um, besides just teaching

myself to use game Maker Studio through trial and error over many.

Um, but, so yeah, definitely having a game, uh, based around color.

I definitely wanted the graphics to, uh, you know, Reflect that, that

element, I think you did a hell of a job cuz it looks magnificent.

It really does.

And the, like I said earlier, the colors pop.

You have this innate ability, it seems to like, really emphasize different colors

and make them stand out and regardless of whatever surfaces in the background.

Thanks.

Yeah.

I think, uh, one thing that I kind of always liked in retro games,

like, especially n e s games mm-hmm.

uh, like mega.

is a good example is I think, you know, they had such a minimal color palette that

they were very smart about color schemes.

Like one thing Megaman would do a lot is, uh, kind of use

complimentary colors to distinguish the background from the foreground.

Yeah.

And I always felt like in newer games, especially when, you know,

they had more color, You know, uh, games kind of tended towards more,

you know, realistic use of color.

Mm-hmm.

and kind of, uh, went away from that kind of like color blocking technique.

I ki I, so I kind of wanted to try to.

utilize some of those kind of old school techniques, but obviously

with, uh, you know, high risk graphics

and I think you did a good job.

This really, it really does look amazing.

So let's dive into the inspiration of the game.

What is the inspiration behind this?

Um, so yeah, there's a, I mean, there's a lot of games that

kind of influenced the mechanics.

Um, I was actually.

Uh, I started working on the game in, uh, 2020 during lockdown, and it was,

it was right after I played Celeste.

Um, and I just, Celeste was just such an amazing game to me that

I was just like, you know what?

I gotta make a game right now.

, um, even though, so Celeste

really did inspire you to just like, make a video game.

That's really cool.

Yeah,

even though like the mechanics of my game are not super similar to Celeste.

But yeah, that was definitely like like, oh man, video games are so amazing.

I have to make one.

Um, so, uh, like I mentioned earlier, like I've been doing video

games as a hobby for like 20 years.

Mm-hmm.

. And so the character of Pixar and the idea of color quest, or color, that it used to

be called Color Quest now is color story.

Um, that was actually the first game that I, that I had finished,

and this was like 15 years ago.

Um, and.

Back then that was a, uh, basically a very janky Mario clone.

Yeah.

And I always liked the character and the idea of the game, and I always wanted

to make a less janky version of it.

Uh, so that's kind of why I decided to start making this game was, you know

what, I, I want to take this character and do something more interesting

with it and, uh, program it better.

Um, so I kind of, when I started working on the mechanic, , I really

wanted to differentiate it from Mario.

Um, especially because, you know, Mario Maker exists now mm-hmm.

, so it's, you know, ma you know, making a, a Mario clone game is kind of like,

why, you know, why would you do that?

Just make it a Mario maker.

Um, that, that makes sense.

, Ricky: I get, that's why like certain

than just jumping on an enemy to defeat them, like I added like a

kick attack, which is, you know, I.

took from ca, they always have that kick attack.

Um, but yeah, definitely like shovel night is also a huge inspiration.

Like, um, have you played shovel night?

Oh yeah, for

sure.

I love, love the game.

I love the aesthetic and shovel night.

That's one things that really stood out to me about that game.

Oh yeah, the whole aesthetic, the music and everything.

Mm-hmm.

. . But yeah, like, you know how they have like the town areas where you can

like buy upgrades and stuff like that.

That's definitely something that is also gonna exist in a color story.

I always like that aspect of kinda like, uh, like a little hub that kind

of makes the world feel more connected.

Yeah.

Makes it feel lived in.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Um, yeah, I mentioned Mega Man X earlier.

That's another inspiration, uh, just for kind of the way the game is structured.

Mm-hmm.

. Like how in Mega X, you can find the little, uh, uh, Dr.

White pods throughout the level and they'll give you like the various

upgrades to your, uh, to your suit.

That's kind of the way that the abilities will be, um, unlocked

in, in color story as well.

Oh, that's really

cool.

That's really cool.

So one thing that really stood out to me about this game is the games

mechanics like this feels very tight.

It's a platformer and it's important that with a platformer, that the jumping

feels precise and that it feels right.

And this is one of the things that stood out to me.

How long did it take you to perfect that, that motion, that control there?

Oh yeah.

I definitely spent like, um, I think like the first couple months

that I was coding the game was.

Just working on the, the, you know, main mechanics.

Um, I remember years ago I watched an interview on YouTube.

I, I can't remember who it was.

I think it was the guy that, um, one of the guys that made Celeste.

Oh, okay.

I might be wrong.

It might be shovel night, but it was, anyways, they were talking

about, you know, when they started making the game, how important, um,

the feel of the movement was and.

Their goal when they first started programming the game was

to make sure it felt fun to move around in like an empty room.

Um, that makes sense.

The idea of like, well, if it's fun to move around in an empty room, it's gonna

be even funner to move around in a level.

Uh, so I always had that in the back of my mind, um, when I was coding the

movement on, on, on a color story.

Oh, okay.

That's really cool.

Yeah.

To really just get it to feel good.

Um, and I think you accomplished that.

And the controls, like I said, feel very tight, and especially when you

are playing and you're, you're jumping off of like a spider, that feels good.

Good, good.

Yeah, I'm glad.

Um, yeah, I spent a lot a lot of time like Yeah.

And like little feedbacks too, like if you kick off of a, an enemy, like

there's a little squish, uh, you know, little to the enemy , you know,

little, um, kind of feedback like that.

Uh, the game feel overall.

Um, yeah, I also made some tweaks, like after I initially released the

demo, there was like some feedback, um, you know, that all, you know, I made

some little tweaks, like, um, just, just little things like, uh, You know,

just to the way the movement feels.

Um,

oh, that's really cool.

So you, you mentioned that, you know, you got some feedback.

Do you, is it nervous putting something out there and then

starting to get responses about it?

Yeah, it definitely was.

Um, yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely you do get a little nervous,

um, when you first put something out.

But, you know, overall it's, it's, it's good.

And, you know, some suggestions.

You know, I, I feel like as a creator you have to, you know, be able to know

what feedback to take and what to ignore.

Um, but yeah, overall it's, it's, it's been, it's been, uh, really

good getting that feedback.

So let me ask you another question.

Um, like, did she always have pink hair?

Was that the original, like, was that her original volume one version?

Yeah, it

was.

So the original 20 years ago, version of the game.

The idea was that, and it was very low res graphics.

Mm-hmm.

, it was originally, you know, 16 by 16 pixel Sprite.

Uh, and the whole game was just black and white.

And every time you beat, uh, like after you beat the first world, then some

stuff would turn red in the background.

And then after you beat that, the next world, some orange would pop up.

So as you know, you went through the game, more colors would pop up.

Oh, that sounds really, It sounds really cool until you, you're, until you do

it in practice and you realize that the whole, for almost the entirety of

the game, the game's in black and white

Yeah.

So that's why Yeah, that's kinda why I dished that idea.

But anyways, PXA is, uh, pink and cyan because those colors contrast with all

of the other colors of the rainbow.

So it made her Sprite stand out.

Okay.

So yeah, that's, that's the main reason why she's those.

No, no, I'm feeling it.

I like that.

I like that she feels different.

She doesn't feel like every other, you know, character and that she

really stands out because of that.

I don't remember very mean pink char characters.

I can only name like maybe a couple off the top of my head and that

really have to struggle to name those.

So I feel like that was a really cool move and really like makes her stand.

Thanks.

Yeah, I'm glad it worked.

. . So what would you say are some challenges to making a game in 2022?

Um, I think, I'd say the biggest challenge is especially, well, at least

as an indie, indie developer is mm-hmm.

like, um, marketing yourself.

I, I mean, I think in some ways, like right now is like a, probably maybe an e

like one of the easiest times to make a.

just because like, so many tools are available and obviously like with

social media, um, you know, it's kind of easy to promote yourself

because you can just, you know, make a social media account and start saying

like, Hey, look, here's, here I am.

But I think, I guess the challenge with it is like everybody else is also doing that.

So there's a lot of competition.

Um, yeah.

It is a very saturated market now.

Huh.

So I, I'd I'd say that's kind of the, the big challenge is the saturation.

Um, trying to make yourself feel, you know, unique and stand out.

Like, um, I mean, I guess at least it's a good, I think it's

a good time for, uh, 2D games.

I think there's been some resurgence of, um, you know, interest in, in

retro style games that, you know, other games like Shovel Knight kind of paved.

Path for.

Oh, for sure, for sure.

I think you were right there on the money.

I think like that genre, the 2D genre is just now taking off again.

And you can argue that some of the bigger games right now

are at least Game of the Year.

Contenders.

Are those GA games right now?

Oh yeah.

Like I was so happy and surprised to see Metro Dread come.

um, was that this year?

I think that was

this year.

It was late last year, I believe.

Right.

But still, I get your point.

It was like a, it's a modern game.

Yeah.

And I mean, Yeah.

Kind of, kind of going back earlier after I played Metro Dread, I even retooled

my, my game mechanics a little bit.

That's

good feedback though.

You saw something that you were like, okay, I can utilize that

and, and kind of pixel that and make that my own a little bit.

Do you feel like you feel the inspiration from a lot of games lately?

Um, lately I, you know, I haven't had too much time

to play a lot of games lately.

Um, What am I playing right now?

Right now I'm, I'm playing, I don't know if you've heard of r uh, Ravita.

It's like a, I haven't heard of that one.

Give me the surface level description of that one.

Yeah, it's

like a rogue light.

Uh, it's kind of like finding of Isaac except, uh, sides scroller instead of

top down.

Oh, that sounds fun.

That sounds fun.

And I can, I can use some of that in my life right now.

I think I've probably put in close to 30 hours in a rogue legacy too.

I've been playing that like it's my job lately.

Yeah, and it's, it's definitely tough to to have like such a, a, a.

, you know, time sync like that and then it's like, oh no,

I gotta get back to working

Yeah, actually working.

Yeah, I understand completely how that feels.

So when you're, when you like first started creating color story, did

you really think like this was gonna be the art style you were gonna use?

Did that, was that always the vision?

Or did that sort of like, okay, I will kind of start with the

project and then kind of see how it

goes.

Yeah, I pretty much had a clear vision of how I wanted it to look.

It doesn't look exactly how I imagined it originally, just because like, um,

you know, you imagine it in your head and then you go to draw it and you're

like, oh yeah, that's, that's not what my art style actually looks like.

Um, but yeah, I kind of wanted to, uh, kind of get like the look of

like old 2D, Disney movies, you know?

Mm-hmm.

where, where like the backgrounds were obviously paint.

and, you know, in a more fully rendered, but then the, since the

characters are animated, they're just, you know, flat cells.

Um, that's kind of the look I wanted to go for.

Uh, it's not exactly what, uh, Pixus Quest looks like, but it's

pretty close to what I envisioned.

That's really cool.

So let me bounce that question off of, um, into another one.

So I was looking at some of the design for pixel quests, and based on what

you just said, you know, about, like, it kind of looks like that old school

Disney kind of, uh, like that Bambi meets like, like Steamboat Mickey vibe

where you can kind of see everything drawn behind you, but the everything

in front of you is like that 3D style.

Mm-hmm.

. You drew all of this, uh, like right before you put it into motion?

Um, did, did you draw all the, like the enemies and everything?

So the process of doing the graphics mm-hmm.

and I've tried, I've tried to, I'm trying to kind of, um, streamline

the, the process a little bit cuz it, it does take a really long time.

Yeah.

Um.

What I've been doing is, like with the, with an enemy, for example, I,

you know, first I sketch it mm-hmm.

, I sketch out the frames.

It's all, it's all the frames are, all the animations are,

uh, hand drawn, frame by frame.

That's really cool.

And then I trace them and illustrator and, you know, do them as spectro

graphics, which takes forever.

I've tried, I'm trying to kind of shift the process to where I

am, uh, just putting the sketches into the game and programming

the enemies using the sketches.

Mm-hmm.

so that, because you know, there's been some cases where like, I'll

design an enemy and I'll, I'll do all the graphics and then once I put it

into the game and code it, and then it's like, oh, I didn't even need

this certain animation or something, you know, and I then I check it.

Oh, okay.

So yeah, I'm trying to , I'm trying to streamline that process a little bit.

That's good.

That's good.

Being a little more efficient, huh?

Yeah, because yeah, it def the graphics are Yeah.

The thing that takes the most time For sure.

It's very, it, since it's just me working on it, it's, it, it's

very time consuming, especially, uh, the backgrounds and the tiles.

Yeah.

But

it looks phenomenal.

You can really tell, you put a lot of loving care into it.

So I, it really.

. Ricky: Thank you.

Oh, you're welcome.

Um, so what words of inspiration would you like give to another solo dev out there?

I

think the main thing to know as a solo dev, if you, is to just

keep at it, you know, and try not to get too distracted because there's

definitely a tendency, I think, to.

You know, like, oh, I've been working on this game for a

year, but now I have a new idea.

You know?

Mm-hmm.

. Sebastion: Yeah, I think that's,

Yeah.

I think the most important thing is to just keep going, keep keep, try to just

keep at the main idea and don't, don't add too many ex extra things, cuz Yeah.

It's hard.

It's, it's definitely hard to, as you're working on it, you're like, Ooh.

Now I just, I just, I just got like 10 new ideas.

That'll make it so much more complicated.

I understand that completely.

I understand that completely.

So Ricky, it was great talking to you about color Story, pixel quest.

I really, I want everyone to check this game out.

Before we go though, what can the people find you and, and give

them a pitch, the last pitch about

the game.

Sure.

So you can find me on Twitter and Instagram, uh, and

my name is R one K Games.

. Mm-hmm.

. Um, I'm a lot more, um, active on Twitter than Instagram, but you can find me on

either of those places and the demo's on Steam, uh, you can just search for

color, story, pixels, quest, and yeah, try out the demo and, um, you know, I love

getting feedback, so if anyone does try the demo, I would love to hear what you,

you think, and don't hesitate to, um, to reach out or message me on, on whatever.

Okay.

Thank you so much for being on the show today, Ricky.

We really enjoyed having you and I wanna have you back on the, on the show really

soon for you to give like updates on this.

This is a really special project and I think my audience would really love to

hear about it.

Sure, yeah, I would, I would love to do that.

And um, yeah, thanks again for having me on.

No,

thank you for being on.

Thank you again, Ricky, and I'm gonna talk to you in the next one.

All right, sounds cool.

All right, I'll talk to you later, Ricky.

So that's a wrap for today's show.

I wanna give a special shout out to Ricky Mallory for being on the show today.

I also wanna remind you that if you have any questions that you'd

like to be featured on the show, you can write those in at the pro

no report.com/the contact page.

You can also write in to our single player experience Discord server.

The single player experience.

Discord Server is also a great place to meet other single player gamers and

to talk about good single player game experiences that you've had lately.

The link to join the free single player experience Discord

Server is in the show notes.

I want to thank you so much for listening to today's episode.

I hope you stay safe, stay gaming, and I hope to catch you in the next one.