Fuzzy Ghost’s gay Australian adventure Pebble Witch
The Queer Games Bundle is a collection of nearly 600 items by LGBTQ+ creators and teams, nearly 400 of which are independent video games, all sold for just $60. I’m talking with creators from the bundle about their games and their making habits. Visit the bundle and consider buying it.
Pete Foley and Scott Ford work together as Fuzzy Ghost, whose short adventure game Pebble Witch is equal parts A Short Hike and a geology book. (Seriously, @ me if you want to talk about convection on the ocean floor.) The main character activates and then talks with rocks in the Australian beachfront town of Kiama. Pete answered some questions for me.
How long have you been making games?
Since September 2020. But we’ve both been professional animators for many years, so that was a big shortcut in many aspects.
What tools do you like to use?
Blender and Unity (Visual Scripting in Unity as neither of us can code).
What themes or genres do you like to explore?
We just want to write queer protagonists in Australia. Be it rpg, weirdo walking sim, or horror. There are so few male gay leads, and so few games set in Australia — make the representation you want to see in the world.
And we want to make games that are honest, and joyful and hopefully interesting.
What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of making games?
I love how many different facets there are, if you get bored of writing, just build some systems, bored of that make some UI. I also just love learning of the stylistic tropes of gaming. Low frame rate expressions, janky walk cycles. I adore the whole aesthetic.
Testing. I hate replaying and replaying, let alone replaying only to be punished by finding a problem x_x then having to start replaying all over again. (soft sobbing sounds)
“I just wanted to tell a quiet story about trying to be at peace with how things are, because I was struggling with that myself.”
Is there a game that has affected you recently?
Even after all the hype I was shocked at how affecting Unpacking’s quiet story was. It was really touching. Beautifully told.
I also keep thinking about Xiri’s HITME and Taylor McCue’s He Fucked The Girl Out of Me. They both evoke such a sense of place and mood that when I remember playing them I feel like I remember being somewhere else. They are so raw and honest that the truth and feeling behind them just bleeds into your mind, they’re really really beautiful. [Editor’s note: check out my interview with Xiri.]
Pebble Witch is a short adventure where you meet the local rocks and help one process its past trauma. Why did you decide to make it?
PW was the result of me complaining about wanting to make games and Scott just saying — “so make one then”. We gave ourselves 3 months to see if we actually could, did a great job of managing scope (something we’ve since failed at) and, shockingly, got it done. I’m quite proud of that.
In regards to the story… it was deep COVID, I just wanted to tell a quiet story about trying to be at peace with how things are, because I was struggling with that myself. The speaking to rocks things came about because at the time I would often wonder out loud “I wonder what happens in that building”, or, “how did this tree get so mangled?!” And Scott would jokingly reply — “why don’t you ask it?” So the idea of witches that literally do ask, sprung from that.
Kiama is a real place in Australia. What was it like modeling it for the game? The feeling of place is really lovely.
We were holidaying there while we decided to make it, so I really like that that particular holiday has been crystallised into the game. It’s a lovely little town, (expensive and too white, but lovely). It was really fun taking key landmarks and making them chibi. I’m very happy that Scott has since taken over building landscape assets because I got very impatient and messy even just while making Kiama.
The main character is a “rock listening” intern, and I loved that asking for help was part of the gameplay. Was that always the plan?
It was. I’m tired of stories about school, but I’m also bored with stories about best-in-field professionals, so I wanted this to be a story of someone between the two. Definitely an adult, but with a lot left to learn. It didn’t hurt that that gave an excuse to tell the player what to do.
The rocks take ownership of a variety of things, like their attractive moss, colonies of centipedes, or work warming the grass. How did you get into the mind of the rock?
We had help with that. We wanted the rocks to sound really varied so we asked several friends of ours to write what they would think about if they were rocks. It was a delight to read what they came up with. Such a glorious mix of melancholy and silly and sad and hilarious.
The main rock and the ghost were us just spitballing over what a rock could possibly take issue with over millennia of existence.
And most importantly . . . Which of you decided to put the listening instructor in the infamous overalls??
Hahaha that was me (Pete). “What’s the sexiest outfit an instructor could wear without looking like he’s trying to be sexy?” I would have an enormous crush on that teacher too. Big woof.
