This is the first trailer I’ve posted for Made in Melostead
It’s still a work in progress (hence the lack of sound). At the time, I wanted to create a trailer more for the sake so I could finally get a Steam page up and people could start seeing my game.
It technically wasn’t required, just suggested, but I was excited to show some screenshots at least! Although honestly I’m still trying to improve the art and iron out the crafting system.
Hi, I’m CherryCapra and I am the sole developer of Made in Melostead, an upcoming fantasy-inspired crafting RPG.
I’ve been working on this game for a few years now. I started around my third year of college (I think every comp sci major idealizes game development at some point) around. I really got into pixel art and after one, yes one, class about game development, I felt like making a game was something I really wanted to do. But not just any game.
I’m doing exactly the opposite of what most game development advice insists: I’m making my “dream game.” A game I want to play. A game with all the features I enjoy and ones always wanted. A game that to this day, I’m really excited for others to see. But in this first post, I’d like to introduce myself a bit and talk about games I love that have influenced my play style, my likes, and so on. After this, I promise it will be actual dev log posts.
I’ve always loved cozy games growing up. To be honest, my first games were all, or at least now would be considered, “cozy games.” Harvest Moon 64, Animal Crossing on the GameCube, The Sims 2, and probably 80% of Barbie games released on the PC (and also Sonic Adventure Battle 2 just for the Chao Garden).
I always loved watching people play other games (like watching my sister play Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario Sunshine), but really any game with a modicum of stress just wasn’t my thing. I especially hated being watched while I tried to play a game like that!
And then my dad brought home Batman Arkham Asylum and my love of Batman from the Justice League cartoon far outweighed any embarrassment I had about playing a game badly. So I guess it was time to branch out a bit.
So now my gaming repertoire was comprised of farming games, any game based on a doll line (the Bratz gamecube games are still among my favorites), “offbeat” Japanese games (Touch Detective, Chibi-Robo, and Ace Attorney), and…Batman. Then 2011 came around. You might see where this is going.
My dad brought home a copy of Skyrim one day. To be honest, I’m not sure why. I know a lot of people were talking about it. I even remember a segment on Conan where Conan O’ Brien played a bit of it. But either way, I watched my dad play that night.
He got arrested stealing an apple pie in Honningbrew Meadery. Really, the only franchise my dad really loves is Doom, where anything you see is yours to pick up. So after ending up in a cell in Whiterun after about fifteen minutes of playing and not really understanding the lockpicking mechanic, my dad never touched Skyrim again.
But honestly in those fifteen minutes, I was seeing the coolest game ever.
The next night, I started a game. I spent a long time in character creation. A long, long time (just to make a female Nord with long brown hair). But anyway, I was finally playing the game. And I was terrible. Draugr gave me trouble. The spiders freaked me out (and I died to poison). I got lost trying to get to Bleak Falls Barrow (and I died to bandits). After I got the claw, I left the barrow and went to a nearby giant’s camp, that I thought would be friendly (I died after a giant launched my character into the air). But I didn’t even care I was dying so much; I just wanted to play more!
And this is where my deep love of RPGs began. I know, I know. Nowadays, Skyrim is seen as the game that dumbed down Elder Scrolls for all the newbies. I was one of the newbies! So maybe it wasn’t a good RPG, but to me it’s still a great game and it inspired me to go on to play more RPGs like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Fallout, Fire Emblem, Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate, Persona, and Dragon Quest (I did play Sentinels of the Starry Skies, but I didn’t quite understand what an RPG was at the time).
I now consider a lot of those games “cozy games” (it’s a vague term anyway).
I always thought it’d be a fun game to run a little shop in such a fantastical-but-dangerous world. I think I just like the juxtaposition of a cozy village full of lovable characters (in other words, the First Town) against a harsh world full of monsters. As a player, it gives a sense of relief and recharges you to take on the world’s challenges again. I also I always liked having a sense of progress: the world improving in some way as the player interacts with it and resolves problems.
That’s what I want to capture in Made in Melostead. I want the player to have a sense of community that inspires them to rebuild their shop and their village. And part of rebuilding Melostead is exploring and helping other communities grow too.
But after a long day of running your shop, or trading in other communities, or exploring the world, you can go sit in the tavern below the inn and share a drink with your neighbors. If we did live in a world full of monsters that hide in the grass, I like to think that’s how life would be.