Nintendo Life: First, congratulations on Pepper Mill! How does it feel to finally see the game come to Switch after seven years of work?
Riv Hester, Ahr I: Thank you! I haven’t worked on a game in WHOLE seven years, but it’s definitely been a long road and it still doesn’t feel real! I’m really excited to get it into everyone’s hands though; some people wait from the beginning and I can’t believe their patience.
Have the core concepts of the game changed much during this time?
Not so much, actually! It was more of a process of refining and expanding the core concepts, but everything works more or less the same as the original prototype. It just feels much, much tighter and more responsive now in the release version.
This is a great game to play with a drilling mechanic that allows for fluid flow and movement. How important was game feel to you when developing Pepper Grinder?
Pepper Grinder is all about that game feel! I think finding joy in movement is the cornerstone of a good platformer and I tried to use that as much as possible. I spent a long time making sure the core movement was rewarding in itself, and then tried to build from there to make everything else just as satisfying. I love nice, crunchy feedback in games too, so I tried my best to use the sound effects, screen shake and controller rumble as well as I could. (Don’t worry though, I know some people can be overwhelmed by some of these things so you can turn them all down or off.)
Of course, it’s not all about getting things done as quickly as possible. There are tons of collectibles and time trial challenges that will keep you coming back for more. Do you think replayability is key to a good 2D platformer?
you can see influences from all my favorite platformers growing up
It probably depends on the platformer, but I definitely prefer the ones that expand things that way! I’ll often replay anyway to really try to master the game, but tracking my best times and unlocking some stuff along the way is always appreciated, and I’m really glad I had the time to add those features here!
Speaking of the game’s collectibles, we understand that the idea for the Pepper Grinder sticker system came from your love of Smash Bros. Melee’s Trophies. Can you tell us a bit more about how Melee’s unlockables have affected your approach to Pepper Grinder collectibles?
That! I had a lot of fun unlocking trophies in Melee, and even more so in Brawl where you could arrange them in fun ways, so I wanted to do something like that in 2D for Pepper Grinder, but expand the ability to do weird cutscenes with it. You can get regular stickers in shops and get special ones as a reward for Time Attack mode, and you can arrange them all however you want in the various unlocked backgrounds. It won’t be for everyone, but I think it’s nice!
You have previously described game like “Dig Dug plus Ecco The Dolphin”, although games like Drill Dozer and Sonic also came to mind while playing. Are there any specific inspirations you looked for while developing the game?
Oh yeah, you can see the influences of all my favorite platformers growing up there. Donkey Kong Country 2, Yoshi’s Island, Sonic 2, 3 & Knuckles, Drill Dozer for sure, although I only got to play those after I started working on Pepper Grinder. There are stages that involve cannons that are just blatant love letters to the land of Donkey Kong. There are also inspirations from other media such as Tank girl, Gurren Lagann, and art by Yoshitomo Nara.
Pepper Grinder is one of a growing number of neo-retro games to hit the Switch in recent years. Have you always been interested in this old school aesthetic and how do you think Pepper Grinder stands out from the neo-retro crowd?
there are so many curve balls that game development can throw at you
I love the aesthetics of the older games, but a lot of it has to do with scale. Pixel art takes a lot of practice to express things well, but once you’re comfortable in that space, it allows for much more speed and agility in terms of production, especially if you don’t have a large team. As for how it stands out, I’ve honestly never given it much thought. I just made a game I’ve always wanted to play but couldn’t find, and luckily it seems a lot of other people want to play it too!
The retro feel extends beyond playing Pepper Grinder — we especially enjoyed flipping through (virtually) its SNES-inspired manual! How closely did you work with publisher Devolver Digital to maintain this aesthetic in marketing the game?
We had a pretty constant back and forth and they had full access to all the elements of the game while they were putting these things together. Everyone at Devolver is really good at what they do and they were able to meet what I was looking for right away. The manual was specially compiled by him Andy Kellywhich absolutely knocked it out of the park by capturing the SNES style!
