Indie dev farts into microphone, publishes it on Steam
Independent developers explore unique production methods in the pursuit of their visions.
Let's get this out of the way: this is not a news article. It's something totally non-time critical I heard in a pub.
And full disclosure: I heard it from a pal. The developer in question is a friend of mine. I play Minecraft with him, his partner is one of my besties, and clearly, I go to the pub with him. Stop reading immediately if this causes you anxiety.
So there I was in a pub I can never remember the name of, chatting with My Pal Adrian Sudgen, otherwise known as Amethyst Quarter. We started talking about his game development projects, which I know nothing about because I am a terrible friend.
The big one is Abomination Tower, which came out on Steam over a year ago and I haven't even played (I'm sorry I'm such a terrible friend Adrian). It's one of those über-difficult, procedurally-generated platformers, and its gimmick is that the main character doesn't have a head. You collect heads as you play, with varying effects.
"Tell her about the first head," Sugden's partner said, slapping her hand in a puddle of beer.
"The first head is a butt," Sugden said.
"That was my idea," Sugden's partner said, with great satisfaction. My brother and I broke into spontaneous applause.
"A butt, huh," I said, or something very like it. "Like a butt, where a head should be. Ass crack for a face."
"It makes a fart sound," Adrian's partner said, as if imparting a great secret.
"It's a real fart, too," Sugden said, admirably composed as everyone else in the room lay face down in their beers and cried with laughter.
"What do you mean, a real fart?"
"I farted into the microphone."
Sugden's partner then recreated the scene which took place in their home, with her turning at the sound of a loud fart to find Sugden holding a microphone up to his butt.
You can hear the fart at the end of this early trailer, dating back to the game's Greenlight campaign:
A this point the conversation was derailed because someone went to buy another round, but I also learned that the squishy death sounds in Abomination Tower were produced by Sugden cramming his hands in his mouth and "trying to be as wet as possible".
I don't know where I imagined sound effects came from, but it wasn't this.
This was the sum total of the journalism I did while at a games convention last weekend. You're welcome.
Games are great. That's all.