Hip Hopster is a 2D platformer game made October 24 – 28, 2019 for Nina Freeman’s Halloween Tasting Room Jam in 2019.
Matryoshka and her children are late for supper and decided to take a shortcut through the local cemetery. She had heard rumors of a ravenous beast 3 stories tall, but assumed they were just tall tales to scare the children.
Matryoshka herself still knows something of the old magic, but due to her age can now only use it to hide her children within, and with some effort call them back to her. Using this tires her out, however, and only the power of a good onion is able to revitalize her energy.
Her five children always want to help their mother, and have been known to help her reach tall places she can’t get to on her own.
The Peace Island development team took a short break at the end of October, and with some spare time on my hands I helped organize a team for the jam with some members of Freeman’s Discord and members of the Maine Video Game Devs Meetup, of which I became the co-organizer a few months prior. I did the pixel art for all of the matryoshka dolls, the lobster, the pot, and the pressure switch at the end. This was my first time using Aseprite for pixel art for both static objects and animation.
Freeman played Hip Hopster on the post-jam livestream, which you can watch here.
The eponymous Hip Hopster file open in Aseprite. I used the Sega Master System color palette because it was the superior 8-bit console and you can’t convince me otherwise.
One of the matryoshka “children” zoomed in in Aseprite. Because several members of the team came from a gamedev Meetup based in Maine, I made a point to incorporate Maine native flowers into the designs of the dolls. Here you can see a Black-Eyed Susan, Asters, and Oxeye Daisy on the dress.