Over the summer, I helped my friend Mart develop an update for his four-year game project Greg RPG.

I’ve known Mart since 2020. I live in Tbilisi, he in Tallinn; we met through Neocities and bonded over our shared love of games (we both want to do game development after university). Greg has been his main project for just as long; he finally released it in 2024 but wanted to polish and expand it further. Of course, when he asked me for help with a Greg update, I was super excited to work with him!

Spinning a Story

Mart had gripes with the game’s story. I asked him for specific flaws so we could discuss potential changes:

• It felt too shallow. We developed some themes Mart was interested in exploring and fleshed out the main antagonist’s motivations in conversation with them. Since the main antagonist was a florist, I also suggested strengthening the floral visual motifs throughout the game.
• It felt too disconnected. Boss encounters were fun individually but weren’t bound together by the plot. I suggested tying them to the main antagonist more directly through dialogue, as well as increasing the player’s sense of progress through unique flowers you collect from defeating each boss. These flowers also gated level progression, preventing the player from accidentally skipping bosses.

These changes emerged from our wandering conversations together, dangling on a connection spanning some two thousand kilometers. Managing the distance between us was a challenge, especially since I like sketching on paper when developing ideas, but we worked around it using digital whiteboards and photos of my sketchbook.

As Mart moved into developing the update, I continued to support him with feedback, advice, and playtesting. Throughout development we kept up a constant back-and-forth: we’d often sit on call bouncing ideas off each other late into the night, and in the morning I’d be the first to test whatever new content he’d had just finished.

Finding a Tune

When working on one of the new areas — a section of the town — Mart asked me to compose its battle theme. I wanted to make sure I made something that would support his vision; drawing on my experience in team game development I put in effort to be communicative and iterative.

Frequently during the next week or so, I’d send a demo over, we’d talk about her feedback, and I’d incorporate whatever we’d decided on. The track evolved a lot through these check-ins — it took a bit of time for me to nail exactly what mood Mart wanted.

At this point in development, I had to adjust my mindset: I wasn’t steering the helm anymore, I was producing assets, not directing the game. So I took care to keep within the style of the soundtrack: I referenced musical motifs we’d compiled from the game’s soundtrack, and I shifted from my chiptune sound toward Mart’s synthier tendencies. I’m pleased with how the track came out! I firmly believe that multiple perspectives can improve any piece of work.

Going forward

Mart’s since asked me to create the battle UI for the final boss. Now that we’re out of the summer we’re both much busier with university, but despite my workload I find time to concept, talk, and iterate.

I’m looking forward to working on the update and seeing what it becomes. It’s been great both to steer the project alongside Mart and to let her take the helm; we’ve had no issues balancing the two. I’m glad I’ve been able to apply a lot of the lessons from my game development class in the spring to Greg.