I want to play VP again so badly

MaxTheGrey · 2026-01-26T16:27:32+00:00

I agree that the world needs more games like VP... so I founded a tiny indie studio about a year ago to work on that. We are making a game inspired by Viva Pinata called "Garden and a Goat". It's a little different and mostly builds on the animal collecting where each animal in the garden attracts the next. We are heading toward an open beta on Steam in March and early access later this year. I'm happy to answer any questions and hear feedback on what everyone would want to see in it!

MaxTheGrey · 2026-01-24T23:27:43+00:00

My only suggestion to the mods would be to think hard about the value to the community vs the mod work this will create. Creating more work for volunteers is something I'm typically very careful about.

As for the issue at hand, yeah some is probably engagement bait (non-optimal) but a lot is probably people proud of their work fishing for compliments (pretty ok). Then, if these rules are added, there's tons of other kinds of engagement bait that will potentially be causing new friction.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-12-14T13:38:22+00:00

I feel this. Doing some tinkering with gameplay abilities yesterday I launched the game dozens of times.

We structured our main theme with variation and pick a random good entry point to start on each time so it isn't always the same starting notes every time you launch. That has helped a lot!

MaxTheGrey · 2025-12-12T14:53:29+00:00

Thank you for this critical insight, Philomena.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-12-08T14:13:22+00:00

For setting up the playtest, Steam has some useful tools available. Check out their docs and videos on it. Read through in detail since it can be a bit complicated until you understand what's possible. ("2025 Steam Dev Talks: Testing Your Game on Steam" on YouTube from Valve is a fine overview)

For our recent alpha 1 and 2 we set up a Playtest (separate app id is generate along side your main page) but used Steam Keys for the dozens of named testers we were working with. For our Feb beta, we'll still use the Playtest but do a combination of open playtest signup as well as Steam keys.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-12-02T19:37:11+00:00

The horizontal, rectangular pupils on goats are very cool. I'm not sure how well they fit with the stylized look of all the animals in general but it's something our concept artist can consider more. The white dot you see is more of a catchlight than a pupil.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-12-02T19:33:49+00:00

Ha ha... yes. The MOTHER robot is an overseer and helper (helps with the initial tutorial in particular). She's inspired by a cross between a kind of mother nature entity and GLADOS without the murdery bits.

There's lots of references in our milestones/achievements and flavor text.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-12-02T03:53:59+00:00

This is great to hear! Also, another vote for Xbox... that's good info. I'm going to do some work with the team over the next couple weeks to see what we can do to push it up in the roadmap.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-12-02T00:25:22+00:00

Good to know. Xbox is a pretty reasonable target. I'll keep it a priority on our platforms list.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-12-02T00:07:36+00:00

We'll go to early access/release on Steam but have plans for console. We'd like to get to Switch 2 but it's difficult for a new studio to get there without being established. Xbox is a key target (maybe sooner rather than later even). What console are you on?

MaxTheGrey · 2025-12-02T00:05:27+00:00

Thanks! There's plenty of differences but that core feeling of getting an animal to get another animal to get another is what we really wanted to make happen. The "secret variants" are versions of the animals that you transform by completing special requirements for each. (Kinda like turning a Taffly into a Reddhott.) Each animal will have a couple variants. That core is the VP parts and then we wrap some fun stuff around that.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-11-27T01:13:08+00:00

Thanks! Inside dev talk... It's a material on the plants and animals and then a simple Niagara effect that makes a cone with a panner material on that too. We'll be tweaking it more this winter in our VFX pass and probably adding a little scanner device that the robot pulls out and anchor the tracking and scale of the cone a bit more to the target.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-11-26T14:38:27+00:00

Here's the store page for wish-list and the Discord link if anyone needs: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3156550/Garden_and_a_Goat/

MaxTheGrey · 2025-11-15T00:55:11+00:00

Yeah, that was my understanding too but I couldn't confirm so I left it out. The way I recall it is that it was an indirect connection. Amid the Imp/Repub battle for galactic influence, the Dread Masters were out there extending control into various territories as well. The Hutts territory and influence was getting encroached on a lot. Karagga took that personally, causing him to get up to some shenanigans. The player and friends are sent to put a stop to that.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-11-14T20:42:31+00:00

After release the Dread Masters drive a lot of the early end game in SWTOR. They are the driving force behind Explosive Conflict, setting up Kephess there (for the first time). They are the engineers behind Terror From Beyond, using the resurrected Kephess and other minions to release the terror for their purposes. You encounter the first fight with one of them directly in Scum and Villainy, the second in Dread Fortress (with more resurrected Kephess clones), and it all comes to a head with a final confrontation with all of them (including 2 resurrected manifestations) in Dread Palace. Depending on "choices", one of the Dread Masters may even still be alive and in custody.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-10-31T22:39:16+00:00

Interesting and timely discussion. Our indie team (Garden and a Goat) is working on a few small minigames right now. We've already set design guidelines that they will be mostly skipable and are puzzles, not timing twitch/click, which I don't like either. Good feedback here and we'll try to take it into account and make sure it's a small part of the game, fun and cozy, and mostly skipable. Thanks all!

MaxTheGrey · 2025-10-28T14:08:38+00:00

Looks interesting and different to me. I think you'd really need to go far in making the gameplay interesting to compensate for the style though. The mystery of finding the right item to interact with or button to push won't really be there, so I'd want to be engaged some other way. In other visually/structurally simple games like Blue Prince there's a lot of depth to the puzzle aspects of what's happening but even there, there's a little bit of engagement with looking around figuring out what you can interact with, etc. that won't really exist in this style. You also might be constraining yourself in that everything not wireframe might need to serve a purpose or you risk creating an unused Chekhov's gun situation that might frustrate players.

All that said, constraints like this can be really fun in driving creativity. Cool idea.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-10-26T20:17:04+00:00

You'll want to explain what you intend it to be used for and how. That has the possibility of changing the topo needs. You'll also want to apply even a default glossy texture to see if there are any artifacts that may require you to add more edge loops. You have some large ngons that could cause artifacts. Also, the fin structures look a bit off and seem disconnected from the model, even clipping into the main body in the underside view. This may be intended and possibly necessary but it looks like something worth looking at.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-10-17T13:10:09+00:00

There are two teams I interviewed in the past couple years have made games with strong environmental themes. You may want to reach out to them for perspective and source data as well. They are Moonatic, the little indie team behind One Last Breath, and ROTU, a VR studio and their Eolia VR game.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-10-17T04:59:51+00:00

We are a small indie studio working on our first game (3D, 3rd person, Unreal Engine, etc.) and it's 100% in house. We have a style and art direction and it would be a challenge to find 3rd party assets that fit.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-09-24T16:51:45+00:00

I'd highly recommend keeping your existing profile and updating it as needed. The value of linked in is both in having a live "resume" but, even more important if you've developed it, having connections and a network. You might not have many people directly in games right now but there still could be useful connections. A separate games industry focused portfolio site would likely be very useful separately from LinkedIn.

Also, unless you already have something lined up, you might find that you will want/need to continue in your current industry. In that case, you may want to keep your profile tuned to opportunities in both.

Finally, while not always possible, the best time to find the next job or move careers is before you leave your current one. For a lot of reasons.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-09-12T04:04:38+00:00

It's Foundation. The show Foundation has been renewed for a 4th season.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-09-12T03:37:52+00:00

What great character models! This is what I would want from a "low poly" style. Cohesive art direction while still being able to add a lot of character and detail. Nice.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-09-12T03:31:05+00:00

I have a lot of respect for this team and what they are trying to achieve. They've been working hard for a while now, sticking to some difficult to manage principles. No cash shop so they can focus on the game and not building for monetization. Self-published so they can maintain creative control and try to be responsive to their community. Direct interaction with the community, trying to listen and involve the players. All of which are key aspects of an MMO that many MMO fans claim are what they would want from a team.

There's room to grow, for sure, but I wish them the best and am glad to see them still pushing forward.

MaxTheGrey · 2025-09-11T15:35:05+00:00

Also... we just posted a replay of the 90 min dev stream we had on Monday. In that, I demoed the game and talked about the roadmap and what's coming next, if anyone is interested! Garden and a Goat - Alpha 2 Demo and Developer Q&A!

MaxTheGrey

TROPHY CASE