Fellow Traveller sat down with the solo developer jakefriend to talk about the game’s development, the influence of Zelda, secret areas, and more.
Fellow Traveller (FT): Who is Jakefriend? Tell us about yourself!
Hello! I’m jakefriend, or Jake, a solo developer living near Toronto, Canada. I was a hobbyist game developer (as well as hobbyist musician and artist) back in the 2010s, and never had an intention to make a career out of any of my more creative pursuits. COVID happened, and I decided to make a small demo for my pandemic hobby project for fun, which got strangely popular, and well… one thing sort of led to another! I’ve been doing this full-time since a successful Kickstarter in early 2021, with a really tight-knit and friendly community that’s been with me the whole way.
FT: Tell us about Scrabdackle. How’s development going? What’s it about?
Scrabdackle is a game set in a fantasy world where you play as a novice student wizard, Blue, who’s been abruptly thrust out of their sheltered life for the first time, and who comes to learn and appreciate the world and the people living in it. It’s all about the joy of exploration, the value and strength of communities, and that it’s worth standing and fighting for a better world for everyone. Though, it wasn’t always about these things! I set out just to make something fun and playful, and it feels in a weird way like a lot of the themes sort of emerged on their own as I spent more time in the setting.
FT: Scrabdackle is described as a “zeldalike adventure”. To what extent did the top-down Zelda games influence your design?
I’m a huge fan of the older top-down Zeldas! There’s a ton of charm to me in a game with a large, open world, discrete screens to get familiar with, and simple controls for combat and navigation. While Scrabdackle isn’t evoking the classic Zelda aesthetic, the spirit is definitely there, in its nonlinearity and interest in a large, sprawling, continuous world that slowly opens up to you, filled with challenges and curiosities.
FT: Even the Scrabdackle demo is full of secret areas. How many total secrets are there to discover in the game?
The whole game is pretty jam-packed! A favorite from the demo is a hidden cave full of trash bandits. A few nearby characters hint that there’s a bandit lair somewhere on the south side of the river, and there’s one spot along the river that’s got a bandit guarding seemingly nothing. If you poke around and find the hidden entrance, not only do you have a small challenge event that nets you a secret collectible, but you also meet a major character earlier than you might otherwise, which opens up new dialogue paths with them in the future! There’s tons of optional content hidden for observant players to find throughout every area (and there’s a LOT of areas!).
FT: We’ve heard that when you’re developing a game, people tend to get attached to certain items, NPCs, enemies, and so on. What has been your favorite to design for the game?
Ooh, tough question! It’s probably Flamajesty, the duck emperor, who is a giant, prideful flamingo. You dramatically duel them on a rooftop at sunset, and their moveset is really all over the place and a lot of fun – sometimes they use their long neck and beak as a blade, sometimes as a jackhammer, and sometimes they spin like a top to close the distance between you! It’s a really charming character design to me, although it was quite a lot of work to animate!
FT: Thank you for talking about Scrabdackle with us!
To stay up to date with Scrabdackle and jakefriend, make sure to hit that wishlist button, visit the website, follow Jakefriend and us on Twitter or join in the discussion on the Fellow Traveller Discord server.