Hello, I’m Ryan, one-half of Mitobit’s artists! You’ll hear from the other half, Mariya, in a bit, but for now, let’s talk about...
You’d think the hardest thing to design would be the Mitobits - after all, they’re the entire focus of the game - but they fell into place very early on in the game jam days. From the beginning, sea bunnies were the perfect inspiration. They’re cute, but a little alien; they’re simple and easily replicable (in more ways than one). I spent a lot of time brainstorming colors that didn’t make it into the final game, but the Mitobits’ shape has remained the same from the start. The visual consistency of the game was a big boon during development, making it easy to quickly design tools, UI, and environmental elements that naturally blended with Mariya’s work. In many ways, we just multiplied what was already there.
Concept art for different Mitobit colors. It was difficult to come up with palettes that both looked nice and were colorblind-friendly - our game designer, Cole, is colorblind, and needed to be able to identify each Mitobit at a glance.
However, a lot still needed to be made from scratch. We had no idea what a level select screen would look like, as the jam version had only a single level to speak of. I toyed around with an ocean theme, putting the “sea” back in “sea bunnies”; on the other hand, the self-replicating nature of the Mitobits lent itself to a more abstract petri-dish design, inspired by Ynglet. Neither really felt right. The game didn’t have a story at this point, so without something specific to latch onto, I realized I needed to think beyond these simple, general themes. In the end, I returned to our original Tamagotchi inspiration, and created a stack of cartridges for the player to sift through.
Concept art for the level select screen. UI is an often-overlooked element of game design, but it needs just as much thought and care put into it as anything else!
Designing this screen sparked several other questions about the game’s premise. How did Mitobit become a game in-universe? Why does the player have all of these cartridges? Who owned them before? Cole took these questions and ran (or, rather, wrote) with them, creating a plot to carry the game’s progression. That’s one thing I love about working with this team - ideas get bounced back and forth between all of us, and changes to one part of the game are able to ripple across everyone else’s work.
— Hi, I’m the other half of Mitobit’s artists, Mariya! Ryan has done wonderful work to bring Mitobit to full Steam release, but I want to talk about where it all began. As we brainstormed the initial idea of Mitobit as an arcade-style game about virtual pets, Tamagotchi was an obvious inspiration. That’s where Kurōnshu (“clone species”) as the original name came from! Slowly, we drifted away from that, but virtual pets stayed a core concept of Mitobit. I mainly worked on the main level UI! The frame encompassing the screen as you play is meant to invoke a handheld device, covered in bright, inviting colors. We settled on the seafoam color palette very early on; it just made sense with our sea bunny-like critters!
Original screen frame art, with Tamagotchi for comparison. The inner edge was inspired by the cracked edge of Tamagotchi screens! In the end I went for a more bubbly look, to go along with the sea theme Mitobits have. Wouldn’t this make a cute design for a real handheld digital pet? Eventually, that led us to the Steam release – to the level select screen becoming a series of cartridges, and other elements of UI being reminiscent of retro game screens. As Ryan mentioned, ideas and inspirations ripple between all of us, creating a cohesive experience!
-- And now, a Mitobit teaser!
This is the Baby Blue Mitobit! They're nearly identical to the regular, but they're much faster and smaller. Trying to grab or shower them is a big hassle when they won't stop running around! Leave them to their own devices, though, and they'll tend to swarm together. -- And that's all for this volume of The Squish! As always, thank you so much for reading, and if you're interested in this project or these posts whatsoever, be sure to wishlist the game! It'll be the easiest way to stay up to date. Team Jelly Games