YOLKED: Origin Story
14TH SEPTEMBER 2021
Hi, this is Colleen from HardBoiled Studios! HardBoiled
Studios is a student-run video game development studio, and we
have been working on our debut game YOLKED since Winter of 2020.
And eep, the secret is OUT!
We’re releasing our game on Steam for early access in October
2021.
It’s been a long but rewarding journey, and we’re so excited to
have you all play it!
You may not know much about us yet, but not for long! If
you’re interested, keep up with us through our DevBlogs. Today,
I’ll be sharing the story of how YOLKED was born. *Cue
the harps*
Our core team consists of our video game developers: Baha
Okten, Floney Yang, and Hazel Wong. Baha, Floney, and Hazel
alumni of the University of Michigan, Computer Science majors,
and video game lovers. In January 2020, the trio met each other
in a class called “Introduction to Video Game Development”. It
was an elective that had interested each of them because of
their affinity towards video games: Baha modded and owned
several Minecraft servers growing up, Hazel has always been a
casual gamer, and Floney was fascinated with games that had
beautiful designs.
For the final project, Baha, Floney, Hazel, and two other
classmates formed a team to create a demo version of YOLKED for
the Virtual Games Showcase at the end of the semester. Hazel
came up with the idea of an egg escaping a kitchen, and they all
wanted to create a fun, humorous game that had difficult but
addicting mechanics. YOLKED originally started as a co-op game;
however, the team decided to make YOLKED a single player game
since their showcase would be in a remote setting (thanks,
COVID). And then... YOLKED won first place in the showcase!
Baha reminisced about the project saying that their group
“was probably one of the best teams that we could have. It was
really balanced, and we were all lucky to be on the same team.
We synergize really well. We all have really important tasks
that couldn’t have been done with one of us missing… And we
became really good friends.”
⬆️ Author’s note: Aw, all this sweetness might give me a cavity
🦷🥰
YOLKED’s initial success during the student
showcase compelled the trio to continue working on completing
the game. To help with the art and assets for the game, Eli
Lustig (also a University of Michigan student) joined the team
as a 3D Artist in August 2020.
The small, four-person team at the time realized during
the summer of 2020 that they wanted to see how the project might
fit into the “real” gaming world. They wanted to learn more
about the gaming industry and put their all into it! They
started submitting applications and emailing pitch decks to
indie game publishers and caught the attention of several
publishing studios during this process. In the end, they decided
to partner with Hitcents due to their extensive experience with
marketing and the fact that they had a similar vision for our
game. I (Colleen Tacubao) joined in June 2021 to work on
marketing for the team.
The transition from class project to soon-to-be-published
indie video game was a gradual one. Still, we all have the same
vision to take this as seriously as we can to get experience
and, most importantly, to create a good game for people to
enjoy.
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Stay tuned! YOLKED will be published on Steam and Nintendo
Switch in 2022. Early access on Steam will be in October 2021.
For more information, feel free to subscribe to our email list
and
follow us on these platforms.