It’s been over two years since Techli’s last interview with game-developing startup Butterscotch Shenanigans, and in that time a lot has happened. The company has since launched four mobile games, and is looking forward to the release of their newest and biggest project Crashlands, which is set to launch in fall of 2015.
The team of brothers: Seth, Sam, and Adam Coster, got their start creating games for the St. Louis Global Game Jam, a 48-hour competition for aspiring game programmers. They were hired by a local game studio in St. Louis, and then went on to create their own studio. “We went full-time on Butterscotch [Shenanigans] November of 2012,” explained co-founder Sam Coster.
While their first commercial release Towelfight 2: The Monocle of Destiny was a financial failure, the team has been gaining a fanbase and a steadily growing income from their other releases. “We’re hoping to leverage all the knowledge we have now on free play to create more engaging and hopefully better paid games,” said Seth. “[Crashlands] is well above and beyond anything we’ve ever attempted to do.”
Check out the trailer for Crashlands here.
The inspiration for Crashlands came when Sam Coster was diagnosed with lymphoma. “One of the things people don’t realize is that every day they’re closer to death. There are so many days that any one of them feels disposable, but when you wake up to the fact you don’t have that much time left, every minute really matters. We turned around and decided, if I was going to be gone after all of this, why don’t we leave behind something that’s more for us than for the market. That was Crashlands.”
The premise of Crashlands is that the player is cast as a space deliveryman named Flux Dabes, who must continue to deliver his packages with the help of his robot Juicebox after his ship is crashed by an evil alien named Q. The game is based in the crafting/building-genre of games, along with others like Minecraft. The game was programmed, written, produced, managed, animated, and marketed by all three Costers on their own. “Working was a big part of my recovery,” explained Sam Coster. “It feels so good to still be able to get up and produce something even when you’re sick.”
Co-Founders of Butterscotch Shenanigans, Sam, Seth and Adam Coster.
Today, Sam is on the mend and should be finished with his treatment by September in time for the Crashlands release. Crashlands itself has achieved a large amount of hype, being listed as one of the most anticipated games of 2015 and being accepted for marketing by Steam in only 48 hours. “Part of the reason I think it’s gotten so popular is because, as much competition as there is in games, the most important thing is to make your game stand out,” said Seth.
“That’s why we stress the humor elements. It’s like being the nerdy kid in high school and having to develop a personality to compete.”
Crashlands will be available on PC and mobile devices, and can be purchased online at the Crashlands website, on Google Play, or the App store.
Check out a mini interview with Sam and Seth Coster.
