Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion

Play as an adorable yet trouble-making turnip. Avoid paying taxes, solve plantastic puzzles, harvest crops and battle massive beasts all in a journey to tear down a corrupt vegetable government!

Art

I worked on all the vector assets you see in-game as well as some pixel art!  From UI/UX, character portraits, item icons, the dreaded documents, cosmetics, cut scenes, and more.  I also worked on merch and brand collaborations for the Turnip Boy IP.

Narrative

With my love for games that subvert expectations, I pitched a more zany plot: Turnip Boy commits tax evasion... and is evicted from his greenhouse!  We added a mix of vector and pixel art styles to aid in storytelling.

I've always really enjoyed dry, absurdist humor.  My biggest inspiration at the time of writing Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion was 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.' We agreed that the game should lean heavily on the narrative, since the characters really excite players, and our comp at the time was the beloved 'Frog Detective'.  I pushed for a complete overhaul of the narrative system, with an emphasis on character dialogue.  I love in 'Always Sunny' this idea that the main "protagonists" are just generally not great people.  When they do crazy or bizarre things, we may get shocked by the action, but because our protagonists are chaotic, we come to expect it.  I wrote a substantial portion of the game and served as an editor and collaborator for other parts, aiming to give each character a distinct tone, silly goals, and a strong personality!  Yukon and I collaborated on overarching plots, drawing on our love for horror, our experience making a game during the pandemic, being fresh out of college (and into the world of adulting, what even is a tax? ), and Adventure Time to create a lot of interesting themes within the game's narrative!

Consulting & Production

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion was Snoozy Kazoo's break into the industry! I consulted on creative direction, production, and the growth of the initial community and game, dating back to before the company's establishment. With my background being a producer for prior teams and working on in-depth design documentation for a company called FableVision, I pushed for building out more robust documentation for the game, including pillars to solidify the core goals and values, which we collaborated on to set the foundation for the game and aid in the overall scope.

As we began working with Graffiti Games, our publisher, I worked closely with the studio director behind the scenes, consulting on publisher meetings, production timelines, documentation, budget proposals, and more.  I worked closely with Graffiti Games on marketing material and merchandise as well.

Results

We ended up launching on all platforms and sold more than 1 million units. It was an incredible experience helping build a start-up from an idea by a couple of college students into a full commercial production, where I got to experience firsts in a lot of things. Getting to advise on a project from concept to launch, collaborate on its narrative and design, make some cool art, build an incredible community, and jump into product design for a commercial project was a ton of fun!

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