Lamppost Turtle Combination. An Interview with Marlon Fussell
Marlon Fussell, founding game designer at Martian Lawyers Club, discusses the games that inspired him, strategies to handle infinite scaling, and what Nicki Minaj taught him about game design.
The best game ever?
“I always default to Hotline Miami. It's that perfect, super fast-paced game. You die, and you're annoyed, but the only thing you can even consider is playing again. You just have to keep playing until you beat that level. You never die and decide, 'Oh, that's it, I'm done with the game.'”
Hotline Miami, by Dennaton Games
What are you working on?
“GUG is a creature battler in the vein of Pokémon, but you can have infinite Pokémon and make anything you want.
He adds with a chuckle, “And it’s a roguelike…because everything currently has to be a roguelike.”
A game that let you down?
“I played Love Letter Jabba's Palace with Levi.” (His brother, who also works in MLC.) “We ended up turning the game into ‘who could lose first’ because it was more difficult and rewarding to lose than to win due to the random luck involved. It turned into a positive experience, but yeah, I couldn't stand that game.”
What's the biggest challenge in designing GUG?
“The hardest part is designing a game where you don't know what's going to exist in it. This challenge requires creating mechanics that are incredibly flexible.”
“We might have a Gug that gives 100 new traits to all other Gugs each turn. This means our creature tooltips need to accommodate the possibility of a Gug having infinite traits, being renamed to a name 100 characters long, or having billions of attack points.”
Marlon’s wall of inspiration
“Everything has to be designed to expand infinitely, and we discover these limits through extensive playtesting.”
“For example, we only realized the issue with coins dropping on the battlefield when a playtester had a Gug with 7 million attack points and crashed the game. We're more vigilant about it now, but it completely caught us off guard at first.”
What influences the game design choices in GUG?
“We've taken a lot of inspiration from roguelikes. Games like Spelunky let players traverse the map any way they want, even breaking walls to reach unintended areas. Roguelikes maintain replayability while allowing player freedom.”
Spelunky, by Derek Yu
Lessons from missteps
“About a year ago, we had a prototype where creating new abilities would combine words to make new abilities. It sounded cool but disappointed early playtesters.
“If you combine a lamppost and a turtle, what do you get? It became unpredictable and unsatisfying.
“After months of player dissatisfaction, we rolled back to a more predictable system. Now, if you type 'coin,' you know what you're getting. It's easier to understand and less disappointing.”
Lamppost Turtle gug
Who inspires you?
“I really enjoy Mad Max, not just as a film but for how believable the world feels. Every scene seems meticulously thought out, as if someone actually lived that life and turned it into a movie. In the latest installment, Furiosa, there’s a scene where a biker, under sniper fire, ties a tire to the back of their bike to kick up sand clouds and obscure the sniper's view. That level of world-building is something I find inspiring and want to bring into Gug.
“I don’t know any pinball designers personally, but I’ve been thinking a lot about pinball during Gug's development. Pinball is about giving the player control over chaos, much like how Gug is about managing the chaos of the forge or unpredictable enemies. In pinball, you might get unlucky with the ball draining down the center, just like you might face an overpowered enemy in Gug. But if you nudge the table—or in this case, the forge—you might just save the ball and turn things around.”
The always stunning Nicky Minaj
“This might sound like a joke, but Nicki Minaj once said, 'Why be simple when you can be stunning?' Whenever I face a tough decision, I think of that quote and always lean toward the more 'stunning' solution. Why settle for anything less?"”
GUG
Marlon is working on GUG, a roguelike creature battler featuring procedurally-generated creatures. You can wishlist it on Steam.
Marlon Fussell, founding game designer at Martian Lawyers Club, discusses the games that inspired him, strategies to handle infinite scaling, and what Nicki Minaj taught him about game design.
The best game ever?
“I always default to Hotline Miami. It's that perfect, super fast-paced game. You die, and you're annoyed, but the only thing you can even consider is playing again. You just have to keep playing until you beat that level. You never die and decide, 'Oh, that's it, I'm done with the game.'”
Hotline Miami, by Dennaton Games
What are you working on?
“GUG is a creature battler in the vein of Pokémon, but you can have infinite Pokémon and make anything you want.
He adds with a chuckle, “And it’s a roguelike…because everything currently has to be a roguelike.”
A game that let you down?
“I played Love Letter Jabba's Palace with Levi.” (His brother, who also works in MLC.) “We ended up turning the game into ‘who could lose first’ because it was more difficult and rewarding to lose than to win due to the random luck involved. It turned into a positive experience, but yeah, I couldn't stand that game.”
What's the biggest challenge in designing GUG?
“The hardest part is designing a game where you don't know what's going to exist in it. This challenge requires creating mechanics that are incredibly flexible.”
“We might have a Gug that gives 100 new traits to all other Gugs each turn. This means our creature tooltips need to accommodate the possibility of a Gug having infinite traits, being renamed to a name 100 characters long, or having billions of attack points.”
Marlon’s wall of inspiration
“Everything has to be designed to expand infinitely, and we discover these limits through extensive playtesting.”
“For example, we only realized the issue with coins dropping on the battlefield when a playtester had a Gug with 7 million attack points and crashed the game. We're more vigilant about it now, but it completely caught us off guard at first.”
What influences the game design choices in GUG?
“We've taken a lot of inspiration from roguelikes. Games like Spelunky let players traverse the map any way they want, even breaking walls to reach unintended areas. Roguelikes maintain replayability while allowing player freedom.”
Spelunky, by Derek Yu
Lessons from missteps
“About a year ago, we had a prototype where creating new abilities would combine words to make new abilities. It sounded cool but disappointed early playtesters.
“If you combine a lamppost and a turtle, what do you get? It became unpredictable and unsatisfying.
“After months of player dissatisfaction, we rolled back to a more predictable system. Now, if you type 'coin,' you know what you're getting. It's easier to understand and less disappointing.”
Lamppost Turtle gug
Who inspires you?
“I really enjoy Mad Max, not just as a film but for how believable the world feels. Every scene seems meticulously thought out, as if someone actually lived that life and turned it into a movie. In the latest installment, Furiosa, there’s a scene where a biker, under sniper fire, ties a tire to the back of their bike to kick up sand clouds and obscure the sniper's view. That level of world-building is something I find inspiring and want to bring into Gug.
“I don’t know any pinball designers personally, but I’ve been thinking a lot about pinball during Gug's development. Pinball is about giving the player control over chaos, much like how Gug is about managing the chaos of the forge or unpredictable enemies. In pinball, you might get unlucky with the ball draining down the center, just like you might face an overpowered enemy in Gug. But if you nudge the table—or in this case, the forge—you might just save the ball and turn things around.”
The always stunning Nicky Minaj
“This might sound like a joke, but Nicki Minaj once said, 'Why be simple when you can be stunning?' Whenever I face a tough decision, I think of that quote and always lean toward the more 'stunning' solution. Why settle for anything less?"”
GUG
Marlon is working on GUG, a roguelike creature battler featuring procedurally-generated creatures. You can wishlist it on Steam.