Lumpy is a game developer and animator who surprised the world in 2018 with the release of his Garfield Gameboy’d series of animations. These freakishly shocking videos present what could be described as a nightmarish portrayal of the lasagna loving feline in a “hi-res” Game Boy game (seriously, don’t complain to me if you lose sleep after these videos, you’ve been warned). This year he dropped what has been another exciting take on a pop culture phenomenon with his Among Us Gameboy’d, a lovingly crafted “de-make” animation of the hit game that actually used GB Studio to create the base animations. He graciously took some time to chat with us about using the tool and his art.
Can you tell us a bit about your artistic background, and how you got to this point in your career?
I started doing pixel art casually back in 2003, posting a few pieces to pixeljoint. I did pixelart as a hobby until a few years ago when I started making pixel animations/games full time. There aren’t any specific styles or artists that I studied. I am focused on making pixel art fast, which means cutting a few corners, so I try to stay inspired by my contemporaries – but I also try to crush out as much content as I can quickly.
What gravitates you to pixel art and Game Boy palettes in particular?
Less is more. When I’m working on pixelart, I almost always find that less colors and smaller size yield more effective results. Being challenged by restraints leads to some great creativity. Four colors is a really fun choice and leads to some complex pieces. Plus it hits that nice nostalgia sweet spot!
What influences your choices in what to make?
Generally speaking, I try to keep aware of what’s popular/trending at the time and I do a retro pixel take on that. My Twitch community also keeps me on top of things and gives me some great suggestions!
How did you find out about GB Studio? Have you made any games with it?
I follow a lot of pixel artists/game devs on Twitter, so I happened upon it there. One of the first game making softwares I ever used was RPG Maker 2000, so GB Studio kinda brings me back to that. It’s fun! Especially for someone who has little coding experience. I’ve so far used GB Studio to help me make a few ‘fake games’, but hopefully I’ll have something playable soon.
What motivated you to use GB Studio to animate parts of Among Us Gameboy’d?
The way I animate is pretty primitive, I do a lot of frame by frame animation, so faking authentic gameplay segments of my animations is a lot of work. It’s honestly faster to slap some assets in GB Studio then to animate a top down GB segment by hand. So I appreciate this new tool that I can use for content creation!
Are there any GB Studio titles you’ve played that stick out in your mind?
Deadeus, Soul Void, and Cherry Rescue! come to mind!
Do you have anything coming up you’d like us to know about?
I’m making a little Among Us themed platformer for GB studio. Looking forward to sharing it soon!
Anything else you’d like to say to our readers?
Have a safe and happy New Year!
You can check out Lumpy’s YouTube Channel for his excellent albeit frightening work. You can also follow him on Twitter where he often posts in progress work and links to his other projects.
Audio Engineer, Mac Technologist and Video Game Developer. Managing Editor of GBStudio Central. (he/him)
