Interview with PAX RISING Foodomina’s Creative Director & Artist - Irini Melas

BY DRAWZA

Drawza: Firstly, please introduce yourself and your game?

Irini: I'm Irini Melas, Creative Director & Artist of Foodomina, and I am co-founding an Indie Studio start up- Lumelli Studios- with my Lead Programmer & Engineer, John Engstrom! We are a small team of passionate emerging developers, and Foodomina is our first key title.

Foodomina is a Storyrich, Sci-Fi, and Food vs Mold themed RPG, with Turn-based Combat and Bullet-hell Gameplay! You play as 2 food girls, Takoyaki & Tempura, and traverse space & planets, make other Foodian friends, and battle MOLD to save the Galaxy Foodomina from infection! But Moldians used to be Foodians... so... maybe there’s another way?

What is your background?

My co-founder and I are originally from the Northern Territory, and prior to pursuing Game Development, I was a casual Freelance Artist, deeply invested in the Art Community & Culture. We moved to Melbourne to pursue study and create our dream game, my co-founder graduating with a Bachelor of Programming, and myself with a Bachelor in Animation!

What made you decide to journey down the path of game development?

Foodomina originated as a narrative/creative pitch in 2020, that felt best adapted in the medium of a game. The concept is a combination of our favourite things. I loved designing & personifying inanimate objects, such as food, and we both deeply loved space, our favourite childhood games/media including Super Mario Galaxy, Destiny, and Steven Universe. We were very passionate about this idea and chose to pursue study in Melbourne to bring it to life!

What previous games have you created/worked on?

Foodomina is my first major key title. Lumelli Studios has previously produced a meditative fantasy VR experience for a VR Company, and John Engstrom is also working on Bugging Humans, a game in development & directed by Christy Dena, alongside Foodomina.

What are the core concepts?

Foodomina is identified by its fantasy sci-fi setting, and its particular use of Food and Mold world building to symbolize a greater narrative message on Unity & Harmony. Our game is playful & whimsy in nature... which is granted with the onslaught of food puns- however we are not afraid to subverse through occasional eldritch horror and morally complex, discomforting themes.

What were your inspirations?

Whilst inspired by fantasy sci-fi media, we are also inspired by traditional RPGs, such as Pokemon, Earthbound, Mario & Luigi RPGs, Paper Mario, Undertale/Deltarune, and Legends of Zelda. We hope to invoke nostalgia through our game while still bringing a refreshing modernization of certain features & graphics.

How long have you been working on this game?

Not including the portions of time between development, such as study, we have been developing Foodomina as a franchise for 20 months.

How has the game evolved since The Game Expo early this year?

Whilst our Story Demo's narrative progression has remained untouched, we have completely transformed our Battle System, making it more diverse, refreshing, challenging, and intriguing. The Battle System is what our players were desiring to see the most growth from, understanding the potential our unique mechanics had, but ultimately wanted more.

We have innovated on the traditional turn-based battle gameflow, including a variety of new mechanics and unlockable abilities to give players access to varied strategies. Our transformation also included bringing more variety to our Battles through designing new personable Enemies, and a rather interesting Boss Battle. We've developed a curated Battle Mode that is playable alongside the Story Demo, which includes exclusively Mold Battles that cannot be played within the Story Demo. This will be previewable in PAX Rising exclusively at the moment, we will be releasing our Official Story Demo & Battle Mode on Steam soon.

What is it like to have the game showcased at events such as PAX Aus?

We are incredibly excited! This will be our first PAX Rising, and we are doing everything we can to maximise the space we have through showcasing art books, a large merch collection, & prizes along-side our Game.

What advice have you got for upcoming game developers?

For developers interested in professional indie development & creating a business, we would greatly recommend putting time and care into your game presence as a business, adn your marketing presence for events! Decorating your booth, taking into account surveys, posters, etc, can really impact your event presence. Having an accessible Press-Kit or general game information as soon as possible, is also incredibly beneficial if you want to make talking about your game more accessible to journalists, content creators, and general consumers.

What advice have you received that you have held onto throughout your journey?

Conducting industry standard QA, and implementing the act of collating QA data as part of your production pipeline. We had a wonderful mentor during our studies, who shared the importance of moderation theory, and qualitative/quantitative data. Since then we have made an active effort to include robhust & curated QA sessions of different groups/demographics as part of our development milestones, to make our game the best it can be!

Have you had any mentors in the gaming industry?

I have had many mentors I am immensely grateful for throughout our development journey for various topics important to pursuing the games industry, such as business, marketing, writing, and QA. I would like to thank Ceri Hutton, Zhia Zhariko, Fae Daunt, Nat Texler, and Trinski Liwanag for being wonderful beacons of light throughout Lumelli Studios & Foodomina's Game Development journey!

How many PAX Aus events have you attended (as both a developer and as a regular attendee)?
PAX Aus 2024 & PAX Rising is Lumelli Studios second ever PAX experience! Our first PAX experience was last year, where we had the opportunity to showcase an older version of the Foodomina Demo in the Together Lounge.