Q&A with Riv Hester of Pepper Grinder
Within our typo and queso stained contracts with developers, there’s something in there about nervously asking them questions from time to time for marketing purposes. I leaped to my keyboard and reached out to Riv Hester of Ahr Ech, a pixel artist, animator, game dev generalist and main developer of Pepper Grinder for some answers to my questions. Along with Riv, Pepper Grinder would not have existed without the help from Xeecee, who made the amazing music and Mathias from MP2 Games, who handled all porting and support tech. In celebration of today’s release on both PlayStation and Xbox, answers to questions can be read at any leisure below or above ground.
What are the biggest creative inspirations you have for your game’s design, mechanics, story and/or art style? (Can be non-games, or a life experience, etc.)?
Riv: Lots of stuff! The core mechanic was always Dig-Dug plus Ecco the Dolphin in my head, and the world structure owes a lot to Donkey Kong Country 2. But there's just as much less specific inspiration coming from other media like Mad Max and Tank Girl, Gurren Lagann, various horror novels, it's hard to keep track of what all went into it. And of course just digging holes in the backyard as a kid. For some reason I often just wanted to dig a hole big enough to sit in and read a book? Couldn't tell you why.
Are there hobbies, trips, people, or moments in life you can tell us about that were key to your decision to create this game (or games in general)?
Riv: I've kinda always wanted to make games in some capacity, or animated film, or animatronics, or just anything that could seem to live on its own somehow once you got it to a certain point. Dead things that feel alive and the particulars of how you go about achieving that feeling of life, conceptually, just really fascinates me. So trips to places like the Model Railroad Museum in San Diego, California would hit that note for me just as much as seeing Jan Švankmajer's 1988 film Alice, in which his take on the White Rabbit is a stop-motion animated taxidermied animal that breaks out of its display case. Most of all though I think playing with LEGO fed into making me a game designer. That's where I learned to design spaces for things to occupy, putting dioramas together with moving parts and hidden features. I still use LEGO for prototyping level layouts sometimes!
What are you skilled at or interested in beyond game development? (example: Do you have mad hydroponic gardening skills or were you formerly an opera singer? Are you a coffee aficionado?)
Riv: I like to cook! I mostly just make diner fare but I can ape most styles and improvise stuff pretty well. I can also dress stab wounds for unexpected trips to the hospital.
Which game element do you think no one will notice that you’re most proud of? Riv: This ties back to making things feel alive, but the Marauder Beach sticker book page you can unlock has shy little fish swimming around in one corner, and they'll get spooked by the cursor moving around while you're placing your stickers. I just think little details like that are fun, though I'm sure most players don't care.
What could you easily talk about for two hours?
Riv: Godzilla! … Should I actually do that?
What has been the most difficult part of game development?
Riv: Tuning difficulty for sure. With Pepper Grinder I initially started from a comfortable baseline for myself and ramped up from there, but early tester feedback was all over the place. Mostly trending toward feeling the game was too hard, but a few outliers wanted a lot more challenge. What do you do with that? I had to recognize that my comfortable baseline was probably a little too high to start off with since, y'know, I knew exactly how everything worked. But I also wanted to give those outliers the challenge they wanted too, since their playstyles seemed more like mine. Ultimately half the solution was improving the ways levels introduce concepts so it's really clear what the strategy is, and the other half was just being less punishing when players did fail, so they weren't sent back quite so far and could try again right away. That way I could ask quite a lot of someone's traversal skills without it stinging too much when a little practice was needed. I know some still feel there are some pretty brutal difficulty spikes in the game, but most seem to get by fine and I'm personally really happy with where it's at in the final version.
What would you choose to be your personal theme song whenever you entered a room?
Riv: Probably just the Wilhelm Scream.
What is your favorite video game of all time?
Riv: There are a lot of contenders, and I feel like my answer is always different, but this week it's Omega Boost. It's Polyphony Digital's only non-racing title and a very cool take on mecha shooter action. What game do you replay the most and why?
Riv: Jet Set Radio Future! It's fun, it's stylish, it's not terribly long and I can't help playing through it at least once a year. The contenders to that game's throne have all been cool but for one reason or another haven't been for me, so I'm really hoping SEGA sticks the landing with this new one they announced.
Which part of gaming culture (fan-created mods, cosplayers, speedrunners, fan art, fan translations, or something else altogether) fascinates you most and why?
Riv: Definitely speed running. In a lot of ways, I made Pepper Grinder with that in mind, and they STILL managed to surprise me with the tech they came up with to get through it faster in this year's Summer Games Done Quick. That was incredible to see, shoutout to the runner, shovelclaws. The tenacity and sheer will it takes to dig into every corner of a game to find new ways to exploit or break its systems, and the player expression that comes out through that is just so fun to behold.
Pepper Grinder is OUT NOW for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.