Tj Hughes’ first video game, which is being released on February 1, may be a creation of fantasy featuring imaginary creatures, but it sure sounds like reality. In his game, you have to prey upon smaller life forms, while avoiding being eaten by larger life forms, and the reward for survival is you get to evolve.
The game is called “Feesh,” which is the name of his imaginary creations that you impersonate when you play the game. A “feesh,” in Hughes’ imaginary aquatic world, is a tiny microorganism resembling a fish.
“Your goal is simple,” Hughes said: “eat smaller feesh to get bigger, and avoid bigger feesh. If you survive in the game long enough, you’ll evolve into a different type of feesh. But watch out for sharks!”
“Feesh” – priced with maximum affordability at $1 – is being released on the interactive gamer platform Steam. Hughes submitted the game to the platform for peer review, and after three months it had received enough votes from the community to be approved for release.
“Feesh” features music by one of his friends from Crossroads College Preparatory School, Matt Austin, who is known in the music scene as RDTR Productions. “He produces many genres of music, including electronic, trap, chill wave, hip-hop and R&B, and he’s always blending the aforementioned genres,” Hughes said.
Hughes, 19, is a very recent graduate of the school. A self-taught programmer and game designer, he already is working full-time in the field at Rampant Interactive, based in Maplewood, where his first major project was the digital installation included in “Kota: Digital Excavations in African Art” at Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
He made his first draft of “Feesh” while a high school student at the fresh age of 16. He made it as part of the Ludum Dare, a 48-hour “game jam” where contestants from all over the world have two days to design a game starting with the same prompt.
“It is not so much a competition, so much as everyone participating just with the goal of making something cool,” Hughes said.
The prompt for Ludum Dare 24 (hosted August 24-27, 2012), when Hughes made his first draft of “Feesh,” was “evolution.”
“It was a long 48 hours, but by the end of it I had something totally made,” Hughes said. “I had never finished a game before, so it was so exciting for me. I decided to polish the game up and sell it.”
“Feesh,” released on Hughes’ Terrifying Jellyfish imprint, is available at http://store.steampowered.com/app/415240.
