Flipline Blog

The Flipline blog is where information about flipline.com is posted on their site.

The categories are :

Awards (For "Best of 2011")

Fan Art (posted rarely)

Flipdeck (posted every Tuesday) (the recent flipdeck is 48 : Bruna Romano)

Foodini's Friday Games (every Friday)

Holiday (St. Patrick's Day, Easter, April Fools (Chiliria), Cinco de Mayo, 4th of July & 5th Year Celebration of Papa's Pizzeria)

New Game (when a new Flipline game is released)

Papa's Next Chefs (Weekly Contest. Every year)

Preview (Previews for the upcoming games)

Quinn's Q&A (every 1 or 2 weeks) (questions from Flipline Uservoice)

Tips and Tricks (some tips for the games)

Uncategorized (blog posts that are uncategorized)

Update (Update for the website and the games)

Foodini's Friday Games
When Flipline features games outside of Flipline, they post them every Friday. The old banner featured Akari and Robby with thumbs up. The current banner features Foodini to the left of the image saying "Wanna Play?"

Games Mentioned So Far in the Foodini's Friday Games section :
 * Temple Glider
 * Battle PanicFoodini_Friday_Games.jpg
 * Front Runner
 * Flight
 * Hungry Sumo
 * Mega Mash
 * Space Punk Racer
 * Diamond Hollow II
 * Final Ninja Zero
 * Cursed Treasure (Level Pack)
 * Wonderputt
 * Trigger Knight
 * Rubble Trouble Tokyo
 * Pirateers
 * Angry Bees
 * BasketBalls (Level Pack)
 * Double Edged
 * Johnny Upgrade
 * Paladog
 * Big Time Butter Baron
 * Test Subject Blue
 * Harry Quantum (Episode 1)
 * Hambo
 * Enigmata : Stellar War
 * Dirk Valentine and the Fortress of Steam
 * Weirdtris
 * Tiny Airships
 * Reprisal
 * Twin Shot 2 : Good and Evil
 * Notebook Wars 3
 * Monster Castle
 * Magic Smash Hammer
 * Fat Cat
 * Kamikaze Pigs
 * Harry Quantum (Episode 2)
 * Keeper of the Grove
 * Super Treadmill
 * Wigman Big Run
 * Mimelet
 * Simple Motions II
 * Chisel
 * Hambo 2 : The HamTouchables
 * Tokyo Guinea Pop
 * Sugar, Sugar 2
 * Skywire 2
 * Wizard Walls
 * Icy Fishes
 * Silly Sausage
 * Elemental Balance
 * Trophiends
 * Cave Chaos
 * Monster Must Die
 * Resistance is Useless
 * Bullethead
 * Orcana's Defender
 * Dibbles 3
 * Chisel 2
 * Planet Juicer
 * Turbo Golf
 * Test Subject Green
 * Super Adventure Pals
 * Drift Runners 3D
 * Rubble Trouble New York
 * Cargo Bridge II
 * Kleine Castle
 * Flash Cat
 * Knightmare Tower
 * ZomBalloons!
 * Ice Breaker
 * Kingdom Rush
 * Amigo Pancho 2 : New York Party
 * Bad Ice Cream
 * Ninja Painter 2
 * Litle Romeo and Juliet
 * Jacksmith (although this is a Flipline game)
 * Rogue Soul : Run for Reward...
 * Hue Brix
 * Pheus & Mor
 * Ninja Cannon
 * Into Space 2
 * Netbots
 * StickyLinky
 * Rbots
 * Death vs Monstars
 * Pocket Creatures PVP
 * They Took Our Candy
 * Flightless
 * Flippin' Dead
 * Future Budy

Quinn's Q&A
Quinn's Q&A are selected questions from Flipline Uservoice. The banner features an angry Quinn yelling at Matt and Tony while pointing her finger at them.

Questions So Far :

PRE-PAPA DAYS & REAL LIFE CUSTOMERS :

Besides Matt, Tony, Mandi & Doan, are there any other customers that are real?

Matt and Tony answered "This is a pretty straightforward question. As you know the customers  Matt and Tony are us, the real Matt and Tony from Flipline Studios. Mandi is Tony’s wife in real life, and she actually owns that outfit. Doan is a buddy of ours that went to college with us, and his Flipdeck has many similarities to his real professions. As far as other customers go, only Johnny and Georgito are very very very loosely based off of real people, while everyone else is strictly fictional."

If Flipline was made in 2004, why was the first game (Papa Louie : When Pizzas Attack) made in 2006?

Matt and Tony answered "In college we collaborated together and made several games for different classes, and decided to start a company together when we graduated. We graduated college in 2004 and started Flipline — at the time it was called Flipline IDS (Interactive Design Studios) . During that period (2004-2006), we were working on some fun stuff and some not-so-fun stuff. We did a lot of client work to try to pay the bills, including websites for technology firms, 3D visualizations for construction companies, and doing graphic design for consulting firms. But during that time we were also developing a cartoon series that never quite made if off the ground. It’s called Freezing Pointe, and it had a large cast of characters, locations, and episodes. During those first few years we managed to put together a hefty pitch bible, a teaser/trailer, and some fully written episodes."

The blog post features the pictures of the hefty pitch bible : Ross and Eddie (they also resemble the penguins from Club Penguin, except their thinner)

The question said that Papa Louie : When Pizzas Attack is the first game. It is actually the third, after Meteor Blastor and Guppy Guard Express.

PIZZERIA AND CREATING GAMES :

How long does it take to make one of your games?

Matt and Tony answered "It really varies for each game, and depends on how many new things we’re adding and if it’s a brand-new title — though sequels can also take a long time! For one of Papa’s Gamerias, it generally takes anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks of working full-time on the game before it’s ready to release. Some elements of gameplay don’t take long since they stay pretty similar (like taking orders and handling tickets), but we spend a lot of time working on how to turn the food’s preparation into something fun to play. We also try to keep adding new elements to the series like mini-games, decorating, and custom workers, so each of these add some extra time for development.

When we develop brand-new games for a new series there is some extra work involved, so they may take around 3 or 4 months! The first Cactus McCoy game took over 3 months to develop, and even though we could use some code and level editors from our previous games, the game had a brand new way of fighting and exploring that took some time to fine-tune until it was ready. We thought the second Cactus McCoy game would go a lot faster since it was similar to the first game, but we added so many new elements that it took just as long as the first!

We’d love to release games quicker so everyone didn’t have to wait long for our next game, but there are only two of us here at Flipline, so we can only go so fast!"

'''Where are the Pizzeria and Taco Mia! located?'''

Matt and Tony answered "Our newer Gamerias always mention what town you’re in, but we didn’t really say where the earlier restaurants were located. For the record, Papa’s Pizzeria is located in the city of Tastyville, the Burgeria is located in the suburb of Burgerburgh, and Papa’s Taco Mia! is located in the nearby town of Tacodale."

What happened to the apartment above the Pizzeria?

Matt and Tony answered "The apartments are still there, but you only see the Pizzeria storefront during the game’s intro. Many of Papa’s loyal customers like Wally and James still live in the apartments despite being captured by Sarge and his Pizza Monsters during “When Pizzas Attack” — the food is just too good to leave! Big Pauly also still has his headquarters for Pauly’s Pepper right next door."

FLIPLINE STUDIOS NAME, SKYSTONE, AND PLATFORMERS :

Why did you call the company "Flipline Studios" 

Matt and Tony answered "While in college, we came up with the name for the company. We were planning on doing a large majority of web design work, so the initial criteria for the company name was that it had to rhyme with “design”, sound dynamic, and have a .com URL that wasn’t taken. We had a long list of potential names that we came up with, and after a week or so of thought, we settled on Flipline. After we graduated, we realized that Flipline Design sounded a little to rhyme-y, and decided on Flipline Interactive Design Studios, Flipline IDS for short. That name was later simplified to just Flipline Studios."

When will you finish Remnants of Skystone?

Matt and Tony answered "We consider Remnants of Skystone finished. Initially we were planning on 4 worlds, but Kongregate and ourselves struck a deal that instead of a fourth world, we would develop a subscription model into the game with more stat adjustments, extra attacks and other incentives. This was called the Nidarian Guard. The three worlds in the game are actually much larger than we planned as well — the entire game was originally only going to be the size of the first world! Unfortunately there’s not much closure to the story, we wish the final missions had wrapped things up a bit better.

'''Your first game, Remnants of Skystone, was probably the best platformer I've ever played, the cactus games were decent. Why not more of these?'''

Matt and Tony answered "Technically, Papa Louie: When Pizzas Attack was our first platformer. We love making side-scrolling platformers as much as we love playing them! We do plan on making more down the road, although nothing quite as massive as Remnants of Skystone."

UNIFORMS, TOPPINGS AND RESTAURANTS :

How come Rita, Roy, Mitch, and Maggie walk around with their uniforms on?

Matt and Tony answered "After working all day in the Burgeria, Rita doesn’t have time to stop home and change, she heads straight to the Wingeria for dinner! Actually, sometimes we think a customer looks more interesting wearing their uniform than wearing their normal clothes (like Maggie), so they keep that clothing in the other games.  Mitch is actually wearing his normal shirt, it just looks a lot like his uniform!"

Although the question is just about Rita, Roy, Mitch and Maggie, Cooper walks around with his uniform on, as well.

Why is there no chocolate sauce in Papa's Pancakeria?

Matt and Tony answered "We’ve never seen chocolate sauce on breakfast before! Usually you find chocolate chips for pancakes and waffles, so we added those as a topping and a mixable. Figuring out what ingredients to include in Papa’s restaurants can be a challenge though. Since the games are played all around the world, sometimes the foods that we’re used to seeing in the United States may seem strange to people in other countries (we’ve gotten emails from people who hadn’t heard of tacos until playing Papa’s Taco Mia!). We do try to choose toppings that are well-known worldwide, though sometimes we just make things up, like Sarge Fan’s favorite “Wild Onion” sauce."

Do you plan to create any more restaurant games?

Matt and Tony answered "We’re always looking for new ideas for Papa’s next restaurant, and we’ll have another one coming soon — the weekly “Papa’s Next Chefs” competition here on the blog lets you vote on the employees for the new restaurant. We have a list of ideas for other foods we’d like to do, but if there’s a restaurant you’re dying to see, feel free to share your suggestion on the Flipline Forum!"

ALL ABOUT JACKSMITH :

'''Why are the weapons in Jacksmith built the way they are? Bow's don't have hinges!'''

Matt and Tony answered "We took some liberties with weapon crafting in Jacksmith to make things more interesting and to get some fun moments of gameplay, so the steps you use aren’t quite how you would actually build those weapons in real life! We did a lot of research on how to make all of the weapons in the game, but some things we twisted or removed for the sake of gameplay, and others things we invented, like hinged metal bows (so we could still use the forge for crafting bows).

Gold is soft, why would you make weapons out of it in Jacksmith?

Matt and Tony answered "We took some liberties here too! For the strength of different metals, we kept some things basically correct — bronze really is stronger than copper, and steel is stronger than plain iron — but for the top-tier metals we decided to go with elements that looked strong even though they’re not. A crystal axe would be terrible in battle, but it sure does look epic!"

Did you have any other ideas for animal warriors before you finalized the current lineup?

Matt and Tony answered "We had a handful of ideas for who the warriors and the blacksmith could be before we settled on our current group. We first decided to go with animal characters instead of regular people like in Papa’s Gamerias, and came up with different groups of animals that would work well. One of our first ideas was to use tiny animals like mice, where everything in the game would be a much smaller scale. Since we were crafting regular-sized weapons that people would use though, we decided to go with larger barnyard animals. We also considered a duck and a horse as some of the warrior animals, but our weapons seemed to fit the other animals better."

ABANDONMENT, CUSTOMERS, AND INFINITE PLAY :

Why does Papa Louie abandon his chefs?

Matt and Tony answered "It’s true, Papa Louie has been known to abandon his chefs. In Papa’s Pizzeria and Pancakeria, Papa Louie leaves a note asking for help while he’s off running errands and going on “adventures”. This is usually a last-minute thing that Papa must do, and has every intention of returning soon, but rarely does.

Then you have other games where Papa Louie pulls what appears to be a “bait and switch” on his customers. This is where Papa Louie has a contest or a prize for his lucky customer which ends up being a job at one of his latest restaurants. Papa Louie loves his customers and truly thinks it’s a great prize to work at one of his many restaurants, although the workers don’t always see it that way.

Finally, you have scenarios where Papa is outright hiring and people apply for the job. This happened in Papa’s Freezeria. It was understood that Papa would leave (presumably on vacation), but his job booklet may have been a bit misleading.

Papa Louie has good intentions and he loves cooking, so it’s hard for him to imagine anyone who wouldn’t love flipping burgers and stacking pancakes all day long."

Who is your favorite character (not Papa Louie)?

Tony answered "My favorite non-Gameria character would have to be Cactus McCoy. My favorite customer would have to be Little Edoardo. Every time he come into a restaurant, I can’t help but smile and imagine him going crazy on a pair of bongo drums"

Matt answered "I’m also a big fan of McCoy, though my favorite non-Gameria character right now is the sheep with a mustache in Jacksmith, makes me laugh every time I see him. It’s hard to choose a favorite Gameria customer, but I’ve always loved seeing Wally when he visits the restaurants."

Why are all the Papa's games endless?

Matt and Tony answered "We tend to consider the games completed when you unlock Papa Louie. However we also have badges, prizes to win, things to buy, and customers to level up. So the game is left open so that you can continue working towards your own personal goals in the game.