Flipline Blog

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

Categories

 * Awards (For Awards)


 * Fan Art (posted sometimes if your art is good)


 * Flipdeck (posted once every week) (the recent flipdeck is 76: Radley Madish (Every Week)


 * 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 (questions from Flipline Uservoice) (Every Week)


 * 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 :

May 4th 2012 May 11th 2012 May 18th 2012 May 25th 2012 June 1st 2012 June 8th 2012 June 15th 2012 June 22nd 2012 June 29th 2012 July 6th 2012 July 13th 2012 July 20th 2012 July 27th 2012 (Nitrome) August 3rd 2012 August 10th 2012 August 17th 2012 August 24th 2012 August 31st 2012 September 7th 2012 September 14th 2012 September 21st 2012 September 28th 2012 October 5th 2012 October 12th 2012 October 19th 2012 October 26th 2012 November 2nd 2012 November 9th 2012 November 16th 2012 November 23rd 2012 November 30th 2012 December 7th 2012 December 14th 2012 December 21st 2012 December 28th 2012 January 4th 2013 January 11th 2013 January 18th 2013 January 25th 2013 February 1st 2013 February 8th 2013 February 15th 2013 February 22nd 2013 ​March 1st 2013 ​March 8th 2013 ​March 15th 2013 ​March 22nd 2013 ​March 29th 2013 ​April 5th 2013 ​April 12th 2013 ​April 19th 2013 April 26th 2013 May 3rd 2013 May 10th 2013 May 17th 2013 May 24th 2013 May 31st 2013 June 7th 2013 June 14th 2013 June 21st 2013 June 28th 2013
 * Temple Glider (Nitrome)
 * Battle Panic (Ninja Kiwi)Foodini_Friday_Games.jpg
 * Front Runner (Uncle Handsalt)
 * Flight (Armor Games)
 * Hungry Sumo (Ninja Kiwi)
 * Mega Mash (Nitrome)
 * Space Punk Racer (LongAnimals)
 * Diamond Hollow II (Arkeus)
 * Final Ninja Zero (Nitrome)
 * Cursed Treasure (Level Pack) (IrlySoft)
 * Wonderputt (Damp Gnat)
 * Trigger Knight (Mintsphere)
 * Rubble Trouble Tokyo (Nitrome)
 * Pirateers (Labu Games)
 * Angry Bees (ShahSoft)
 * BasketBalls (Level Pack) (LongAnimals)
 * Double Edged (Nitrome)
 * Johnny Upgrade (Gameshot)
 * Paladog (Fazecat)
 * Big Time Butter Baron (Megadev)
 * Test Subject Blue (Nitrome)
 * Harry Quantum (Episode 1) (LongAnimals)
 * Hambo (robotJAM)
 * Enigmata : Stellar War (KidGamez)
 * Dirk Valentine and the Fortress of Steam (Nitrome)
 * Weirdtris (Mauft)
 * Tiny Airships (Rubicon Paradox)
 * Reprisal (Last17)
 * Twin Shot 2 : Good and Evil (Nitrome)
 * Notebook Wars 3 (Matakukos)
 * Monster Castle XP (Fliptiko)
 * Magic Smash Hammer (NSBrotherhood)
 * Fat Cat (Nitrome)
 * Kamikaze Pigs (Mostro Games)
 * Harry Quantum (Episode 2) (LongAnimals)
 * Keeper of the Grove (Booblyc)
 * Super Treadmill (Nitrome)
 * Wigman Big Run (Mini Duck Studio)
 * Mimelet (Neutronized)
 * Simple Motions II (Roman Konyukhov)
 * Chisel (Nitrome)
 * Hambo 2 : The HamTouchables (Rob Donkin & robotJAM)
 * Tokyo Guinea Pop (LongAnimals)
 * Sugar, Sugar 2 (Bonte Games)
 * Skywire 2 (Nitrome)
 * Wizard Walls (NSBrotherhood)
 * Icy Fishes (Silen Games)
 * Silly Sausage (Nitrome)
 * Elemental Balance (irRegular Games)
 * Trophiends (Jay is Games)
 * Cave Chaos (Nitrome)
 * Monster Must Die (Game Ark)
 * Resistance is Useless (Pozirk Games)
 * Bullethead (Nitrome)
 * Arcana's Defender (Studio Wonder)
 * Dibbles 3 (thePodge)
 * Chisel 2 (Nitrome)
 * Planet Juicer (Yellowbouncyball)
 * Turbo Golf (TurboNuke)
 * Test Subject Green (Nitrome)
 * Super Adventure Pals (Jay Armstrong Games, not to be confused with Jay Is Games)
 * Drift Runners 3D (LongAnimals)
 * Rubble Trouble New York (Nitrome)
 * Cargo Bridge II (Limex Games)
 * Kleine Castle (Dragosha)
 * Flash Cat (Nitrome)
 * Knightmare Tower (Juicy Beast)
 * ZomBalloons! (Armor Games)
 * Ice Breaker (Nitrome)
 * Kingdom Rush (Ironhide Game Studio)
 * Amigo Pancho 2 : New York Party (Conmer Game Studios)
 * Bad Ice Cream (Nitrome)
 * Ninja Painter 2 (Silen Games)
 * Litle Romeo and Juliet (Difference Games)
 * Jacksmith (Flipline Studios)
 * Rogue Soul : Run for Reward... (SoulGame)
 * Hue Brix (Yellow Monkey Studios)
 * Pheus & Mor (Pegas Games)
 * Ninja Cannon (OttoMoto)
 * Into Space 2 (Barbarian Games)
 * Netbots (Sunrize)
 * StickyLinky (Gluey Games)
 * Rbots (A10)
 * Death vs Monstars (GameReclaim)
 * Pocket Creatures PVP (NTFusion)
 * They Took Our Candy (Rachid1984)
 * Flightless (Demo) (Nitrome)
 * Flippin' Dead (Juicy Beast)
 * Future Buddy (Steeraj G.H.)
 * Scarlet Stranger (Armor Games)
 * Takeover (Irysoft)
 * Apocalipseed (Fliptiko)
 * Monster Saga (Artlogic Games)
 * Shaun the Sheep : Home Sheep Home 2 : Lost Underground (Aardman Digital)
 * City Seige 4 : Alien Siege (The Podge)
 * Mushbits (Z3lf)
 * Stop GMO (Dennatolich)
 * Fruits (Anton Koshechkin and Conmer Game Studios)
 * Soccer Balls 2 (TurboNuke)
 * Steampunk Odyssey (mif2000)
 * Unfreeze Me (PspMiracle)
 * Zombies vs Penguins 2 (Keybol)
 * Pinata Hunter (Megabyte)
 * Minecart Madness (Hard Circle)
 * Dibbles 4: A Christmas Crisis (The Podge)
 * PaintWorld (Pecher)
 * Transmorpher (Flash Rush Games)
 * Incursion (Booblyc)
 * SkullFace (Greg Sergeant)
 * Flying Cookie Quest (Longanimals)
 * Icy Gifts 2 (Silen Games)
 * 60 Seconds Santa Run (Whileworking)
 * Snowmen (Serkanus)
 * Avalanche (Nitrome)
 * Symbiosis (The Gamest Studio)
 * A Short History of the World (State of Play Games)
 * Nightflies (Anton Koshechkin & Maxim Yurchenko)
 * Bubble Tanks TD2 (Hero Interactive)
 * Pix City (Rasmusiboy)
 * Hero's Arms (Berzerk Studio)
 * Snowball (Pixeljam)
 * Enola: Prelude (Grindhead)
 * Fort Blaster (Koseki)
 * Catch a Duck (Full2D)
 * Georganism 3 (Karma Team)
 * Fractured (GroZZleR)
 * Abduction XP (Fliptico)
 * Monster Legions (Nerdook)
 * Lockehorn (Nitrome)
 * Demons vs Fairyland (StormAlligator)
 * Super Sub Hero (Ticklebot)
 * Nano Kingdoms 2 (Trutruka)
 * Bloons Tower Defense 5 (Ninja Kiwi)
 * Samurai Autumn (Sun Studios)
 * Hot Air Jr. (Nitrome)
 * Band of Heroes (IriySoft)
 * Stop GMO 2: Underground (Dennatolich)
 * Renegade Racing (Stickleback Games)
 * Color Tanks (FunByJohn)
 * 400 Y ears (scriptwelder)
 * Swindler 2 (Nitrome)
 * Bunny Cannon (La Ventanita)
 * Llama in Your Face (Simon Parzer)
 * Cyclomaniacs Epic (TurboNuke)
 * Sheriff Sancho (Conmer Game Studios)
 * Splitman 2 (Keybol)
 * Rainbogeddon (Nitrome)
 * Epic Battle Fantasy 4 (Matt Roszak)
 * Raft Wars 2 (Martijn Kunst)
 * Bad Ice Cream 2 (Nitrome)
 * Searching for the Elephant (FunBun Games)
 * Desktop Racing 2 (Smokoko)
 * Cat God vs Sun King 2 (Nerdook)
 * Cargo Shipment: Chicago (Dynergy Games)
 * Snail Bob 2 (Hunter Hamster)
 * Qoosh (Aethos Games)
 * Photon Baby (Jeremias Babini)
 * Pursuit of Hat (Anton Rogov)
 * Mad Burger (Black Square)
 * Slice the Box (Oleg Kuzyk)
 * Piggy Wiggy Seasons (Anton Koshechkin & mAx)
 * Super Stock Take (Nitrome)
 * The King's League: Odyssey (Kurechii)
 * Wonder Rocket (JJWallace)
 * Resort Empire (Little Giant World)
 * Jim Loves Mary (Flazm)
 * Parking Hooligan 2 (Dennatolich)
 * Turbo Rally (TurboBoing)
 * Caribbean Admiral (Vogd)
 * Frizzle Fraz 3 (Andrew and Dmitry Borisov)
 * Feed Me Moar (Vinch)
 * Red Ball 4: Vol. 2 (Eugene Fedoseev and Oleh Akimov)
 * Aqua Boy (Duncan Fenn)
 * Super Duck Punch (Kongregate Games)
 * Snail Bob Space (Hunter Hamster)
 * Disaster Will Strike 2 (Anton Koshechkin)
 * Orbox C (Arseniy Shkljaev and Nicolay Davydov)
 * Forest Guardians (Jonathan Parsons)
 * Flip and Go (Lampogolovii and Leric)
 * Giants and Dwarves TD (Labu Games)
 * Monsterland 3 (Alma Games)
 * Coaster Racer 3 (LongAnimals and Biscuit Locker)
 * Papa Louie 2 (Flipline Studios)
 * Ninja Miner (Silen Games)
 * New Splitter Pals (Evgeny Karataev and Zarkua)
 * Monty's Moon (HighUp Studio)
 * Mushbits 2 (Z3lf)
 * Slime Laboratory 2 (Neutronized)
 * Karting Super Go (Insane Hero and Monkey moo)
 * Paintworld 2: Monsters (Vadim Pecherskiy)
 * Accurate Boy (Meetreen Games)
 * Rocket Pets (Jay Armstrong Games)
 * Reverse Boots (Denis Vasilev)
 * Bob the Robber 2 (Flazm)

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.

Smartphones, Restuarants, and Themes
In Papa’s Hot Doggeria, why are all the people playing on electronics?

Matt and Tony answered:Believe it or not, when we were working on Papa’s Pizzeria back in 2007, smartphones really didn’t exist yet! Nowadays it’s common to see people passing the time on their phones while they’re waiting to pick up food, so when we decided to update the customer animations and reactions in Papa’s Hot Doggeria, it seemed like it was time to bring everyone into the modern age with some brand-new smartphones. Sometimes you’ll also see them playing on their handheld game systems for some variety.

If you could go to a Papa Louie restaurant in real life, which one would you go to?

Matt answered:That’s a tough one, but I think I’d like to make a trip to Papa’s Wingeria. We usually make our customer selves order what we like, so I’d get the buffalo strips and atomic wings, and Starlight City just seems like a fun place to be. Tony answered: I would have to say Papa’s Freezeria! It’s one of the few restaurants in which everyones order sound delicious. I’ve started trying a few and found Sue’s to be my new favorite, Mint Cookie Dough! Plus Calypso Island is the place to be (when it’s not tourist season).

What do the Themes in Papa’s Hot Doggeria stand for?

Matt and Tony answered:We put all of the furniture into groups with similar-looking items for Papa’s Hot Doggeria, and gave each a Theme icon so you could tell they were related. We tried to label each Theme with the letter of the game that they’re related to, but sometimes we had to pick a different letter (couldn’t use “P” for both Pancakeria and Pizzeria). Here’s a cheat sheet of what each letter stands for:


 * H: Hot Doggeria


 * M: Maple Mountain (Pancakeria)


 * W: Wingeria


 * F: Freezeria


 * T: Taco Mia


 * B: Burgeria


 * P: Pizzeria


 * L: Louie (Papa Louie)


 * O: Onion or the O in Foodini

Changes, Papa Talk, and Sarge's Revenge
Why do some customers change their appearance?

Matt and Tony:In books, cartoons and video games, character evolution is bound to happen, and we totally embrace that idea here at Flipline Studios. It’s always interesting to look back on how characters change with time like early black-and-white Mickey Mouse cartoons or a pixelated “jumpman” who would soon become Super Mario. We feel the world of Papa Louie is alive and moving forward. The customers are like everyday people, trying out new hairstyles, getting new jobs, or dropping everything to pursue a lifelong dream.

Why doesn't Papa Louie or his customers talk?

Matt and Tony:The main reason why Papa Louie and his customers don’t talk is simply file size. Music and sound effects files are very large, while webgames need to be fairly small in file size. So when making a game for the web, we have to strategically choose just how much sound and music we can fit into the game before it gets too big. It would also be very complicated and potentially budget breaking to find quality voice actors for the 70+ customers we have. Plus now that we have gone so long without voice acting, we feel our fans already have imaginary voices for the customers, and if we tried to add voices now, it might be too jarring and weird. Much like how Link never speaks in Zelda games. But who knows, in the future files size might not be a factor, and voice acting might fit into a budget.

Is Sarge ever going to seek revenge on Papa Louie and/or his restaurants?

Matt and Tony:Sarge has been out of action for a while! One of our early ideas for Papa’s Pizzeria was to have more elements of the “food world” like the onion enemies crossing over into the restaurant world, but in the end we decided to keep them separate, so he hasn’t made an appearance since the original Papa Louie game. Sarge does make a cameo as the mascot of the Oniontown Crushers baseball team in Papa’s Hot Doggeria though. A few years ago, we were actually planning to give Sarge his very own game where he would gather troops of onions to make his comeback. We had to stop working on the game when Remnants of Skystone filled up our schedule, but maybe someday he’ll make his triumphant return!

Georgito, Game Consoles, and a Loco Mystery
Who are Georgito and Johnny loosely based off?

Tony: We say loosely because they don’t really reflect the real people they were once based off of. Georgito and Johnny are loosely based off of two of my friends. George was always persistent about me making him a customer. Not only a customer but a wealthy customer. Finally I told him I would, but he would be really short and sporting a monocle. John would always playtest our games as soon as they were released, so I thought I’d make a customer for him. And no, he’s not a lumberjack.

Why are your games not on the Wii, Xbox, Playstation, 3DS, etc?

Matt and Tony:We are just two guys working on games here at Flipline Studios. We try to keep a balance between releasing web games and porting our existing games to other devices. We have spent most of this year learning how to port to mobile phones and tablets. Coding games for those devices is similar to how we make webgames, and launching games on those devices is very straightforward. Currently, coding and launching a game for the home and handheld consoles like the Xbox 360 and Nintendo 3DS is much more complicated with many more barriers of entry. So although we will continue to make apps for phones and tablets, we are not quite ready to dive into the current console market.

What is the Loco Mystery Sauce recipe?

Don’t tell Papa Louie we told you, but here is his secret recipe for his Loco Mystery Sauce…

Ingredients:


 * 6 oz of Tastyville Tomato Paste


 * 2 tsp of cayenne pepper


 * 3 cups of water


 * 2 tbsp of Pauly’s Chili Powder


 * 2½ tsp of salt


 * 2 tsp of cornstarch


 * 2 tsp of white vinegar


 * 2 tbsp minced dried Purple Onions


 * 3 tbsp of Purple Hot Peppers


 * 1 Adult helper/supervisor

With the help of an adult, mix the tomato paste and water in a saucepan. Stir over medium heat until it’s nice and smooth. Then stir in the chili powder, cayenne pepper, salt, cornstarch, vinegar and dried onions. Chop up the purple peppers into very fine pieces (if you can’t find Purple Hot Peppers, you can substitute 2 tbsp of canned jalapeno slices). Add the chopped peppers to the saucepan and heat the sauce to boiling stirring occasionally. Once boiling, stir for 3 minutes then remove from the heat. Let the sauce cool, and then put into a sealed container and refrigerate.

Flipdecks, iPad Mini, and Papa Louie's Origins
Why don't you include more details like age, and nationality, in the customer profiles and Flipdecks?

Matt and Tony:Although we could add more info to Customer Profiles and Flipdecks, we try to avoid pinpointing an exact age and nationality for the customers. In our game Remnants of Skystone, we gave everyone birthdates, but it became very complicated as time progressed and we have since avoided giving specific ages to our characters. The closest we will get is saying that somebody is in high school, middle-aged, elderly, etc. We also don’t officially define customer’s nationalities because they live in a world where places like the United States, Sweden, Mexico, and other countries don’t exist. The most you will get is their hometown, so someone from Oniontown would probably be called an Oniontowner.

Does Papa's Burgeria HD work on the iPad Mini?

Matt and Tony:Yes, it will work just the same as it does on a full sized iPad.

Where did the name Papa Louie came from?

The original name for Papa Louie: When Pizzas Attack! was simply “Pizza Panic”. Where an adventurous pizza chef named Papa Lucci was on a mission to save his customers from cheesy Pizza Monsters. During development, another game called Pizza Panic came out and we had to think of a new name, so we renamed the game as “Papa Lucci: when Pizzas Attack”. However, seeing the name Papa Lucci written out had us worried that a good majority of people wouldn’t know how to pronounce Lucci (Loo-shee). So we decided to change his name to a more familiar-sounding name like Louie, and that’s when Papa Louie was created!

Skystone Origins, Back Ups, and Mrs. Romano
Who is Little Edoardo's wife, the mother of Bruna and Carlo?

Little Edoardo’s wife was the late Giordana Romano. Unfortunately, she passed away 10 years ago of old age (she was 8 years older than Little Edoardo).

What gave you your idea of your first game, Remnants of Skystone?

Remnants of Skystone was actually our fourth game (Papa Louie, Papa’s Pizzeria, and Rock Garden were released earlier).

After working on Papa Louie, we were throwing around ideas for a new platformer where different classes of characters had different platforming abilities, which would be used to navigate the same levels in different ways. We were also interested in making something with a larger interconnected map in Metroidvania style.

When Kongregate started funding large-scale games for its “Premium Games” program, we came back to this concept, and brainstormed on different ways characters could navigate a level. We eventually narrowed it down to ability sets of flying, climbing, and swinging, and figured out what types of combat would go best with with those movesets. Kongregate suggested pitching something with an edgier or grittier feel, so we imagined a sort of ruined world that these three types of characters were trying to reclaim. We started out with a Steampunk theme for our flying class of Aeronauts, and we strayed into tribal and mountain-climbing themes for the other classes to make them each unique and relate to their abilities. We’re big fans of the 16-bit Metroid and Castlevania platformers, so Skystone was very much inspired by those games.

Will be there a "save backup" function for the other Papa's games?

We have just updated Papa’s Freezeria and Papa’s Taco Mia with backups! Now all our Gamerias have “Save Backups” except Burgeria and Pizzeria, which unfortunately will not be getting the backup option because they’re made with earlier versions of Flash that won’t support it.

Customer Orders, Fast Food Jobs, and Relatives
'''What's the process for deciding on each customer's unique order? Do you keep a rough idea of the customers' personalities and try to match their orders to them?'''

We do keep track of many customers’ tastes, and use that to help us figure out their orders in each new game. When we’re first planning the new game and deciding when each topping will be unlocked, we try to match it with a customer who would order that topping. For example, Prudence ordered pickles in Burgeria (and has a dog named Pickle!), so she also appears when pickles are unlocked in Hot Doggeria. Later in the game, sometimes we realize we haven’t used much of an ingredient by a certain point, so a customer that’s unlocked around then will order that item (as long as it makes sense for that character).

We try to refer back to their previous orders as often as we can, so Wally continues to order mayo and seafood whenever they’re in a game, and Sarge Fan gets onions or Wild Onion sauce (or berries if he can’t get onions). Big Pauly always get something terribly unhealthy, though he’s making an effort in Hot Doggeria with some Diet Fizzo.

Have you ever worked in fast food yourselves?

Matt answered: I worked in a pizzeria during high school and college. Some nights it really would be as hectic as in the games, especially if someone was stuck doing everything alone like Roy does in Papa’s Pizzeria. Papa’s customers are very picky, but there were plenty of people like that in real life too: One customer always demanded a refund if his pizza wasn't cut perfectly evenly.

Tony answered: The closest thing to a job in fast food was working as a busboy at a TGI Fridays. I didn't get to cook or prep any food, but I was paid mainly in tips.

Just like Clover's brother is Marty, are there any more relatives?

Obviously, the Romano Family Quartet members are related. Vicky is Mindy’s mom and Xolo is Xandra’s brother. There are more relatives, but you will have to wait until a Flipdeck reveals it.

Filesize, Pinch Hitting, and a Mysterious Land
Where did Sarge came from?

Sarge and his minions come from the Land of Munchmore. Not much is known about this mysterious land that is populated by all sorts of wild, semi-intelligent food. Professor Fitz seems to think that it is a parallel world, a sort of alternate dimension. It appears that the only way to travel between worlds is through strange portals. When Sarge kidnapped the customers, these portals appeared within each of the apartments above Papa’s Pizzeria.

Why were some customers absent in Burgeria, Freezeria, and Pancakeria?

When making a Gameria, we try to keep the game’s filesize relatively low to keep load times fast. Some of those games (especially Pancakeria) were reaching our self imposed filesize cap, so we had to cut out some of the customers. However, as global internet speeds continue to increase, we have slowly raised our filesize cap. This means that some of the newer Gamerias have included all the current customers. Now that is the technical reason, but we much prefer the fun reasons, like Allan moving away for a few years or Mary’s fear of sailing.

'''Once in Papa's Hot Doggeria, Pinch Hitwell came in with a different uniform. Why does he change his outfit so much?'''

Pinch is a professional pinch hitter for Griller Stadium. Griller Stadium is an independent ballpark and each week it hosts a new home team. Pinch Hitwell’s plays for whoever is currently the home team. That is why you will see Pinch in a different uniform each week.

Mobile, McCoy, and Movies
Do you have any idea of launching another game for mobile devices?

We are definitely planning on releasing more apps for mobile devices. We already have the next one in mind and have most of the planning figured out for it. We can’t release any more details than that for now! It will be awhile before we start working on it though, because we have a few online games that we want to finish up first.

Are you planning to continue the Cactus McCoy series?

We do have plans on continuing the Cactus McCoy series! Unfortunately, Cactus McCoy games take a very long time to make. We had plans of making the next game in the series last year, but it didn't fit into our schedule and it had to be postponed. Before the game was delayed, we managed to get the pre-production done, the story hammered out, and some of the new weapons drawn up. We are also considering shortening the length of the games in order to better fit them into our schedule. Unfortunately, we don’t have a set date as to when work will resume on the next game. We just wanted to let all the Cactus McCoy fans out there know that we haven’t given up on our favorite green cowboy!

Will you guys make animations?

Wouldn't that be awesome! Unfortunately we are mainly focused on creating fun games for you guys and making animations would definitely cut into our schedule. So as of now, we have no plans on making animations, cartoons, or feature length movies.

Order Speed, Foodini, and Hot Chocolate!
'''When ordering (in a Gameria), why do some people talk faster than others? Is this on purpose?'''

In most of the Gamerias, when a customer earns five stars and gets a “Star Customer” award, they’ll start placing their orders faster. If you earn a Silver or Gold award for that customer, they’ll order even faster too.

What inspired you to introduce Foodini in Papa’s Pancakeria?

For every Gameria, we try to add some new features that improve the series, and give players more to do than just preparing the food. We wanted to add something that would break up the monotony of just doing the same thing day after day, so we decided mini-games in between days would be a fun break, and a great way to earn some new items in the game. Of course we needed a game show host for these new events, so Foodini joined the cast and the customer lineup as a glitzy, over-the-top announcer.

'''Why is there no hot chocolate in Papa’s Pancakeria? '''

In Pancakeria’s Drink Station, we focused on beverages that are typically served with breakfast (like coffee and juices). Although we have chocolate milk, we don’t have hot chocolate. We would have needed to add “Hot Water” as a liquid option. That would have been great for making hot chocolate, but the other combos would have been weird (hot cream water, iced hot water, and hot sugar water). The other option would have been a way to heat up the chocolate milk, but you wouldn’t really have time for that.

Leveling up, difficulties, and Papa Louie 2!
Why do you level up by earning money in Papa’s Pizzeria, when in the later games you level up by earning points?

You couldn’t spend your money on anything in Papa’s Pizzeria, so since it was a restaurant business we used money as if they were your points — you would level up by earning more money, and the high scores were shown as tips earned. We received a lot of feedback from the first game that players wanted to actually use the money they earned, so in Papa’s Burgeria we added a shop to buy upgrades. Since you could spend the money and run out, we couldn’t use it as a points system anymore for leveling up, so we added regular Points to the Gamerias after that.

What was the most difficult Papa’s game to make?

Each of the games have their own tough challenges while we’re making them, but the most difficult was probably Papa’s Wingeria. We had wanted to make a game with wings since Burgeria, but couldn’t quite figure out how to handle a Build Station, until we finally thought of arranging wings and sides on a platter. Figuring out the different patterns and how to score them took a long time, and we also went through many options for how the Fry Station and Sauce Station could work. On top of that, figuring out custom Workers was another big challenge, and designing all of the clothing options for them.

Is Papa Louie 2 done yet?

We have been very busy with Papa Louie 2! Matt just finished up all the sound effects and new music for the game, and we’re working on adding more details to all of the levels. We just have a short list of things left to do, and then it’s time for play-testing, where we make sure all of the skills are working nicely and all the challenges are doable. After we’ve started this we should have a better idea of when the game will be ready to release. We don’t have any new previews since we don’t wait to spoil any of the surprises with playable customers or our new lands and enemies, but stay tuned for more details on when the game will launch!