Building Friendship 2 + Baking
What’s up everyone! Here’s what we’re covering in today’s post:
Art updates
BAKING Updates
Art Updates
Here’s some updates to the artwork that is going to make up the town of Friendship in the game.
The last time we checked in on this building it just had a yellow tea kettle on top of it. I’ve added some additional detail over the past few weeks. There is now a seating area. There’s also an awning and even a name - Avril! Avril is named after Avril 50, a coffee shop in Philadelphia that I have many fond memories of. The real Avril was more than just a coffee shop - a very cool Iranian immigrant named John ran it and stocked it full of newspapers and magazines from around the world. He also had a deep-cut selection of cigarettes for sale that you couldn’t find just anywhere.
I would describe John’s demeanor as sort of Bill Belichick-ish - and as a lifelong Patriots fan, I say that with admiration. John was a man of few words and he always seemed to be carrying an air of grumpiness. He also could be outright disrespectful to people he didn’t like, which reminds me of Bill Belichick’s old press conferences. At least this is my memory of John- I was a customer from 2006-2010, so it’s been a while, and people change of course. Some recent reviews mention John being really friendly.
I remember once a woman was in the store and picked up some fancy drink that John had in his little drink cooler, and the woman was like, “You’re selling this for x dollars? Walmart sells these for $1 !!!!” to which John simply responded, “Does this look like a fucking Walmart?”
That was part of his charm though. Once you got to know him a bit and demonstrated that you weren’t annoying he was actually a really friendly and nice guy. Hope you’re doing well John!
Next up is an update to Friendship High - I’ve added some decorations to the roof. They are supposed to look like textbooks, and I have some pencils on top. The middle book is also a clock tower - you can see the “O” in “BIO” is a clock face.
I wouldn’t say I love this yet. I think this needs more time in the oven…but it’s getting somewhere.
Next up, we’ve got Diva on Fleek! Diva on Fleek is the name of a thrift / consignment store in Pittsburgh where I buy like 85% of all the clothes I own. The Diva herself (the woman who runs this business in Pittsburgh) said I was allowed to use the store’s name in the game - so here’s my first draft of it! It has a clothes rack out front that will eventually be full of clothes but right now it’s in progress.
Part of the game’s plot will feature the main character becoming more experimental and gender fluid in his dress, a questline that will run through the Diva on Fleek store.
The bowling alley now has some additional detail to it.
Our pizza shop has some new detail to it, and also a name - Stache’s. The name is an improvement on the closest pizza shop to my childhood house by the time I left it, Stash’s pizza. Unlike the other businesses referenced in this post, Stash’s pizza has all sorts of labor allegations against them among other controversies. Hence the rebrand to Stache’s. Actually I’m now realizing I need to add an “e” to the sign lol.
And that brings you to the present in game dev progress :)
Baking Updates
Let’s look at some recent bakes and chat about them!
The coolest bake recently is this one - the Hawaiian butter mochi! It was so freaking good. You make it with glutinous rice flour - regular rice flour doesn’t work as a substitute. I had never baked with this flour before / made mochi before and WOW it won’t be the last time. This recipe had a lot of coconut cream in it as well as 4 eggs so it tasted like an eggy coconut custard that had the texture of mochi.
This picture represents what has been going on with bread lately. Long time readers of the blog may remember that I had intended to start baking with a sourdough starter and was going down that kind of road at the end of last year. At the start of this year I borrowed some sourdough starter from someone in the neighborhood dog crew (a human). It kind of went like my sourdough experiments last year…I didn’t stick with it. For now at least I think I’m a commercial yeast guy. Maintaining the starter hasn’t been fun for me. I’ve still been baking tons of bread though - most of which looks much like the loaf pictured above!
This is a representative picture of all the pizza making that has been going down. Making pizza is my favorite thing to do right now. I try to make pizza once a weekend, ideally for invited guests! PIZZA! I’ve been doing a lot of pies with pancetta and ricotta. I also did a pineapple and pancetta pizza at one point that I would do again. Pictured is just a classic cheese though. Actually the bottom right slice is from the pineapple and pancetta pie I think I see it O_O
My new desk mat / mouse pad
The only pizza seasoning I trust
That’s all for me! Thanks for reading and have an awesome day!
