The Road to Riley Short

Back in 2007, I got the ambitious idea to turn a story of mine into an animated short. Loving animation yet having absolutely zero experience producing it, I figured out what needed to be done, saved a ridiculous amount of my meager salary, found and hired talented people to do the things I couldn’t do myself (like animate), and in 2009, “Kid with a Rocket Launcher: The Fuzz of War” was completed.
Again in 2011, I did it all once more, for a completely different idea of mine. It took 2 years again, a ton of my own hard-earned money again, and “TeaKitties” was finally born in 2013. I even managed to do the storyboards for that one on my 3DS (with the ‘Colors! 3D’ app).
I did those two animated shorts because I love being creative. I threw a large percent of my annual, modest office manager salary at them to make stories that I could be proud of, even if not many people could see them. I love KWARL and TEAK, and they will forever be a part of my creative DNA.

In 2015, I got the itch to do it again. However, instead of simply doing another animated short, I was inspired by all the talk about VR, and along with Unity suddenly offering their software for free, I decided to turn my new idea into a VR experience (with some fun 2D animation included).
March 9th, 2015. That was the day I realized I should make Riley into something to enjoy in VR. March 10th, 2015, I downloaded Unity for the first time and got to work learning the program from scratch. I can’t remember a time in my life I wasn’t playing video games, but I had never seriously considered making a game before that day. I estimate the first year of development was spent coming to grips with Unity (thank you tutorial videos), while year 2 was spent actually building Riley toward my vision. Mention must also be made of the very talented freelance artists from across the globe who contributed to this project. One of the other reasons I do complicated things like this is to work along with other creative individuals toward a common goal. It’s educational, inspiring and rewarding.

So what you now see before you, on Steam, for $7.99 (and $3.99 for the soundtrack!), is my newest 2-year+, self-funded, creative effort. I sincerely hope you enjoy it.

About the Game

Riley Short: Analog Boy Episode 1 - “In Cupcake Memoriam”

This is the story of a kid who doesn’t fit in.
Hovering cars, sentient refrigerators, robots living alongside humans, and Riley can’t touch any of it.
You are Riley Short, a weird little brother who shorts out any electronics he touches in his near-future world, and you’re out for revenge in your older sister’s room. With your family’s refrigerator, Fridge, egging you on, you will ransack Clarice Short’s room to find electronic items to short out in the name of little-brotherly vengeance.

• Featuring the vocal talents of Mela Lee as Clarice Short & Paul Rugg as Fridge
• Characters designs by webcomic artist Andy Klute
• Original music to get you in the shorting mood. Soundtrack also available
• Powered by VRTK – Virtual Reality Toolkit
• Includes fancy original animation sequences in glorious 2D
• Your Vive Controllers become the grabby hands of Riley. Do be careful
• Riley can “dash” around (Vive Touchpad) if your play space is confined, or you can walk about as normal if you happen to be play-area-blessed
• 11 Achievements to discover
• A couple rather awesome hidden areas
• New arcade mode: Riley Rush

Recommended Vive volume: 50%