An analysis of the core mechanics, game pillars, and strengths/weaknesses.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is a top-down, action-adventure game developed by a small indie game studio, Snoozy Kazoo. In this game, players take on the role of a turnip whose cozy home is threatened by the consequences of falling behind on tax payments. Unfortunately for that turnip, Mayor Onion enlists in a series of quests to pay back his debt.
Core Mechanics
Time & Space
Time and space are intertwined narratively. Rather than freely exploring a continous game world, the players progress through the game by completing puzzles in a set order. The game is starts off in Veggieville, Turnip Boy’s hometown, but players get access to other areas as they complete quests and defeat enemies/bosses.
Objects
The key game objects found in the game are the following:
- NPCs: characters that provide the players with hints or guidance.
- Items: various objects, ranging from keys to bandaids.
- Enemies: creatures like slugs and rats that must be defeated using swords or bombs.
- Obstacles: stones, bushes and vines that can be destroyed using certain items.
- Collectibles: wearable hats and stickers that are collected over the course of the game.
Actions
The developers kept the number of actions quite small for simplicity sake. They are easy to learn and are accessible to players of all different types of skill levels.
Players can: (1) Interact with objects & NPCs (2) Use their active tool (3) Select their active tool (4) Dodge (or “Trip”)
Core Game Loop
Like other top-down 2D dungeon crawlers, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion follows a similar recipe. It’s core game loop is as follows: (1) Exploration, (2) Combat (3) Solve Puzzles (4) Collect Items.
Game Pillars
Pillar One — Humor & Absurdity
The game aims to be lighthearted and entertaining through inserts of pop culture references and quirky, satirical humor. The humor permeates from the dialogue to the character design and different
Pillar Two — Exploration
Players are encouraged to explore the world and uncover hidden pathways and secrets.
Pillar Three — Combat
Players battle it out with hostile creatures, while exploring. Along the way, players are able to buy and find weapons to improve their strength when dealing with bosses.
Strengths
- Humor: One of the games biggest strengths is its tongue-in-cheek humor. It’s what truly sets it apart from other games in the genre. From poking fun at video game conventions to funny character designs, the game developers sought out to create a unique and memorable experience for players.
- Visual Style: The game features a charming 2-D retro meets cartoony style. The overall aesthetic of the game draws inspiration from classic 2D dungeon crawler RPGs with their 16-bit style, but adds a more modern twist to stand out.
Weaknesses
- Keeping track of characters and their locations when completing fetch quests can be a little tedious:
The game is chalked full of fetch quests. As players progress through the game, it can get to be difficult remembering all the whereabouts of the characters.
- Challenging to accurately aim at objects:
When interacting with objects, such as obstacles and enemies, it can be difficult to properly aim because the character design only features a side-to-side perspective. In combat, it can be particularly difficult because any wrong moves can lead to the player taking a hit from the enemy.
- The game is criminally short:
For the average player, the game may take 3–4 hours to complete. For a higher skilled player, they’ll breeze through the game in 1–2 hours tops.
Proposed Improvements & Risks/Challenges Associated
- Incorporate a Quest Log
A quest log would be an effective way to allow players to keep track of the objectives needed to complete. The quest log could also
Risks/Challenge
One of the potential risks with implementing a quest log could be the potential for players to feel as though there is a lack of challenge. Too much hand-holding might lead to a lack of interest in the game and the game is already short as it is. Another risk could be that these quests logs might reveal too much about the plot or objective, ruining the games main pillar of exploration and discovery.
To mitigate for those risks, it’d be important for the developers to consider balancing guidance and challenge and using spoiler free language. Ideally, the quest log should provide enough guidance to keep the players on track without giving away too much information to those players.
2. Add front and back perspectives to the character design
As it stands, the side-to-side perspectives can make the process of aiming confusing or easy to make mistakes. It can create a frustrating experience for players, especially if it’s the case is that there’s a lack of information.
It would greatly reduce user error while playing the game to add additional perspectives to the character design. Increasing the visual feedback for players will allow for them to accurately navigate the game world and interact with players.
Risks/Challenge:
One of the risks of implementing new perspectives to character design could be an issue of user acceptance. Since the game is already fully developed, players have already become accustomed to the current visual feedback within the game.
One of the ways to mitigate that could be user testing and feedback before introducing the feature to a wider audience. By testing with a smaller group of players, developers will be able to gather feedback and identify an potential issues may exist.
Final Thoughts
To wrap things up, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is an entertaining game with a unique sense of humor and charming visual style! The core game loop of exploration, combat, puzzles, and collecting items provides a satisfying experience for players of all skill levels. However, the game has some weaknesses, such as the lack of a quest log, the challenging aiming system, and its short length. Overall, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion offers an enjoyable and unique gaming experience that is sure to bring a smile to players’ faces.
