Greetings folks, Hangry Andy here with another content packed Newsletter for you all.
In this edition I’ll be exploring how our catchy physics mechanic is both fun, frustrating, meditative and even a learning experience combined… In theory at least, with a closed group of support and involvement from our community we’ll be putting this to the test. Nothing is ever 100%, but we're working towards a polished game loop that feels satisfying and leaves players wanting to explore more. I’ll be looking at recently released games like Mina the Hollower as well as the newly announced evolution of games like Crazy Taxi and the murmurs of Jet Set Radio Future successor on the horizon too..
Yes I know the last two are not Indie titles by any stretch, but immersive, quirky, high octane and fun titles, pushing the boundaries of what games were back in the 90s that had an impact on me, and its interesting to see how SEGA is taking these experiences and circling back to release these iconic titles to appeal to modern audiences.
When I look at some of my favourite games over the years, a pattern starts to emerge. The games that stay with me aren't always the ones with the biggest worlds, the most realistic graphics, or the largest budgets. They're usually the ones built around a simple idea or mechanic that feels fantastic to perform. A double jump, boost or chaos mode that looks and feels awesome, a mechanic so central to the experience that you can describe the game in a single sentence. OR a story so immersive, your imagination takes you there and you believe you are truly with the lead character, you have empathy for the story and the characters you encounter along the way.
Take Death Stranding for example. On paper, "walking and delivering parcels" sounds absurdly mundane. Yet the genius of the game is how it transforms balance, terrain, and cargo management into a constant source of tension and decision-making. Every rock, slope, and river becomes meaningful because you're carrying something valuable. The delivery itself isn't the objective—it's the challenge of getting there. That singular mechanic helped define the entire experience and gives the game an identity unlike anything else. (GameSpot). When I started creating the concept for Nom Nom Express, I truly had no knowledge of Death Stranding’s existence at the time, but have since come to consume as much information on the game and its creator Hideo Kojima’s drive to make something different and meaningful in games.
Then there's Crazy Taxi. The premise is equally simple: pick up passengers and get them where they need to go as quickly as possible. What made it memorable wasn't realism—it was the increasing momentum and tension. Every shortcut, near miss, drift, mini game and reckless decision fed directly into the score system. The game encouraged players to drive in ways no real taxi driver ever should, creating a joyful feedback loop of risk and reward. More speed meant more excitement. More excitement meant more stories to tell. (MobyGames) With a new World Tour Crazy Taxi title being teased recently, it sure is great to see classic like this getting a new lease of life!
More recently, Mina the Hollower has become one of the standout indie successes of 2026. At its core is a deceptively simple burrowing mechanic. Mina can dive underground to evade danger, traverse terrain, uncover secrets, and launch attacks. Critics consistently point to that one mechanic as the heart of the game because it serves multiple purposes simultaneously. But this is way more to this pixel art, retro style game. Movement, exploration, quests, feel good combat, discovery—it all flows from that single idea. The entire game is designed around making that action feel satisfying. (Mina the Hollower Guide)
Another fascinating example is Cairn, a climbing game that turns the physical act of placing hands and feet on a mountainside into the entire experience. There's no combat spectacle carrying the player forward. Instead, tension comes from mastering movement itself. Every grip matters. Every route choice has consequences. Progress feels earned because the mechanic is the game. (The Verge)
The Dumb Ways to Die Effect: One experience I've been thinking about a lot recently is not actually a game at all. At least, it didn't start as one. Back in 2012, Melbourne's Metro Trains launched a public safety campaign called Dumb Ways to Die. On the surface, it was a collection of absurd cartoon characters meeting ridiculous ends through increasingly silly decisions. It was funny, darkly charming, catchy, and completely ridiculous. Millions of people shared it because it was entertaining, not because they wanted a lecture about railway safety. And that's exactly why it worked.
Out of all of the above, the game that stands out for me, even today, is Jet Set Radio Future. You play the role of an inline skating graffiti gang member tasked with defending their territory by tagging the streets and racing against rivals to control as much territory as possible. It oozes sub culture, style, tunes and back to an analogue era where the anticipation of a scene loading or cinematic intro meant something and told you part of the story. The tagging mechanic was overhauled from the original Jet Set Radio on the Dreamcast to be more intuitive, and the tricks were so snappy, they felt awesome. To think that the grind rail stickiness wasn't originally part of the game, but left in, due to the fact testers and developers loved sliding along it and performing trick combos so much, it actually ended up defining the games overall feel and attraction for me. To this day, I still play this game to just vibe and get lost in the streets finding those Soul unlocks!
What's evident from all of the above examples is that the creators understood the assignment: players are seeking to be entertained, to be challenged, and want to find the fun...
When people hear me describe Nom Nom Express, they often focus on the delivery aspect. That's understandable. But the deliveries aren't really the mechanic, they're the reason the mechanic matters. It's balancing a stack of items with varying physical properties while navigating a challenging series of environments. It's deciding whether to take the safe route or risk a shortcut. It's protecting an order from enemies, hazards, weather, physics, and your own mistakes. It's recovering from disaster when a burger flies off the back of your vehicle at exactly the wrong moment. That's the bit I'm obsessed with right now… following the fun.
Not how many enemies are on screen or how pretty the environment looks or even whether the robots have enough animations. I'm trying to discover whether carrying, balancing, protecting, and delivering food can become one of those mechanics that players instantly understand and enjoy, and lightly introduce the concept of scarcity, health, well being and food poverty as a conversation starter through the absurd order combinations on the delivery rota for our players. Think reverse psychology of how Dumb Ways to Die touches on the subject of rail safety through overtly extreme ways a character manages to get themselves killed.
So where are we at? Well, slowly, slowly I’ve been butchering the code.. Again, as in almost every development cycle we face... physics, mechanics and bits of game play I want to introduce make certain aspects of the experience bloated, crash and freeze… standard, so I'm iterating through every script and optimising framerates, frequency of calls and updates each script can trigger, to avoid massive lag.
When I described NomNom to people at an event recently, they commented on it sounding like Death Stranding, with the challenge of balancing items feeling similar, and to an extent, that’s an aspect of play I really liked, mastery of the terrain and control of the physics. Maybe our Hook should be "Death Stranding for tweens"?? Hah!
Our games need flow, pacing and timed events that don’t overlap, but seamlessly interact to maintain interest, allow room for exploration and mastery, as well as some high octane action to temper the experience. That’s where I’m at truthfully. Testing, changing elements of the configuration to allow for different cadences in the world of the Hangry’s and their intergalactic delivery service jobs at Nom Nom Express. There's a story here, and this needs bedding in to allow for exposition, immersion and a reason to believe as we say in the branding world. That thing that draws the player in and compels them to want to know more.
So… Test with more enemies in the level, test with no enemies and the challenge is purely physics mastery of the items aboard the players mode of transport etc. All of this is taking time to get right. There are no textures or pretty things in the scene right now, simply boxes and a skinned character for me to show the impact the environment and enemies have on our player. I’ve also now replaced the creepy crawly spiders in this Desert test level with Unicycle robots… much more appropriate for those hard to reach customers in an AI/Automated dominant world. The drones are still here in the scene doing their thing, but with much less frequency… They were stealing too many food items for my liking haha!
Added Exploding bombs which disrupt your entire stack of items too! bewssh!
Making games that are fun is super hard. Creating something that hangs on a single mechanic or gimmick has to have a strong visual identity, lots or depth to even be considered good. Players dictate whether a game is fun to play, so anything I say, has to be peppered with a pinch of salt.. Baddum chh… Hangry already eh?!
“People don't engage with the lesson. They engage with fun.”
I'm not interested in creating a game that pauses every few minutes to tell players how they should think about food poverty, nutrition, or healthy choices. Nobody wants homework disguised as entertainment.
Instead, I want players laughing at the absurdity of a delivery rota that asks them to transport six triple-stacked marshmallow pizzas, three chocolate milkshakes, and a suspiciously large bucket of neon-green custard across a desert filled with rogue delivery drones and unicycle robots.
The educational layer exists underneath where players start noticing patterns.
Why is one ordering fresh vegetables while another only has access to processed foods? Why are some communities thriving while others are struggling? Why are certain ingredients harder to obtain? This is where the player gets to know their customers..
Why does one delivery create a positive outcome while another simply satisfies a short-term craving? The player isn't being lectured, they're experiencing a system, and hopefully, without realising it, they're beginning to think about food choices, accessibility, waste, nutrition, transportation of ingredients, and food insecurity. That's the sweet spot.
If players finish a session talking about the funny delivery they almost lost while racing over a canyon, or they share a moment as a meme when all their cargo of marshmallows explodes everywhere leaving one or two Hangry customers… then we've succeeded as a game in my opinion.
If, somewhere later, they also start asking questions about where food comes from, who has access to it, and why healthy choices aren't always simple choices, then we've succeeded in something bigger.
That's the balance we're aiming for. Fun first, meaning second, impact as a bonus.
Just like some of the best examples that have inspired us to date.
If you want behind-the-scenes updates as we build (and occasionally break things), don’t forget to check our our Discord https://discord.com/invite/DAJQ6KgD3x where we share sneak peeks of art and game and platform development, and LinkedIn page where we provide monthly updates on what we get up to https://www.linkedin.com/company/hangryanimals
Stay Hangry
Andy & Ceri
Hangry Animals 🐾