Hi, I'm Pablo director of Dog Biscuit.

Sorry for the delay if I have not written a devlog, it has been a complicated month, I will tell you later about this.

A few days ago, I received a direct message from a person who pledge the Kickstarter, asking how we got into the business, and that took me back other questions about how Pocket Penguin was created.

Well, for this first devlog I would like to tell you how Pocket Penguin was really born and the whole journey from its birth to this moment.

To begin with, I must say that the general idea of the game was born when I was studying the Arts career, back in 2014. That year I took a trip to the zoo to the second largest zoo in Mexico, the Chapultepec Zoo, located in Mexico City. There is an area of the zoo that was dedicated to species that inhabit cold areas, and this is where Pocket Penguin's journey begins. During the visit to this area, I came across a single penguin that came from Japan. Having seen quite a few documentaries about penguins, they are supposed to be social animals, so you always see them with their families, right? Well, this penguin looked so lonely that it left me thinking "won't he miss his family?". Interestingly, next to the space where this penguin was were two other animals: a sea lion and a polar bear (who sadly passed away). 

With this data in mind, it was cultivated like a seed, and being in the last semesters of university I was faced with one of the ideas that terrify everyone who leaves the university "and now what will I do?"

It had been a year since I went to the zoo, I always wanted to study something related to animation or game development. I was at a point where I didn't know what to do until I stumbled upon a standalone game that changed my life and my vision: Undertale. If Toby Fox could develop his game, why couldn't I?

During my stay on college, I studied several concepts that helped me focus on what my career would be. Many of these concepts are related to the remix, as many need some reference from other authors for the creation of new works. With this idea in mind, I dedicated myself to combining two games I played in my childhood: Bomberman and Kirby. However, a protagonist was missing, I wanted it to be an animal, my first idea was to use a penguin whose name would be "Penguin Bomber", and when I noticed that the formula was working, I decided to turn it into something bigger.

Remember the idea that was planted in my head? Well, deciding to develop the game as something more serious, I remembered the lone penguin, the polar bear and that is how "Pocket Penguin" was born. It has been many years since the birth of the game and fortunately we managed to win a contest in Mexico where many well-known games have come from. During all this time I have also had difficulties, especially economic, that led me to get jobs that did not make me feel satisfied. My parents became ill and I had to postpone development for about 4 years falling into depression, however "Pocket Penguin" kept me active in hopes that someday it could be played.

In 2020 I had the game almost complete and we launched the first Kickstarter campaign with which I was able to upload it to Steam. With the pandemic I lost jobs, economic hardship and depression returned.

At the beginning I said that it has been quite a complicated month. At the end of October, when I decided to do the campaign, I wanted it to be a surprise for my dad, so that I could help him again financially. In the middle of November my dad passed away suddenly and it was just when the campaign reached its first goal. I couldn't share that dream with my dad.

When I have had problems, when I have had sadness, I remember how a little lone penguin helped me create one of the ideas with which I would start my career in video game development, going through many obstacles. Maybe Pocket Penguin fulfills the cliché of artists, the one that says that artists make their works based on their feelings, but I think Pocket Penguin has been more than a work of art, it is the way to remind me that no matter what obstacle is put in front of you, as long as you have the courage and desire to overcome them, You can do it, no matter what size you are.

Now, you are helping me to fulfill this dream that I’ve been carrying since 2014, and I the only thing that I can say is: THANK YOU.

For the next devlog I’ll tell you about How does the world of Pocket Penguin was made.