Kitchen utensil fashion is a growing industry in the world of Psycutlery.

Hey.  If you can dress up your dog, why can’t you dress up your foons and sporks?!  After all, since kitchen utensils exist for the sake common etiquette, cleanliness and overall decency — why would you eat your ramen noodle soup with a NAKED spork?!

AAAAH! INDECENT EXPOSURE!!!

So, naturally, since Psycutlery is a game for all ages, the magical, floating spork at the center of it all had to wear something.  Since the player character, Lillian the Alien wears green bows in her hair, the natural choice of foon fashion would be a similar green ribbon, yes?

The ribbon would soon come to define the spork’s character, to the point where it became more or less a part of its “body.”  This was emphasized in these very early, VERY ROUGH sketches of the character:

If you look closely, you’ll see that the fringes of the ribbons were its “hands.”

And indeed, the ribbon was long intended to be a permanent fixture of the spork.  Never to be removed.  Especially not in public.  Because that would be disturbing.

However, all of that would change when I decided to not in any way rip off Donkey Kong Country Returns, a game that I have NEVER EVEN HEARD OF and throw in support for silhouette-based levels.

Who is Dankey Kang, anyway?

Like my inspiration, I wanted the key features of the main characters to shine through the darkness.  In order for that to happen, said features needed to exist on a separate layer from the rest of the blackened part of the screen.

Yeeeeah, the ribbon?  It needed to be forcefully ripped off of the spork’s base sprite, and made into its own sprite on a separate layer in order for the effect to work…

…and with the ribbon no longer being a part of the spork’s sprite, there came new possibilities.

What else can your tableware wear?

Why limit the spork to just the ribbon, when it could also wear:

  • A spinning bow tie!
  • Fancy pearl necklace!
  • Warm winter scarf!
  • A fake moustache!
  • Some kinda… rainbow… feather collar thing?  I dunno.
  • An Olympic gold medal!
  • …and 24 additional accessories to come (all to be decided)!

These accessories don’t have any actual effect on the gameplay, for the ability to look COMPLETELY FABULOUS is game-breaking enough, as everybody well knows.  Besides, there are other items on the screen that actually do do things — breath mints that temporarily grant unlimited uses of Lillian’s breath powers, mouthwash that restores health, and a toad amulet that grants temporary invincibility.  These were thrown in to justify the idea of having an “items” menu for the accessories… or in that case, do the accessories justify the items?  HMMMM!

Interestingly enough, there is also a power-up the blurs the line between “item” and “accessory,” and here it is, floating about in a shop:

The Monocle of Might doubles the power of your basic attack, while transforming your psychic weapon into the most refined and sophisticated piece of silverware this side of the galaxy.  And yes, it stacks with the other accessories too.

Mustache and monocle: a truly classic combination.

Why yes, there are so many ways to dress up the ol’ spork.  If you so desire, you can even have it wear nothing at all–

ARRGH, NO! PUT SOME DARN CLOTHES ON!

Gosh.  So much for this being a game that kids can play.  Oh well.

 

So, what do you think the spork should wear?  We have 24 accessory slots to fill out, so now is the time to send any suggestions my way.  Let me know — your ideas could be in the game, perhaps!