Shape Sender Deluxe is the upcoming debut title from NZ-based developer Dead Teapot, where you solve physics-based puzzles with your new friend Sendy!
We spoke with studio founder Tana about Shape Sender Deluxe, their experience at Dinosaur Polo Club, and…whether we should be keeping an eye on Sendy.
Hi there Tana! Thanks for joining us today. How is everything going? WePlay Expo has just been! Can you walk us through these past couple of weeks?
Thanks for having me! The last two months have been a whirlwind with the game announcement, PAX Australia, then the WePlay Expo in Shanghai last week! I’ve met so many cool people who love the game and almost 250 people played the game over both expos.
Can you tell us about yourself and your development journey leading to Shape Sender Deluxe? I see you are also a senior technical designer at Dinosaur Polo Club?
I started my game dev journey playing and modding Garry’s Mod – a sandbox game built on the mods
people would make for it. That led me into studying Software Engineering at university, then I applied for a junior programming role at Dinosaur Polo Club.
I started off working on updates for Mini Metro, then moving to prototyping, developing, and supporting Mini Motorways which became an indie hit. Also while at DPC, I worked on a training project in 2021 called Tana’s S.H.A.P.E. – the precursor to Shape Sender Deluxe. I really liked the game and felt that it had more potential than I had explored with it, so I took the prototype and iterated on it and applied for funding with CODE which I received this year.
Can you tell us about Shape Sender Deluxe?
Shape Sender Deluxe is a game about your relationship with Sendy, the mascot of the game, as he
teaches you how to solve physics-puzzles about moving shapes from A to B. Along the way, he’ll test you, challenge you, and banter with you, interfering with your solutions or providing helpful hints.
As you progress through the game, he’ll start to act a bit strange, and you’ll need to continue playing to find out why.
What were the inspirations behind the game?
The game takes inspiration from a variety of places, like The Incredible Machine and Mini Motorways
mechanically, while narratively is inspired by games like The Beginner’s Guide and developers commentary that can be a bit obnoxious.
What made you go with the puzzle solving genre?
Shape Sender Deluxe seems like a traditional puzzle game, but we aim to subvert the genre narratively and mechanically as the game progresses – so laying the groundwork for a “normal” puzzle game is really important to the story.
Mechanically though, I really enjoy creating systems, and in Shape Sender Deluxe, each puzzle feels alive. Shapes are continuously coming out of the pipes, regardless of if you’re interacting with it or not, which gives a feeling of shared control rather than all of the control being in the player’s hands.
In levels, they allow for many creative approaches to puzzles. Is there a wrong way to do these?
The design of the game is very much centred around creativity – I have intended solutions in my head, but I also don’t restrict you to doing those intended solutions. I let players use as many or as few tools as they like, and there’s no reward or punishment for doing so. What I’ve found is that because of the GIF recording, players love to create ridiculous solutions so that they can show off what they’ve made. It’s very much an intrinsic reward as to how crazy your solution gets.
In the late game, new mechanics will reward more elegant play, but for the majority of the game, I simply want players to be creative, discover interactions, and have fun.
Magnets, springs, portals, and fans to name a few! What kind of scenarios can we expect?
The player will need to make the most of their knowledge of physics to solve some puzzles – preserving momentum, redirecting velocity, using gravity’s acceleration, using the physical properties of the shape itself, etc. The tools we provide are one aspect of the puzzle, but the other aspect is the player’s knowledge of physics and the world around them.
Should I be keeping an eye on Sendy?
Sendy is your new best friend! I’m sure he’ll have no ill-intent, hidden secrets, or ulterior motives. Probably.
Shape Sender Deluxe has a unique and pleasing art style; can you explain this design choice and aesthetic?
Poppy de Raad, the art director of the game, is a talented artist with a portfolio including the initial art direction of the famously minimalist Mini Motorways. The first iteration of the game pitch was inspired by early computing UI – think 90s Macintosh with its clean UI and colourful buttons. Poppy took this inspiration and created the minimalist aesthetic that the game has grown into. They also designed Sendy, the lovable mascot. They took inspiration from rubber hose animation and famous mascots like Clippy to create the square, joyful scamp we know today.
The community can also create their own levels! Can you give us some details on that and what the community can expect?
The level editor I use to design levels is the very same level editor that the players will get! Community is really important in the game, so ensuring people can design levels for their friends is a core part of the game. Steam Workshop will make it easy for Steam players to shop around for levels as well as make their own.
Can you give us insight into the development process for a puzzle game? It must require a bit of prototyping and testing for each puzzle!
Developing a puzzle game requires a lot of early testing, because the mechanics you design are the
cornerstone of the rest of the game’s content. If I change one mechanic, any level that is using that
mechanic will need to be revisited. So part of that is designing a lot of tools – bits of software to make things easier. I have a suite of tools that let me quickly edit levels and test them.
I also need to take into account the time spent on a puzzle – in some cases, a player might spend less than a minute if they get it quickly, but if I make it too difficult, they might stop playing. I often consider how much time I spend to create a puzzle in terms of how much value the puzzle adds to the game. It’s a difficult balance!
Currently aiming for Steam, do you have any other platforms in mind?
I’ve had a lot of people at expos tell me the game would be great on Nintendo Switch, so that’s been my other platform I’m keen to explore. I think the aesthetic and pick-up-and-play nature of the game makes it perfect for the Switch.
Do you have an idea of length for Shape Sender Deluxe?
The goal is 5-7 hours of content, plus the level editor and replayable post-game content.
With your previous experience at Dinosaur Polo Club, how has that shaped your development journey with Shape Sender Deluxe?
My time on Mini Motorways and Mini Metro massively shaped Shape Sender Deluxe’s design. There are so many lessons I learned from working on those games with talented people. For example, Wuselfaktor is a term we use a lot on the “Mini” games. It’s a German word that describes the satisfaction of watching a bustling system.
With Shape Sender Deluxe, I try to ensure that there’s always interesting movement on
screen for players to watch, meaning finishing your solution means you get to sit back and watch the
satisfaction of it working as you intended.
For like-minded game developers, can you explain the balance between working at Dinosaur Polo Club and also working on Shape Sender?
It’s a difficult balance only having a short amount of time on the game. In particular the last two months have been a whirlwind of business work (going to PAX Aus & WePlay, following up with streamers, press, influencers, talking to publishers to find more funding). In this time I’ve barely done actual design work or programming. However, it’s also important to me to still balance that. I try to save at least one day to not work at all – only to do social things, chores, and meal prep
What are the next steps for Shape Sender Deluxe?
The game is still quite early but I’m hoping to establish a community of excited players early. I want to set up a Discord where I can have people follow along, beta-test some early builds, chat with each other, and hopefully play with the level editor to make some neat levels.
Is there anything else you’d like to add on how players can keep up with your studio and Shape
Sender Deluxe?
The way to get the most important updates (demos and release) is to follow and wishlist on Steam! We’re also on Bluesky (and so am I), and we have a newsletter on the website.
Be sure to check out other GamesNight interviews with New Zealand developers!
