Dearest Ghosties,

We’re here today to dive in deep with one of the first Baby Ghosts we ever supported — daffodil!

daffodil is the creator of Street Uni X — a PS1-Tony-Hawk-style unicycling game supported by Baby Ghosts and Weird Ghosts, as well as many other cool projects.

Tell us about daffodil & friends. Who is daffodil, who are the friends?

Well, I am daffodil, and daffodil & friends is the name for my more ambitious projects that breakthrough “solo project” and into something bigger. The friends are whoever I happen to be working with on a given project. On STREET UNI X the friends were my friends Brodie and Jesse, who helped with 3D environment art and sound design respectively.

The friends were also every musician who contributed to the game’s soundtrack, and everyone who helped me figure out niche math problems, and everyone who supported me and the development of the game along the way.

Having made a handful of smaller games before this I started to feel the need to embrace and prioritize more collaboration. My community means everything to me and creating an umbrella where I can bring folks from my community into my work felt like a natural way to grow my ambitions and the scope of my projects.

My games are still deeply personal in one way or another. All of them start from something I am passionate about, something I am interested in, or something I am otherwise trying to focus my care towards.

Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on right now? 👀

Currently am working on a port of STREET UNI X to the Nintendo Switch, as well as a game called it’s solitaire, a video game of solitaire the card game. It’s a relaxed solitaire game that also has contributions from over 30 of my peers, friends, inspirations, and collaborators in the form of custom decks and card backs. It started as a secret santa gift for my partner and then quickly grew into something more, [something] I am trying to wrap my whole community into. Look forward to that releasing in the coming months :)

What do you think we (all of us involved in game making) can do to make the video game industry better?

We make the industry better when we choose to use our work to tell true, personal stories. We make it better when we come together to stand up against exploitation not only in the games industry but around the world.

We have the power to leverage our work to garner resources to support those desperately struggling against unfathomable oppression around the world. We can use the platforms we have as creators of entertainment works to spread messages of love and liberation and community, no matter how small the message. We uplift one another through fun and storytelling and creative inspiration.

Video games is a totalizing creative medium and if we continue to refocus our values in the work that we do on our video games, I believe we have the power to inspire not just creative expression, but real tangible meaningful change towards liberation in the world around us.

Something as small as showing ourselves and our values through our work without shame can inspire folks too afraid to come out of their own shells, or too worried about speaking out alone for a cause they aren’t sure matters to others around them. Video games, like many creative mediums, carry great power towards manifesting a better, more just, liberated, and equitable world.

You’ve been in the Baby Ghosts/Gamma Space community now for a long time. What keeps
bringing you back here?

The main thing that brings me back is shared values. Values matter to me above all, and it’s rare to find a community of people with overlapping interests that also shares my values of total liberation with a tangible commitment to manifesting those values. Weird Ghosts and Baby Ghosts supported my development so directly, and I was connected with Gamma Space as a result of that support. This left a strong impression on me, and I want to be a part of building towards our collective vision in whatever ways my capacity could muster. I flow in and out of this capacity given the unbearable weight of the world these days but I plan to keep coming back.

Stay tuned for it’s solitaire (coming soon, and even sooner if you’re part of daffodil’s Patreon) as well as the Nintendo Switch launch of Street Uni X!

As well as more Baby Ghosts announcements coming soon!

- eileen & Jennie 👻