An Interview with SporkTank

Creating Batography seems like it was a real family affair for SporkTank founder Martin Stradling. Released in time for the Lunar New Year 2025, it was a way for him to introduce his younger cousins to the world of game development. Starting as a small side project while working on his upcoming game, Rita, it then found a life of its own. It stars a cute and cheeky little bat on a mission to photograph the full moon. In Martin’s words, it’s all about “Cozy Lunar Photography”. Check out my more in-depth review here.

In center frame

“While working on Rita (a game heavily inspired by family), I thought it would be nice to get a project that was actually created with family on to Steam!”

– Martin via the Batography press release.

With that focus on family in mind, I decided to reach out by email (Thanks, Alex at TheIndieEXP, for sorting that out!) to delve deeper into the process of creating Batography. The answers below were edited slightly for clarity.

Questions and Answers

How were your younger cousins involved in the project?

SporkTank: We’d done another project together previously so were ready for a bigger game this time. I was pretty happy taking a back seat to their design ideas. All the visuals were done by them, and a friend of theirs (@mythical_water, @RickToons_Anim, @pega_neko), the story was again a mixed effort from all of them. I just had to do a solid job implementing the mechanics, and adding a couple of light puzzles here and there, as I like SporkTank to be known for!

What was the most challenging thing about creating Batography?

SporkTank: The biggest challenge for the game jam was the limited time we had to design and implement the game. For the more polished Steam version it’s been challenging getting all the Steam bells-and-whistles ready, such as achievements, localisations, store pages, etc. while still adding a bit more content and polish to the game.

What inspired the artstyle? 

@mythical_water: Well, what inspired a lot about the style was actually the restrictions we had. As Batography was for a game jam, it had to have a style that was quick enough to make lots of sprites and animations in only 9 days. Furthermore, because I was working with Rick (@RickToons_Anim), we had to land on something we could execute consistently. Pixel art would be a go-to, but we had just made an 8-bit style game for a previous jam, so I wanted to shake it up. There might be some subconscious inspiration from Night In The Woods, however, we weren’t exactly aiming to replicate it. Or any art style for that matter, which i think is how we landed on something unique and – apparently – well liked.

What’s the next move after the release of Batography?

SporkTank: SporkTank is exclusively focusing on Rita! Wishlists and Follows are appreciated! But the whole team has definitely expressed interest in furthering this project… Batography 2 anyone? Batwography?

(Editors’s Note: Definitely “Batwography“, love a good word pun!)

And lastly, where did the name SporkTank come from? 

SporkTank: It was auto-generated by Twitter when I told it my first name was Spork, and last name was Tank! SporkTank, as it known on all other platforms is a conjugation of my nickname “Spork” and “Tank”. Like think-tank, which intended to suggest that SporkTank games have some level of thought in them. “SporkTank games make you think. But just a bit… just a fun amount.”