Gumball in Trick-or-Treat Land Interview – Adam Lewis Graf Talks Humor, Music Design, and Trade Quests

Packing tricks and treats in great supply, Exquisite Laundry Pet and Mega Cat Studios’ 8-bit adventure Gumball in Trick-Or-Treat Land is ringing in spoopy season with a brand new Steam Next Fest demo.

Gamers Heroes recently spoke with Gumball in Trick-or-Treat Land Creator Adam Lewis Graf about the sheer heart being poured into this upcoming Game Boy Color-era love letter – learn more with our interview.

Gumball in Trick-or-Treat Land Interview – Adam Lewis Graf Talks Humor, Music Design, and Trade Quests

Gamers Heroes

I got a chance to check out the browser demo! 

I had a great time playing it – went with blue raspberry.

One of the things I loved was its sense of humor and quirkiness. 

What inspired its many jokes?

Adam Lewis Graf

You know, my sense of humor is extraordinarily stupid.

My favorite thing in making this game was writing all the dialog.

From the beginning, I just quickly learned that that my whole design sensibility is making the little guys say silly little things. 

I am a huge Homestar Runner geek, so I think I channel a lot of that kind of style of humor when I’m writing. 

I also like UNDERTALE!

Gamers Heroes

After my own heart!

Adam Lewis Graf

Yeah! It’s pulling from the tone of NPC dialog I remember from the era. 

Part of it is just having this little character living in this world…

What are they up to? What are they doing? What are their thoughts about things? What would they actually tell you if you walked by?

Gamers Heroes

That leads me to my next question…

I know you mentioned UNDERTALE, and I know this title draws inspiration from Earthbound, Pokémon Gen Two, and even Kid Dracula. 

And when I was playing it, I noticed some homages – like Stumply being similar to Mother 3’s Save Frogs.

What were some of the most inspiring elements from each of these titles you brought to Gumball in Trick-or-Treat Land?

Adam Lewis Graf

So Pokémon was one of the first things on the mood board, because Gen One and Gen Two Pokémon are both foundational for me. 

I felt the look of those titles was a good jumping off point for the look of a top-down Game Boy RPG. 

As soon as I realized it was going to be a more dialog-focused game, the Earthbound/Mother 3/UNDERTALE kind of influence started creeping in.

I think that shows itself in the battle system as well!

The enemies have their idle phases, with these little narrations that very much were taken from Earthbound and Mother 3.

As for Kid Dracula – this originally wasn’t supposed to be a Halloween-themed game; my placeholder sprites were just circles and triangles.

Once I decided the circle was to be a gumball and the triangles were candy corns, the Halloween theme grew outward from there, and Kid Dracula was the thing that knit everything together – that sort of cute Halloween energy.

Gumball is slightly different tonally, but that was a nice inspiration to ask:

“What does Halloween feel like on the Game Boy? How can it be cute with a little bit of an edge to it?”

That was very helpful there. 

The other big influence on the battle system was Paper Mario, in the way it sticks to pretty low numbers and the way the partner system works. 

That being said, this game isn’t hugely close to any one of those. It’s kind of a pastiche! 

Gamers Heroes  

Absolutely!

Speaking about the gameplay mechanics, I know that turn-based gameplay is seeing a renaissance.

DELTARUNE Chapters 3 and 4 came out this summer, and Expedition 33 is sweeping headlines – we gave it a perfect score ourselves!

What inspired this direction for Gumball in Trick-or-Treat Land?

Adam Lewis Graf

It would be amazing if this aligns with turn-based RPGs being in the zeitgeist!

My favorite games in the world are turn-based RPGs of a certain type. This game originally went through pre-alpha phases where the combat was not turn-based. 

I knew the whole time that to make the game I really wanted to make, it had to be a turn-based RPG. Mother 3 is my favorite game of all time! 

The games that are most foundational for me are those – it’s where my passion lies.

If people are getting excited about turn-based RPGs again, that’s great!

Gamers Heroes

I really hope they bring Mother 3 over one of these days! I get the feeling the Magypsies are keeping it overseas these days…

But you know what? I had a great time with it too.

Adam Lewis Graf

Yeah, it’s long overdue for an official release of some kind in the West!

Gamers Heroes

Exactly! 

Then talking about the music, I saw that Gumball in Trick-or-Treat Land won “Best Musical Score” at 2D Con – congratulations!

Going back to UNDERTALE – again – Toby Fox did excellent work on the music, showing that a great soundtrack can really go far.

I can definitely hear that in the demo! 

Watching your Dev Vlog, you mentioned you wrote chiptunes in MilkyTracker. 

What musical elements went into the design of Gumball in Trick-or-Treat Land?

Adam Lewis Graf 

I worked with MilkyTracker first.

I didn’t mention it in this first Dev Vlog, but I use OpenMPT for the chiptunes that made their way into Gumball. 

That is the one area that I actually have some formal training in – I’ve got my Bachelor’s in Music Performance. 

I went through the whole cycle of learning, notation, and arrangement. The rudimentary elements of composing you get as a music major are not at the composition studio, but that was enough for me to kind of get excited about it.

With MilkyTracker, I’ve been messing around with since college. 

If I ever had the opportunity to do a research project on some modern genre of music, I would gravitate towards chiptunes, and I would then use that opportunity to produce chiptunes of my own to wrap into the presentations!

It’s the thing that comes most naturally to me; I always save music for last in any given area, because I look forward to it.

Once all the other problems are worked out, once everything is represented, then I get to sit down on the piano and try to capture the mood of an area.

Gen Two Pokémon is a high watermark for chiptunes on the Game Boy Color, so I definitely draw on that influence. 

Then there’s a total array of other influences…

When it comes to the Vampire’s Landing music, there’s a theme in the Vampiric Cloister and a theme for the town, and then the battles that are related. 

I started using a motif from the Bach vampire organ music!

Gamers Heroes

Love it!

Adam Lewis Graf 

I switched it around, and I put it in a different mode to fit more of like a monastery vibe.

But that’s one example! 

Inspiration comes through everywhere – it’s whatever comes to me that matches an area.

Gamers Heroes 

Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

So I listened to the latest episode of the Pocketeering podcast – a two-parter around Link’s Awakening.

I loved how you talked about the inner workings of game design: pots, using people as items, things like that. 

You definitely get games!

What are some of the gameplay mechanics – whether from Pokémon Gen Two or more recent titles – that have truly inspired you over the years that you want to put into Gumball in Trick-or-Treat Land?

Adam Lewis Graf

This was kind of a fun example of:

“How do I capture something from the era, but not make it the most painful thing in the world?”

I like trade quests, and that started in Link’s Awakening – and then you see it again in Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages.

There’s this trading quest in Link’s Awakening, and it is part of the main quest in the Oracle games. It’s a side quest, but you just trade a series of items to NPCs in order to either advance the plot or get a helpful item. 

That was something that wormed its way into my brain from a very young age. 

It was such a basic design decision to do it. I think it can garner an eye roll from a modern audience that feel fetch quests and trade quests are played out…

However, I think – when done well – it just makes you feel smart for guessing what a certain NPC is after. 

For me, when I was a kid, playing those games – those moments left an impression on me. I always associate hibiscus flowers with goats – one part of Link’s Awakening – just forever!

So I put in a trade quest as a required thing to advance the plot. In the Main Street area of Gumball – I won’t spoil too much – there is an underground mall with people hawking all sorts of junk. 

You essentially have to help the NPCs trade garbage.

When I put that in and I focus-grouped it, I got some feedback that it was a little bit hard, it’s sort of oblique, all while they’re figuring out what to do. 

Shortly after that, I replayed Oracle of Seasons, and I got to the Goron trading quest.

And I thought, 

“Oh no, what have I put people through?!”

Gamers Heroes

I’ve yet to play the Oracle games, but I have played Link’s Awakening, and I did love that. 

I did the whole trade quest, from the bananas to everything. 

I know exactly what you’re talking about!

Adam Lewis Graf

There’s just something about it!

But then I did go back, and I added a whole character whose purpose is to be helpful in the trade quests. 

And that ended up being a part of the design that I really enjoyed doing!

Gamers Heroes

I look forward to exploring it!

When it comes to retro game development, I’ve connected with Grayson Wendell, who works on NES games. 

What are some of the major epiphanies – and hurdles for that matter – that come with developing for Game Boy hardware? 

What are some of the benefits and drawback when it comes to developing for 8-bit hardware?

I know you mentioned in the Dev Vlog you started using GB Studio in 2019 and that Thorndale utilizes a vibrant color palette…

Adam Lewis Graf

My whole experience around the entire design process is built around these limitations, specifically what one can depict on screen.

“How many different tiles and how many different combinations of sprites on tiles can you put there before something crashes and visual disaster happens?”

The look of every area, the layout of every area, the way that the sprites are animated – it is all very specifically dictated by what is possible on the Game Boy.

The debugging process requires you to make an area very early, at least learning it before you have an intuitive sense of what’s going to work. 

If you make an area too complicated, you can break it in all kinds of ways. You simplify it, you split it up. 

That’s the challenge – which is a challenge I like!

The thing that’s really helpful about it is it forces you into a unified style that feels like it fits in the era. 

There’s to me no better way to achieve a Game Boy feel starting out than to actually make it to spec, because you have no choice. 

Gamers Heroes

I totally agree! I grew up with the Genesis – I’m a 16-bit kid.

I hate to say “Genesis Does” here, but Yuzo Koshiro’s work on the Streets of Rage soundtrack with the available hardware was truly incredible stuff.

To use a corporate phrase, it allows you to “think outside the box!”

So I do have to give a shoutout – what’s it been like working with the publisher Mega Cat Studios on this release?

I have worked with them on other releases, and really appreciate what Mega Cat is doing in the gaming space.

Adam Lewis Graf

They’ve been really great! So, so helpful.

This project would have had a really, really hard time finding an audience without Mega Cat’s help.

For the publicity and marketing elements, they’ve been instrumental. 

They have also helped out with QA, which is great. 

As a solo developer, I originally had to rely on volunteers for that. I have close friends that are really good, but if you’re not paying someone, you can’t expect them to adhere to deadlines and things like that.

It is really nice to have Mega Cat’s support and expertise on that. 

Their perspective has been really helpful in getting this to market, and the fact that we can actually do a physical cartridge release – that is something I couldn’t do.

Gamers Heroes 

Last question…

I’d like to know more about the Exquisite Laundry Pet – the cat in the logo!

I have a cat named Sassy, and she’s beet quiet this whole time – very, very polite.

Adam Lewis Graf

My wife drew that cat! 

There’s a messier version of the logo I did, but that Exquisite Laundry Pet logo in the title screen is only one of two things I did not draw. 

That cat was done by my wife Heather, who is a trained fine artist, and the cover screen was done by my good friend Dan.

As for that particular cat – I have three cats! 

That cat is closer to Stella, my oldest cat, who is probably most likely to be found in a laundry basket. 

My other cat Chris does make an appearance in the game as a partner as well, so he can help you out with battles.

Gamers Heroes

Wonderful!

I look forward to the release, and I really appreciate your time this super-busy season.

Adam Lewis Graf

Thank you so much!

Gumball in Trick-Or-Treat Land is slated to release in Q1 2026 for both Steam and Game Boy Color hardware.

In the case of Steam, one can wishlist the title and check out a demo via its Steam page.

Feeling social? Be sure to follow the official Exquisite Laundry Pet’s Facebook and Instagram social media channels!

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