Sussex County’s Momiji Studios is dropping its 8-bit-style Video Game Fables

Editor’s note: This story first appeared as a newsletter alongside a roundup of Technical.ly’s best reporting from the week, job openings and more. Subscribe here to get updates on Delaware tech, business and innovation news in your inbox on Thursdays.

Imagine this: The digital universe of your favorite 8-bit video game and the characters in it continue to live their lives after you move on to the next gaming console, waiting to be called up to play again. Then, one day in the 2020s, a player fires up the game again, and the aging characters take on a new adventure.

That’s the idea behind Video Game Fables, a new game from Sussex County-based Momiji Studios, the one-man game development company that will officially release the title on Friday, July 15 on Steam.

Matt Sharp, the guy behind Momiji, spent years developing Fables, which uses nostalgic 8-bit-style sprites in a modern, lighthearted RPG.

“I’ve been working on it on and off for a good five years now, so it’s a pretty long project,” Sharp told Technical.ly. “I was teaching up at Wilmington University, and I didn’t have a lot of time or energy to be putting into it full time.”

Starting around two years ago, Sharp was able to work on the game full time thanks to the flexibility he had after joining with his brother’s newly launched tech and IT business in Bridgeville, doing jobs for local clients. (“I was very, very lucky in that sense,” he said. “He let me come down and essentially work my own hours.”)

Sharp is the designer, developer and marketer for Fables — everything but the music, which was composed by Levc EGM.

The biggest challenge, as a person who experiences anxiety and depression, has been “getting over the mental hurdles,” he said.

“You know, you get a lot of self doubt and you get a lot of anxiety about something like this, where you’re putting your – it sounds cheesy — but you’re putting your heart, sweat, blood and tears, your heart and soul, into something for four or five years,” Sharp said. “You have no guarantee or no idea how it’s going to do, if it will sell.”

The social media push is colorful and fun, with new shorts coming out daily, a merch shop, and hundreds of keys have been sent to YouTubers and reviewers.

Ultimately, it’s about fulfilling a vision.

“I just want to see what that world would look like,” Sharp said. “What would happen to the characters over time? So you see, like, characters who’ve gotten older, they’ve gotten out of shape. They were once powerful bosses in the game, now they’re older and they’re more frail. They have kids now.”

You can wishlist the game now on Steam, and purchase on the 15th. And if you’re a “buy local” type but not a gamer, you can help Delaware’s indie gaming industry just by telling people about it.

“Word of mouth is more important than people think,” the developer said.

What else happened in Delaware this week?

• As part of Dover’s revitalization, the Center for Urban Revitalization and Entrepreneurship — a collaboration of the National Council on Agricultural Life and Labor Research Fund and Delaware State University’s Center for Enterprise Development — will soon serve as a business incubator serving Kent County.
• There’s a new free online guide that helps Delaware state job applicants maximize their chances of landing an interview and navigate the state jobs system. It’s a different beast from applying for a job in the private sector.
• Did you know you could get up to $4,000 from the state for COVID-related financial hardship that impacted your ability to remain current on your mortgage payments? Check out the Delaware Mortgage Relief Program.
• Fun fact for pageant watchers: Agriculture scientist Elizabeth Lynch, recently crowned Miss West Virginia and thus winning herself a spot in this year’s Miss America Pageant, did her undergraduate studies at DSU.

Upcoming Delaware events

• NCCC Chamber of Commerce will host The Hard Facts About Soft Skills workshop, led by Leadership Delaware, on Tuesday, July 12, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at CSC Station.
• The Best of Delaware Party is coming up. Celebrate the winners of Delaware Today’s annual business competition on July 21 at the Chase Center on the Riverfront.
• Great Dames will celebrate International Friendship Day on July 25 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. with The Value of Friendship: Why it matters so much, part of its 2022 Powerful Conversations Virtual Series on Zoom. This one feature Robert Ford, Bebe Coker and Flavia Loreto.
• If you’re not already there, it’s time to plan to be downstate for the last weekend of the month for the third annual Milford Ladybug Music Festival on Saturday, July 30. Part of is the largest free celebration of women in music in the country, boasting a 100% woman-led lineup.