««  N E W S  ⊕

June 10, 2013

Though this truly is a domain of silence, we aren't dead yet.

At least not dead for life.

November 4, 2012

My dear friends in the big, vast world of the interwebz, I have a sad announcement to make—our work-in-progress project Piccu Wiccu has now been put on ice for an indefinite time.

A moment of silence for a long-time friend…

But hear ye, hear ye, the time is not to grieve! Wipe off your tears, and worry ye not, for we are currently working on yet another platform game!

We can't reveal anything else about the project at this point, but we promise that the upcoming game is truly going to be drop-dead gorgeous … something to really die for.

November 3, 2012

Happy late Halloween, and… long time no see.

Our previous website mysteriously ceased to exist, so we are currently on the process of having our new one (which is this) made whole.

Alas, knowing us, LONG PROCESS could be LOOOOOOOONG.

Anyhow, if you're longing to play our sweet ol' classic, Speculum Mortis: Regret, here's the download link:

SPECULUM MORTIS: REGRET v1.06 (.zip, 2.8 MB)

If you've forgot what the game itself was all about (or just wanna know if it really is a classic, which it kinda is, but kinda isn't) consult its thread at the Game Maker Community:

…KLIK-UH!

Hope to see you soon! We'll keep on reviving ourselves.

P.S. The external guestbook with all its content was preserved. Go ahead and write some new stuff there too, wontcha:

Ye Olde Gueste Bok

January 23, 2011

We're not dead; pathetic—perhaps. We're also serving in Finnish military service for the next six months at least, and most likely the whole year.

Happy 2011, that is. Piccu Wiccu won't be coming in a while.

⊕ NEWS ARCHIVE ⊕

««  A B O U T  ⊕

⊕ Where innovation meets old-school ⊕

Happo (pronounced HUP-poh) is an independent Finnish game studio.
Our games are designed for PC and distributed as freeware.

Happo is operated by two persons, FS and SP,
who develop games as their hobby.

More thoroughly on the right. »

⊕ Yes, more thoroughly here! ⊕

Happo is two Finnish guys who have been making games as their hobby since their childhood. All began with the discovery of this marvellous program called Game Maker, and this brainchild of Mark Overmars has served us all the way through version 5.0 to 8.0 nowadays.

After years of less successful game development projects, Happo finally got to release its very first finished game, Speculum Mortis, in November 2007. The game received quite an acclaim on the official Game Maker Community, the independent Finnish site Game Maker Suomi, and on various other sites, according to Mr. Search Engines (although one can be confused finding out that Speculum Mortis is also an Italian black metal band—you're just as surprised as we were).

Some things change over time: at the beginning of our game development path, 3.5″ diskettes were used to transfer files between our computers. Along the way the already outdated diskettes got replaced by instant messengers, USB memory sticks, and eventually by cloud services nowadays.

Nonetheless, some things remain the same: graphics are still made with Microsoft Paint (the pre-Vista version, of course), and Mark Overmars' Game Maker has for long been the best possible option for our needs on assembling and programming games.

Still, the programmer now having acquired experience with "real" programming languages, the next step would be to build a game on top of a game engine of our own, the advantages being the cross-platform compatibility and better performance. Some rather small experiments have already been conducted using C++ and OpenGL, so perhaps the following project will already be built on top—and together with—Happo's in-house engine.

That said, the future is always a bit uncertain … But come what may, Happo will be doing good!

FRANS SAUKKO

As the programmer of Happo, FS is the sole person responsible for all the bugs that might ruin your day (or at least your game session) while playing our games. He also composes all the musical score (mainly MIDI) and creates the majority of sound effects, as well as acting as the Happo webmaster.

Guitarist for some ten years, the music FS himself enjoys the most is thrash metal and NES game music. FS likes platform and real-time strategy games the most, and a few favorite games to name are the first Metal Gear Solid, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Megaman 3, Seiklus (independent Game Maker game), and Chzo Mythos (independent Adventure Game Studios quadrilogy).

FS is currently studying computer science at the University of Turku, aiming to graduate in 2018. Time will tell where it gets him. He is also an avid hobbyist of languages and linguistics, especially focusing in Russian that he is to minor beside mathematics.

FS is usually known by the nick Hominilupoid in Internet communities.

SAMU PELTOLA

SP, the graphics artist, has an indescribable urge to express his most bizarre products of imagination as pictures. He also possesses a twisted obsession of hiding irrelevant Easter eggs into backgrounds and likes to make noise in order to contribute to sound effects.

In addition to his skills in art, SP has also been blessed with an amazingly short-lived memory when it comes to Happo game design, conceiving previously mentioned ideas over and over again—an obvious symptom of multiple caffeine overdoses.

Having graduated as a media assistant in 2010, SP is currently working as a marketing artist, in addition to which he occasionally makes custom artwork for his acquaintances in hope of bed & breakfast.

SP is usually known by the nick sid in Internet communities.