According to developer Bennett Foddy, the primary inspiration for the game's humor stems from a quote from novelist Patricia Highsmith: "If you can amuse yourself for the length of time it takes to write a book, the publishers and the readers can and will come later." Originally, the game's story was going to be conveyed through text, but this was dropped after the team realized that spoken dialogue was more humorous. As such, most of the dialogue in the game was improvised by Foddy and co-developer Gabe Cuzzillo, with the pair focusing more on making each other laugh and keeping the successful attempts in the game. Cuzzillo noted that this approach not only helped shape the game's humor, but also its main character Nate, stating: