Dev Update – December 2020

Here we are with our december update. Soon, we can all finally put 2020 behind us. It’s probably safe to assume that everyone wishes for 2021 to be a much better year. For us, 2021 looks to be the year we reach our Vertical Slice-stage. Of course, seeing as how this year suddenly turned crazy, we’re not getting our hopes up just to get disappointed, but we’re still really looking forward to a promising new year.

Anyways, this is an update on our progress. We’ve been hard at work making good environment assets, building a reward system, and more. Here’s an overview of what’s to come:

• A quick status check on Project Tumble

• Shiny coins and magical comic books

• Concepting the music of playful adventures

• Our spot in Beyond Beta

• Two new additions to the Digital Devotion Games family

So, we outblocked and made concept art of our first level. Now comes the next part – actually building it! Here’s what the level looks like now:

We’ve got terrain, grass and rocks! The tiresome work of laying the foundation takes a long time, but it’s starting to look really nice. The first level is a peaceful park, so we want the environment to look inviting and perfect for frolicking through – I’d say we’re getting there!

We’ve also come a long way on our character! CapKid has gotten some colors and looks better than ever!

And, of course, he can still ragdoll. Let’s not forget that.

Soon, we’ll be able to show off more gameplay. Our game designer, Sune, and our gameplay programmer, Christian, has been developing ‘Points of Play’ to be found in the level. They are basically anything from challenges to puzzles and will be the ‘meat’ of the game, alongside the more hectic mini-games. We’ve been testing some out in our current level – in this case, the photograph challenge! Three players each assume a photograph-stand and see a different part of the layout. Can you and your friends communicate where each of your respective platforms are, so that one of you can go grab the prize in the lake?

Apropos prizes…

Who could forget the prizes? It’s generally a good idea to have some kind of feedback in your game to tell the player when they’re doing well and to reward them for their accomplishments. Project Tumble is a very ‘freeform’ game, where players can complete many ‘Points of Play’ and minigames during a playsession, so of course we need to be able to reward them for all their hard work!

Introducing ‘Coins’ and ‘Comic Books’:

‘Coins’ are the main currency you’ll pick up while playing, while the ‘Comic Books’ are more significant milestones. ‘Coins’ will be used to buy new outfits, kits and toys, while ‘Comic Books’ will be used to unlock new levels. It’s a classic platformer progression system. We are, however, doing more with it than that, since our game is a multiplayer game first and foremost. There are some tricky challenges to get it to work ‘better with friends’ (one of our key design pillars), but we’ll show it off once we’ve got something cool.

Now, it’s not just visual or programming progress that’s been made. Music is being concepted as well, and we’d like to present one of our music sketches made so far. It was written to instill a feeling of playful adventuring – with a touch of worry. As in “should these kids really be running around throwing fireballs on the roof?”.

Man, trumpets are great. Hope you liked it. The musical style we’re going with is still being determined, but this composition hits a lot of good notes.

While you listen to that sweet banger, we can also proudly say that we’re still in the Beyond Beta program, having passed the first and second gate. This basically means that our mentors within the program believe we can go from a start-up to a scale-up. We’re doing what we can to continue to prove that we are suitable for investments, and that Project Tumble is going to be something truly great.

They wrote a bit of some of the remaining start-ups here (featuring some quotes by our CEO, Mikkel). The other companies are all doing very interesting and innovative stuff, e.g. helping companies neutralize their carbon-footprint or matchmake for optimal green food ex-/import. Check Accelerace out to see what might be the next big thing here in Denmark (and maybe the world?)

We’ve expanded our team with two new recruits. They are quite young and, frankly, inexperienced as game developers, but they keep our spirits high and are cute as well. Meet Echo and Doggo.

So far, they’ve managed to tear up some curtains, meowed loudly during all our meetings, and capture our hearts. Well, they were already kind of caught by Villy, the veteran pupper.

This update is coming much earlier than normal – that’s because the whole team is taking a well-deserved christmas break. So from all of us here at Digital Devotion Games, we’d like to wish you happy holidays. 2020 was a tough one, but as long as we’ve got each other backs, we’ll be alright. Stay safe, brew some hot cocoa, and call your grandparents. Cheers!

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