On a relaxed Thursday evening, Noble Steed Games ran our first in-person event after a long hiatus! WIP Night is meant to be a space for game developers to share their works-in-progress, gain feedback, and of course, connect with fellow developers. Our studio has always believed in supporting fellow developers in industry however we can, and were extremely excited to be able to host so many wonderful work-in-progress games!
Here’s a brief recap if you missed out:
Which Way Up by Turtle Flip Studio, presented by Nick Cellini
Which Way Up is a gravity-bending, multiplayer, party game where players help cute, space spirits compete in a variety of game modes to ascend to the next realm of existence. During the night, Nick introduced the different minigames available and their core mechanics all involving platform gravity.
He also shared with us some of the programming problems his team faced when making a game so centred on navigating different gravity fields, as well as the custom tools they had to make to resolve it. These tools led to some design limitations, but Nick explained that there was a beauty in embracing them, as they led to some very funky looking planet shapes!
Which Way Up is available for wishlist here.
Frankenstorm TD by Doodad Games, presented by Bilal Akil
Frankenstorm TD is a mazing roguelite tower defense. You play as a humble scientist, besieged by endless hordes of angry peasants. You have to salvage parts to build towers, set traps, acquire upgrades and construct an elaborate maze, defending yourself against wiley foes!
During the night, Bilal shared about how the game was first made in a game jam. It did really well, leading his team to developing it further as Frankenstorm TD. He then proceeded to showcase several of the programming tools his team used, some to make playtesting easier and find performance issues, as well as how to more easily localise the game!
Frankenstorm TD is available for wishlist here.
Crab God by Chaos Theory Games, presented by James Lockrey and Nico King.
Crab God is a 2.5D side-scrolling simulation game. You play as the colossal Crab God, and must lead your baby Crablings through a great migration across the Great Barrier Reef to the Mariana Trench. For your Crablings to survive this journey, you must transform the underwater world into a thriving, healthy ecosystem that can support them, and protect them from hungry threats.
During the night, James and Nico spoke about the game’s core and meta gameplay loops and how Crab God’s in-game motivation to care for the Crablings and their simulated ecosystem would lead to real-world impact. It was inspiring to hear how they strove to create real-world change and aligned with two UN Sustainable Development Goals – Goal 13, Climate Action and Goal 14, Life Below Water. From offsetting the game’s production-related carbon emissions to direct action via partnerships with dots.eco, which are activated by in-game community goals and achievements, we were encouraged to think more deeply about the impact we had as game developers.
Follow Crab God on Twitter to get frequent updates!
To conclude, it was a night filled with a variety of wonderful work-in-progress projects! We were honoured to have hosted all of them, and look forward to providing more platforms for developers to share their ideas!
We’d love to see your games, large and small, weird and delightful. Whether you’re a studio, a team of friends, or going at it solo, so long as it’s a work-in-progress project, we’d love to have you for the next WIP Night! Apply to share your game in the future here.
Stay tuned for the next WIP Night!
