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Star Drifters recap #2 🚀



Hello everyone! 👋

The year 2022 is now a melody of the past.
We would like to thank all of you guys for supporting us since day one! 🙏

Without further ado - let’s check out what happened in our camp during the second half of ‘22. Let’s go! 🏃‍♂️

[h2]⚒️ First Dwarf (...and some gaming events here and there! 🎮)[/h2]

In case you missed it - First Dwarf is our upcoming Action RPG set in the world of Driftland. That’s why you can read about it on Driftland: The Magic Revival Steam card.

You’ll be able to pet a good boi in the game. Mhm. That’s right! 🐕



Now, let’s talk about the asymmetrical co-op 🐉 that we’re implementing in First Dwarf.



🧑‍🤝‍🧑 In co-op, players will be able to take control over the mech or one of its pilots: Tru or Ragna. Each of them has its own, separate skills to develop and upgrade. All characters have their strengths and weaknesses so it’s important to choose the characters wisely when preparing to complete certain tasks.

🧑‍ In a single-player game, the player can switch between characters, completing tasks with the one with better skills in a given field. Tru, Ragna, and the Mech will have different skill trees. Tru will be a better Mecha pilot, Ragna can e.g. fly, and the Mech can be treated as a kind of armored vehicle, so without a pilot it will not work.



It’s important to say that implementing the asymmetrical co-op would not be possible without the Game Prototype Design Competition 2022 in which we were awarded! 🏆



The competition mentioned above helped us create some new mechanics for First Dwarf. Those mechanics evolved into a full-fledged, asymmetrical co-op mode of the game, which we implemented in its build! Once again, thank you to the co-organizers of the competition: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, Centrum GovTech Poland, and CRPK, as well as Copernicus Game Jam 2022 - during which the diplomas 📜 were handed over and everyone who supported us along the way.

We showed our upcoming action RPG at many gaming 🎮 events, both digital and held in “real” places. Just to name a few:
- PAX West;
- Poznań Games Arena (PGA);
- Indie Cade;
- DreamHack Beyond Indie Showcase;
- MIX Next 2022;
- Dev.Play;
- #PitchYaGame.

It’s time to focus on 3️⃣ of them.

[h2]🚏 First stop - PAX West. [/h2]

Lots of you came to our booth to check out an early build of our game. Thank you for that! See you next year! 🤜🤛

Your reactions surpassed our expectations, and the feedback provided will certainly influence the further development of the game, already at this stage. It was 4 days full of interesting conversations, laughter and a unique atmosphere created by countless players, cosplayers, journalists, or industry representatives.🤝



[h2]🚏 Second stop - Poznań Games Arena (PGA).[/h2]

In Poznań, we were showing First Dwarf, Scorchlands, Brewpub Simulator, and Lumencraft. PGA was such a blast! We felt your enjoyment brought to your faces by our upcoming games. Just look at Kuba, one of the members of our team - his smile does not lie 😊



[h2]🚏 The last stop - Dev.Play.[/h2]

It’s a yearly celebration of indie games and their developers. Game creators from all over the world come to Bucharest to present their titles and experiences. The event ended with an award gala. First Dwarf received 3 awards: Best Game of the Show, Best Visuals, and Most Popular Game. 🏆 Thank y’all! 🙏



To wrap up the First Dwarf chapter of this recap we want to write about the key role of our IGN - Exclusive Announcement Trailer posted on IGN’s YouTube channel was viewed more than 285k times. There are also more than 5.4k thumbs up 👍 under the video! 📺

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1714900/First_Dwarf/

[h2]🐦 Scorchlands[/h2]

Who won’t fall in love with birdlike Giwis, running around through the hexes? The game’s a wholesome and adorable city builder.



Play the demo version - is available for free here, on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1090100/Scorchlands/



At this point, we can say that developers from Ringlab ⚗️ are aiming for publishing more Steam News about in-game mechanics. When we’re writing these words, three of them are available as we speak: How the protagonist Giwi hatched, How to build your colony, and Gameplay Insight #1: Summoning the Nexus.

Stay tuned ! More of them will be published during January and February of 2023.

Also, the game received a warm welcome during #TurnBasedFest 2022! 😎

[h2]🕷️ Lumencraft[/h2]

The full release of this unique mix of a top-down shooter with base building and roguelike mechanisms is just around the corner! Nonetheless, we’re not spoiling the release date at the moment. That’s not the only great news - something big is coming to the game. We bet you weren’t expecting this. Jump on the hype train, but stay calm. For now, let’s go down. Together. ⏬



The developers from 2Dynamic Games are constantly tweaking and upgrading the game’s build. You can help them by completing the survey they made - we’ll be very grateful for the feedback! It’s called Discord 🎧 survey, because the game’s community was the first one to answer the questions mentioned in it.

👉 Link to Lumencraft survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSckMJ-2HMumj5rPd_i2Up0bxT3CRyQvZzWpmKmvBQTfKDTLNg/viewform



One of the most important moments during the Early Access of Lumencraft was taking a different approach to the game's build. The experimental update published a few months ago left the beta stage. It's now living its new life - the developers called it Giga Update.

Lumencraft is reshaping every once in a while - two bigger updates and one smaller update were released since the release of Giga Update. There’s a lot of fresh content in the game - you should play it now, especially if you spent some time with Lumencraft a few months ago. It truly is worth revisiting! 🔁

[h2]🍻 Brewpub Simulator[/h2]

There was a first, official playtest of the game - we’re glad how many of you decided to check out what it’s like to run a virtual pub and brew some virtual ale! A playable build of the game was presented to European audiences for the first time during PGA 2022. Thanks for playing it, we know what works and what needs some tweaking here and there! 🍺



https://store.steampowered.com/app/1755180/Brewpub_Simulator/

[h2]🏢 Danger Scavenger [/h2]

Our skyscraper roguelite shooter is out now on Epic Games Store! 🎉



Just a reminder - Danger Scavenger is available on PC, PS4, XONE, Nintendo Switch, Atari VCS, and XSX. It’s also a Steam Deck verified game - give it a try on one of the handhelds, and you’ll fall in love with this fast-paced gunslinger action!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1169740/Danger_Scavenger/

This is not the last word we said speaking about publishing our games’ catalog on Epic Games Store - more titles will follow soon. At this point, you can wishlist First Dwarf ⚒️ and Scorchlands 🐦 on this platform!

That’s all for today.
Great things are here, but also great things are yet to come.
2023 will be ours!

Don’t forget to support IndieDev! 🕹️

Much love,
Star Drifters 🚀

Dev update #1

Dear Dwarves! :dwarf_gs:

we want to bring you some new information about our project and co-op mode :)

First, we were awarded in this year's edition of the Game Prototype Design Competition 2022!



The competition mentioned above helped us create some new mechanics for First Dwarf, our upcoming Action RPG set in the world of Driftland. Those mechanics evolved into a full-fledged, asymmetrical co-op mode of the game, which we implemented in its build! Thank you to the co-organizers of the competition: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, Centrum GovTech Poland, and CRPK, as well as Copernicus Game Jam 2022 - during which the diplomas were handed over and everyone who supported us along the way.

[h2]How does our co-op mode work?[/h2]

In this asymmetrical co-op 🐉 player can take control over the mech or one of its pilots: Tru or Ragna. Each of them has its own, separate skills to develop and upgrade. All characters have their strengths and weaknesses so it’s important to choose the characters wisely when preparing to complete certain tasks.

In a single-player game, the player can switch between characters, completing tasks with the one with better skills in a given field. Tru, Ragna, and the Mech will have different skill trees. Tru will be a better Mecha pilot, Ragna can e.g. fly, and the Mech can be treated as a kind of armored vehicle, so without a pilot it will not work.

Below you can see what our WIP (Work in Progress) footage of the asymmetrical co-op mode looks like.





Look out for First Dwarf 🎮 - we can't wait to tell the tale of Tru and Ragna (i.e. the game's protagonists)!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1714900/First_Dwarf/

But wait, before you go, visit the Discord 👾 server of the game and follow Star Drifters 🚀 on FB, Twitter 🐦 and Instagram. 📷

Yours Star Drifters 🚀

Dev.Play 2022 – First Dwarf named the best game of the conference

Dear Mages!

Dev.Play is a yearly celebration of indie games and their developers. Game creators from all over the world come to Bucharest to present their titles and experiences. The event ended on Tuesday with an award gala. First Dwarf received 3 awards, including for the Best Game of the Show.

First Dwarf won prizes for Best Game of the Show, Best Visuals and Most Popular Game.









Our game is set in an open world that once was a whole planet, but a great war shattered it into drifting islands. Players will step into the shoes of Tru, a scouting engineer in a mech who is tasked to explore unknown lands in search of a new settlement for the fading dwarven civilization. Accompanied by his dear friend, female dragon Ragna, Tru will gather resources, collect mana to fuel and upgrade his mechanical armor, build bases, set up their defenses, and engage in close combat with local fauna to accomplish his mission.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

See the full list of Dev.Play 2022 awards:

  1. Best Game of the Show: First Dwarf / Star Drifters
  2. Best Innovation: Liberte / Superstatic Studio
  3. Best Visuals: First Dwarf / Star Drifters
  4. Best Game Design: Bear and Breakfast / Gummy Cat Studio
  5. Most Popular Game First Dwarf / Star Drifters
  6. Outstanding Achievement for the Romanian Gamedev Industry: Mihai Pohonţu / Amber

You can find more about the event on its official website.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1714900/First_Dwarf/

You can also check our animated trailer:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

But wait, before you go, visit the Discord 👾 server of the game and follow Star Drifters 🚀 on FB, Twitter 🐦 and Instagram. 📷

Star Drifters x PGA 2022 🕹️



Salute! 🚀

When we’re writing these words, we’re on our way to Poznań - one of the biggest cities in Poland. At the beginning of every Autumn, MTP Poznań Expo is transformed into the location of one of the largest computer, console, and multimedia entertainment trade show in Central and Eastern Europe…👀

Poznań Game Arena, here we come! 🎮

📅 Save the date: 07-09.10.2022
📍 Booth 23 at Pavilion 7



Be there with us for the whole weekend - from Friday’s morning till Sunday’s evening!

We’re so happy to be a part of it once again. So, without further ado - we would like to invite all of you to…



This year, we’ll be showcasing four games.

First Dwarf, our upcoming Action RPG ⚒️


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This will be the first time we’ll be presenting the game in Europe! 💥
We truly can’t wait to see what you guys think about Tru and Ragna. Our team was polishing the build for the last few weeks especially for PGA. In case you missed the info - First Dwarf is our new game expanding the Driftland franchise.

Scorchlands, the adorable city-builder with bird-like characters (they’re actually called Giwis 🐦)


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Just a reminder - the demo version of Scorchlands is now up on Steam - we submitted it to Steam Next Fest. Seems like everybody digs the cute Giwis communities. You’ve got to check Scorchlands out! Poznań Game Arena is a great place to do so.

Brewpub Simulator, the game for all pub enjoyers 🍻


Psst… That’s the sound of a beer can being opened. We’re more into taps and craft beers - you will be able to verificate our passion about the golden drink by playing the demo version of Brewpub Simulator! We never showed it to anyone, this will be the first time EVER. We can’t wait for your feedback about this project! 🍺

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Lumencraft 🕷️


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This is a project that we announced last year - a lot of things happened along the way. The game’s currently in Early Access, what’s more - feel free to download the demo version and see how much stuff was added, tweaked and re-shaped since the start of EA. Lumencraft looks great, runs smoothly, and feels just like we imagine it - it’s a little tricky and spooky. What’s more, if you own a Steam Deck - this is definitely a game you want to try on this handheld.

Oops, looks like we’re already in Poznań. It’s time to set everything before you visit our booth! See you on-site - don’t be shy and come say hi. 👋

Yours truly,
Star Drifters 🚀

PAX West Summary 🚀

Dear Mages,

The excitement of this year's PAX West in Seattle is slowly falling down, so it's time for a little recap. Foremost, we would like to thank you 🙏, Gamers, for visiting us at the Indie Games Poland booth to play one of the first versions of First Dwarf!



Your reactions surpassed our expectations, and the feedback provided will certainly influence the further development of the game, already at this stage. It was 4 days full of interesting conversations, laughter and a unique atmosphere created by countless players, cosplayers, journalists, or industry representatives. See you next year! 🤜🤛



👋 Thanks to Acer, for providing the hardware!

Did you visit the Indie Games Poland booth at the Seattle Convention Center? Let us know in the comments about your impressions.

🚀 There will be another opportunity to play First Dwarf in October - Poznań Game Arena 2022 is coming!



🚀 We still have a lot of work ahead of us, and we encourage you to follow our progress on our Discord. The most active players will soon receive access to the test version of First Dwarf!



[h2]BTW. The trailer on IGN channel has already been viewed 140k times! First Dwarf itself, has already hit the 10k wishlists on Steam, wow! 🤩[/h2]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

PS Greetings to the guy who was not satisfied with the ending of Driftland: The Magic Revival. We hope the shirt fits 😉

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1714900/First_Dwarf/

But wait, before you go, visit the Discord 👾 server of the game and follow Star Drifters 🚀 on FB, Twitter 🐦 and Instagram. 📷

Your,
Star Drifters Team 🚀