Publishing: Trip the Ark Fantastic

Trip the Ark Fantastic – an immersive story-driven scientific adventure set in the Animal Kingdom on the verge of industrial and social revolution.

5 December 2019, Zagreb – Gamechuck has just released the first trailer for their upcoming role-playing adventure game Trip the Ark Fantastic, the first Croatian game co-funded by the European Union’s MEDIA sub-programme.

Trip the Ark Fantastic is planned for release in 2022 on PC/Mac/Linux and consoles, and until then Gamechuck is inviting all interested gamers to follow them via their newsletter, Discord channel, or other social media at arkfantastic.com.

SUMMARY

“Under our homes and under our hearths, civilization itself stands on a story. Words tied us all together, and they could unravel the world. 

Find it, Charles; uphold the Myth!”

Trip the Ark Fantastic will have:

• A deep and immersive secondary world set in the Animal Kingdom on the verge of industrial and social revolution, content-rich and filled with intrigue, side-quests, and flavor at every step.
• Completely original gameplay mechanics based on the scientific method: research, discuss, experiment, and finally publish arguments in the Animal Kingdom’s papers.
• An exploration of how myths, science, and philosophy can influence society, and how monarchies, democracies, and anarchies view power, authority, and legitimacy of rule.
• Gorgeous art including frame-by-frame animation and vibrant landscapes inspired by the golden age of animation, as well as music inspired by the works of R. Wagner
• A gesamtkunstwerk approach in which the art, music, and gameplay all tie closely to the story of scientific discovery and the role of myths in different types of societies.
• The entire development completely is done in open-source technologies, including Godot Engine, Krita, Ink, and MuseScore, among others.

STORY

Trip the Ark Fantastic is a story-driven role-playing adventure set in the Animal Kingdom on the verge of both industrial and social revolution. The story follows Charles, a hedgehog scholar on a mission by the lion king to save the monarchy, but his decisions could end up helping reformists or even to bring about anarchy.

The story revolves around an ancient myth that forms the basis of the Animal Kingdom’s caste system – the myth of the Ark Fantastic. As the myth goes, the ark was built by lions millennia ago to save all animals from a great flood. The king’s gambit is that, amidst whispers of reform and revolution, a reputable scholar such as Charles proving the existence of the mythical ark might sway animals toward a royalist stance, and thus uphold the monarchy.

Charles is accompanied by the king’s trusted advisor Philippe the Fox and the captain of the royal guard – Andre the Boar. Their task will lead them to the fringes of the Kingdom and beyond, in search of elusive truth.

GAMEPLAY

The player progresses through the game by solving the Kingdom’s various problems and mysteries, but his method of solving them is a scientific one – he publishes compelling arguments in the Animal Kingdom’s scientific papers to prove his theories and disprove those of others. Only arguments with sound logic and solid evidence will have the power to sway public opinion and change the course of history. 

The evidence itself can be found by talking to the local denizens (after learning their language, such as squirrels), by using scientific equipment (a microscope, or a chemist kit), or, as a true scholar, by “standing on the shoulders of giants” and using evidence from the works of other scholars found in libraries across the Kingdom.

The player’s main challenge will be finding all the relevant evidence and then choosing the right conclusions, which are then published and reviewed by his peers, potentially resulting in a boost to his scholarly reputation.

Additionally, since Charles’ scientific conclusions can have large-scale consequences on the Animal Kingdom and the monarchy, in particular, there is a looming moral dilemma over whether the player should publish a certain argument or not.

THEMES AND INSPIRATIONS

We draw inspiration for the game from modern fables of classic literature, such as Animal Farm or Watership Down, as well as deep story-driven games from the roleplaying and adventure game genres, and games with unique and experimental gameplay mechanics.

Our goal is to use the game to explore various types of society (monarchy, democracy, anarchy) and to tackle questions such as how the rule is legitimized, what role myths play in the shaping of society, and so on.

The animation is drawn frame-by-frame to be reminiscent of early animated classics, and the music takes cues from 19th-century romanticism with the use of leitmotifs inspired by Wagner and gesamtkunstwerk opera.

The game is developed using open-source software, such as the painting tool Krita and the Godot game engine. Gamechuck studio is also a sponsor to both Krita and Godot Engine and, in the case of Godot Engine, actively contributes to its development.

CONTACT

Lucija Pilić – PR and Marketing

Press mail: press@game-chuck.com

Trip the Ark Fantastic web page: www.tripthearkfantastic.com

Gamechuck web page: www.game-chuck.com

Link to Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxxCXc1ade4

Press kit: http://tripthearkfantastic.com/presskit

Discord: https://game-chuck.com/discord

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tripthearkfantastic/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ark_fantastic

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tripthearkfantastic/

About Gamechuck

Gamechuck is a Croatian game development company founded in 2017 and based in Zagreb. Gamechuck secured EUR 149,400 from European Union’s MEDIA sub-program Creative Europe for the development of the “Trip the Ark Fantastic,” thus becoming the first game development studio from Croatia that received funding from the EU. Gamechuck has also been nominated for the Best Game Idea at the AzPlay Bilbao, the Best Transmedia Project at the Filmteractive Warsaw and Best Game Idea at the Casual Connect London for its debut game “All You Can Eat,” while its second game “vApe Escape” was featured in the Humble Monthly Originals selection in November 2018.

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Publishing: GoVentureWold ~ A Browser Game for Economics

Jonez speaking here:

If you want to read more and give this game a chance, I would advise you to check out their website: https://goventureworld.com

This game is an MMORPG, where you take on the role of a manager of a new company. Your goal is to grow and become as wealthy as you can. But be aware, this game is grounded in reality! You will have to get the economical skills to exceed at this game.

While this game is still in development, the developers are very open to user feedback and bug reports. There are various ways to contact them with ideas, questions and bug reports.

If this infographic or this text interests you in any way, go and check out the website. Since this game is FREE. (At the moment of writing)

Here is something I really like: there is systems built-in, that avoid people going bankrupt when you go idle on the game. Your assets will be frozen so you don’t loose nor win money.

If you want to give this game a try, but don’t know a lot about economics, don’t worry. There are courses and tutorials to help you improve your knowledge. In addition to that, this game is created by a team of people who have created various simulation apps for schools with an economic program. So, they are experienced in their craft.

More information about the company developing it can be found here: http://mediaspark.com/about.html

Check this game out, since it has a lot of potentials! Thank you for reading this article and I hope to be able to welcome you to another one. Until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

Gamer’s Thoughts: My Dream Con

Not too long ago, I wrote an article about my adventures at various conventions. You can read it here.  Today, I want to talk about something unique. I was inspired to share my dream comic con after learning that Eventbrite has the tools to make an event like this happen.Today, I’m going to talk about my dream con. Well, not only my own dream con. I asked a few other bloggers for some ideas and suggestions and I have put in their answers in this article. Also, if you are interested in organizing your own event, seriously take a look at this page of Eventbrite. It’s their management page and it will make organizing an event a lot easier! So, without any further ado, let’s talk about my dream convention. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the article and/or your own dream convention.

Where would it take place?

Honestly, I’m not a specialist on this. I could talk about some places I went to where conventions took place like the Excell Centre in London or the “Heizel” in Brussels, Belgium.

Seriously, the Heizel is extremely large. But, I think it’s not really good for conventions with a lot of panels. But, I have only been in parts of the buildings, so I can’t really judge that. I honestly thought that the Excel Centre in London was better for that.

Thankfully, somebody who has more knowledge on the subject gave me an interesting answer. From the guys at GeekOut South-West, I present this answer that came from Joel, one of the writers on that site:

Without question the best venue I’ve ever been to is the Warwick art centre. I think Tim would agree to that. So far as guests go, mostly I’m in it for the other con goers so I leave it to others for good examples

And then Tim, also from GeekOut South-West, replied with:

In my view, Excel has nothing on Warwick Art Centre. Excel is big and seriously impressive! However it’s… Just space. It’s good to cram things into. The WAC is just a stunning university campus, which has space should you/a person need it. There’s rooms with all the facilities you could ever need and the people who run it genuinely care.

If ya’ll hadn’t guessed, I agree with Joel

Also, Kim from LaterLevels got a suggestion:

My favourite venue in the UK is the NEC in Birmingham. I get what Tim said about places like this just being ‘a space’ but I love how enormous it feels; and every expo I’ve been to there has had a great vibe. Alternatively, I quite like the Tobacco Dock. There’s a bit of history there and it’s a gorgeous venue – plus it’s in London and so easy for me to get to!

Who/what would be at your dream comic con?

Kim from LaterLevels replied this:

My dream con would have an area solely dedicated to adventure games: point-and-clicks, walking sims, anything heavily story-based. I also like the ‘Leftfield Collection’ areas at the EGX and Rezzed expos, where you get to meet new devs who are usually there with their first projects. They tend to be more ‘experimental’ than other games on show.

Seriously Kim? This was going to be part of my reply too. I honestly feel that games like the point-and-click don’t get enough love on cons. At most conventions, it is all the flashy games that steal the show. Yet, I want to go one step further.

I would love to have a underappreciated games genres corner. Visual novels, RTS, dungeon crawlers, indie games… I think it would be lovely to show the underdog some love from time to time.

If I would be allowed to organize a con, and allowed to forget reality for a second, I would honestly love to invite the smaller blogs/YT channels as “press”. Since I think that they would be able to grow so much with the opportunities presented to them then. Otherwise, the big blogs and big YT channels might steal all the thunder away.

Yet, in reality, I know that such a thing isn’t possible. So, I would try and make sure that the smaller YT channels and smaller bloggers get some equal attention and exclusive things to promote on their channel or blog.

Something I would love is a healthy mixture of old school and new games. I honestly think that a convention dedicated to gaming instead of one subsection of gamers would be popular. I would go even a bit further. I would love to focus the con at giving people the chance to learn about old games, new games and share games and knowledge around. I would also love to have a sort of garage sale-y thing to happen. So, new and old games can be sold, bought and traded. That would make the inner collector in me happy.

Who would you like to meet? 

So, I told you guys earlier that I asked answers to other bloggers. Well, Kim from LaterLevels told me this:

As for who I’d like to meet there… Peter Molyneux! I know that’s a pretty controversial answer but I admire his ambition (even if he doesn’t always pull it off), and I’ve always wanted to meet him. It would also be good to see Dr Mick Donegan, the founder of SpecialEffect – I’ve met him before and he’s so lovely, his enthusiasm for helping others is infectious.

So, this quite an interesting answer. Personally, I would love to meet some of the developers I had the pleasure of meeting through emails. I have written quite a few articles about indie games and learned that some developers actually live in countries pretty close to mine. So, I think it would be awesome to meet them.

Other people, I would like to meet are the people I got to know in the blogosphere. We are becoming such close friends and I would love to meet up with them and just hang out. Play a game with them, grab something to eat and things like that.

In terms of people from the gaming industry, I would love to be able to meet Shigeru Miyamoto, if at all possible. I have so much respect for the guy. All the work he did for the gaming industry just blows my mind. I want to personally thank him for all the memories he created for all of us. I don’t want to go and interview him or be a big fanboy (which, to be honest, I am), I want to thank him as a fan and as an admirer of his work. But, I want to keep it professional and respectful towards him. Maybe one autograph might not hurt.

Wrapping up

That will be my dream convention. A place where everybody can have fun. Where retro gamers would meet “new school” gamers. Also, thank you again to my blogger friends for adding their own replies to the mix. They made this article more interesting to write. But, now I’m quite curious what your favorite conventions are. I can’t wait to read about them in the comment section down below.

Also, thank you again to my blogger friends for adding their own replies to the mix. They made this article more interesting to write. But, now I’m quite curious what your favorite conventions are. I can’t wait to read about them in the comment section down below.

As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another blog but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

First Impression: Coffe Noir (PC) ~ Detective Business Educational Game

Official website

It’s quite clear from the fact that I’m writing a gaming blog that I love games. I also work in a school secretary. Now, I came across this recently translated game that combines both worlds called Coffee Noir. Yes, this is an edutainment game. This game is developed by Doji Educational Innovations, a Poland-based company that specializes in educational and training tools. This game is browser based, so no installs needed. So, I have played this game for a few hours and I’ll describe in this article my thoughts about the game. This is my first impression of this game, which means I haven’t finished the game. As usual for my articles, feel free to write a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article.

Solving that crime

First, before I forget to mention, the version I played was the version that is meant for casual gamers. That’s also the version I linked at the start of this article. If you want to know more about the educational side of this game, feel free to visit this website.

In this game, you play as a private detective solving crimes. Your name is Arthur Oliver. You try to solve a disappearance case and you go undercover as a boss of a coffee producer to try and get in contact with the suspects who could have kidnapped your client.

In this game, you will learn a lot about various topics like business management, economics, negotiation and many other skills. The developers created a video with more information about the story and the game, which you can see here.

The original language of the game is Polish and it’s recently translated into English. Due to the high amounts of text, I can forgive some parts of the game not being translated. While I was playing this game, I screenshotted the areas where I still found some Polish and mailed them to the developers. They replied a day later and they said they are going to work on it.

Another issue that I ran into is that in multiple areas the textboxes overflow. What I mean by that is that the text continues outside the UI. It’s a shame since this game looks great visually. I also notified the developers of this issue and they said that they will work on that as well.

The presentation of this game is well done. It didn’t take long for me to find my way in the UI. When I wanted to adjust some sales settings, I had to click on “sales” and I was there. The only thing I couldn’t find easily is an overview page of all my income and expenses. That would be a great tool in this business simulation.

Visually, this game looks great. Most of this game looks like it’s drawn by hand. I like the art style that is used in the game. I sometimes forgot that this game is an educational game and I was enjoying myself and if you can achieve that, you know you are doing a good job.

Something I wasn’t too fond off is the music. Don’t understand me wrong, it’s good music, but there isn’t too much music in the game. And when I heard the same music track for the 6^th time, I got bored with it. So, I muted the music and played my own music in the background. The sound effects in this game weren’t muted, and thankfully so, since they add so much atmosphere to the game.

Still in development

If you visit their IndieGoGo campaign, a campaign they ran in 2016, they said that there is still much in the pipeline for this game. A year after the IndieGoGo campaign we got the English version of this game. Now that it is released, we will get one major new feature in late 2017 and that is voice acting.

That’s something that the version I played lacked. The game sometimes felt boring due to me clicking in some many menus and reading so much text. If there were more voice acting and more animation on screen, this game would be more interesting to casual players. But, we should wait and see before we give our final judgment.

Something I applaud in this game is the fact that the educational parts aren’t forced upon the player. If you want to try your own strategy to finish this game, you are free to try. The game doesn’t stop you with annoying math puzzles you must solve before you can continue. This is how edutainment should be, since this way you teach players about something and they have fun. An example is that when you want to train your employees, you must finish the short test to gain a bonus with that employee. Don’t worry, you get the chance to read through the theory before you take the test. I was also happy that I could access it in negotiations since I could look up terms and theory of things I didn’t know.

Another big plus in this game is the handbook and wiki. In the handbook, you can find many pages with usual information about psychology and other usual topics that can aid you in solving the case. While I studied economics in high school, I don’t know a lot about psychology. And this way I don’t have to look up all the information.

Also, the wiki is quite handy to have nearby. When I forgot how to do something or how something worked in the UI or what something meant, my answer wasn’t too far away in the wiki.

This game also has a tutorial. The tutorial itself is quite long and holds your hand throughout the whole process, it’s highly recommended that you go through with the tutorial since it teaches you the game mechanics. The first time I played this game, didn’t end well. I tested my skills without following the tutorial.

Opinion of a teacher

As I said in the introduction of this article, I work in a school. But I also have some experience in teaching classes. This game would be great to use in an economics class. I wonder if the educational version of this game is different since you could use this game in two very different classes and it would be a shame that teachers didn’t use this game. I can imagine that teachers don’t use this game because, for example, an economics teacher doesn’t want that students have to bother with psychology in the economic classes.

This game isn’t for everybody. If you don’t enjoy mystery games or tycoon games, I would skip this game. If the videos from the developers interest you, give this game a try. This game is rather interesting.

There is a lot of replay value in this game. Since you can tackle the business side of things in some many ways, each playthrough is different from the last. So, no playthrough will be the same. Unless you do it on purpose of course.

Before I wrap up this article, I want to thank Doji Interactive for giving me a free copy of this game to test out. Thank you for putting this game under my attention. I have been playing this game here and there and I have been enjoying myself. When I wrote this article, a lifetime account costs 9,99 USD which is extremely cheap for the content you get in my opinion. Before there is confusion, this isn’t a paid article.

Conclusion

This game has a lot of potentials. When I have more time, I certainly will finish this game. This will most likely happen in my summer break. Most things I missed in this game like voice acting are things on the to-do list of the developer.

So, this game will only keep improving in the future and I can’t wait to see where it goes. If you are interested in mystery games and tycoon games, I would highly recommend checking the official website of this game since it’s a great game in my opinion and I can’t wait how this game is going to evolve.

Before I say goodbye, I should add something. The developers told me that in the coming months, there will be some updates and patches to the game. Another reason to get excited about the future of this game!

Thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this article. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog, but until then take care and have a great rest of your day!