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AdventureX – Combine enthusiast community with fun

From gamescom to local meetups - today there’s no shortage of opportunities to display your game. You can get feedback, watch players react to your latest build, connect with fellow devs, and chase wishlists. But it’s often the smaller events, that have a huge impact as the community surrounding them can make all the difference. And if it applies to anything, it's the AdventureX.

The Tower Bridge in London. — London delivered the expected: Rain. And well-humoured Britains.

Last weekend, Jana was attending the AdventureX in London, a conference dedicated to narrative games - and especially those rooted in classic Point & Click gameplay.
Thanks to a jury, we were selected with Mops & Mobs to showcase our current demo there, as well.

Being part of the 30 exhibited games was a real treat. From organizers to volunteers, everyone was enthusiastic and dedicated to the genre and it's fans to create a well-run space for both devs and fans. Attendees were committed to often play thoroughly and discuss their experience in detail with the devs. Therefore, it makes total sense, the AdventureX requires developers to attend in person: catering to a special interest group made every discourse and examination of the games more focused and thoughtful than the typical questions you might get from the audience at a mainstream expo like gamescom.

A tale with a laptop and lots of stickers and buttons. — My humble desk had nothing but a laptop. A poster would have been smart, but honestly: the swag felt far more important at AdventureX!

AdventureX isn't just an exhibition! You will quickly experience that these are not just any volunteers or attendees, they are a tight community that has grown together over the years. Therefore, the overall event is a big hello! for everyone that's ever been at AdX before, devs that attended previous years and the Discord community that's been meeting online over the year. It’s rare to find something comparable in the wider games scene - perhaps A Maze Festival or developers being present at the Indie Arena Booth. But both grew significantly in size over the last years, while the AdventureX is quite small - they sold about 700 tickets over the weekend - and with that the event was sold out!

As I was solo at the event, staying in my little corner, I did mainly experience watching people play Mops & Mobs, having the most encouraging feedback we've had so far. Though that meant I missed most of the overall event - there were some developers or writers attending, that I would have deeply loved taking to - but hey, without the exhibition we wouldn't have attended our first AdvX either.

So I had an excellent time with my neighbours who are these wonderful people - and show the amazing diversity the overall exhibition offered:

Amy from AdvX, Eike and Ben from Trans Theft Horso - loved the humor, characters and songs - they're still stuck in my head.

Mosu from The Dark Queen of Mortholme - you play as the final boss - love just everything about the premise

Hammered Crow Games with Dark Tides - Victorian era, a weasel as sidekick, dark Rituals and a character that can fit anything into her inventory. Anything.

Now that I’ve experienced it, I’m absolutely in the loop, and I’d definitely return to London next year. With much more time to explore, I presume, as you can't submit the same game twice.
And the talks are even online. And the AdventureX Sale is still running until December, 2nd on Steam.

New demo of Mops & Mobs dropped!

After a very long silence we finally released a new-ish demo of Mops & Mobs! While the story and level of the demo is largely the same as before, there's now the combat gameplay we already talked about. It's a non-demanding card game, and like everything it's still a WIP (and probably will be until release). We'd like to know what you think of it, so with this new demo we also added a new feedback form, but of course you can also write in the comments (here, itch or Steam).

A Maze Open Screens and festival baby

There's one festival that's an absolute no-brainer, a must-go-every-year event for us: the incredibly colourful, inspiring, and inventive A MAZE. Festival in Berlin. With its talks, a huge exhibition, and wonderful attendees, all set in the relaxing atmosphere of Silent Green — a former crematorium right next to a cemetery — it’s weird, but in a very Berlin way.

We were there to enjoy new games, meet friends and colleagues, and show Mops & Mobs around a bit. Like every year, there was a space to showcase games outside the official award competition: the Open Screens. For two hours, Friedrich presented our Dungeon Novel to curious festival-goers.

Our slot at the Open Screens was on Friday from 12pm to 2pm (together with a few other games). While there was almost always someone playing Mops & Mobs, the attendance was pretty low overall, especially compared to the Long Night of Computer Games from the weekend before. Of course the game wasn't to blame for this, there just was a lot of great looking competition to play all around us — and midday maybe isn't the best time for showcasing? We're not disappointed by the outcome, though, as we got valuable feedback once again. Big thanks go to Phillip Gong for organising the Open Screens!

By the way, the only person who actually played the demo till the end (quite a feat, considering there were no chairs) left quite quickly without saying a word… our guess is that they were satisfied.

A Baby At A MAZE. – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

This year also brought a new twist for us: we attended A MAZE. with our child. That alone was a whole new experience. Would it work out? Would it even be possible to enjoy the festival while caring for a baby?

In the end — no, it wasn't the same. I missed just forgetting time and space to submerge myself into the exhibited games and talks. I didn't watch any talk, but played more games than I expected. We took turns with childcare and split up, so we both could enjoy the festival. We even brought her to the exhibition - but that didn't work out for very long.

But after nearly a year with her, if we learned anything, it's this: be patient and let go of expectations. It was exhausting at times, but also fun and meaningful to bring her along. Indie games have always been something personal for us — it would be strange to exclude something so beautiful and personal when work and private life are so intertwined anyway.

So, yes, it works and we didn't regret it. (Okay, maybe the weather. That was annoying. Our plan to chill with her on the meadow in the festival area fell through for most parts.)

Looking forward to how next year will be.

Watch this video on YouTube

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Games Baked in Germany on Steam

Want to know what's up in the German games industry lately? The GAMES BAKED IN GERMANY event got you covered: The current game sale on Steam features the latest and upcoming games with a huge sale and new demos.

We are happy to be part with Mops & Mobs. For the first time, we put a demo from our WIP game on Steam - and polished it for that matter. We added a new little character, a tutorial and a new song for the kitchen by Paul Hanisch.

We hope you enjoy the new demo. Make sure to wishlist the game on Steam and give us your feedback!

Short interim project: Mops & Mobs

While PATOU is still in the making but also in need of funding (hello, publishers!), we started a shorter interim project. We focused on all the design elements that come fluently to us and combined them: Exploration, character dialogues and giving players some freedom to decorate things. Voilà: Here comes Mops & Mobs!

A red-hooded small creator stands in a dark cellar like place with lots of candles and a chimney in the back.

We love dungeon fantasy settings in games, comics and pen&paper - and Friedrich always wanted to work on a crawler someday. While there already are quite some interesting takes on the genre, we decided to change things a bit. Instead of being an adventurer going to slay the hell out of monsters, you take the noble job of a janitor. You care for the well-being of the dungeon's monsters, pick up adventurers' left-overs, decorate the dusky halls and passages and find ways to let our beloved Dungeon Master look more competent.

By focusing heavily on the monsters and their personality, Mops & Mobs also is a visual novel-styled game. You do quests which are powered by our own dialogue editor Connected, as we use it to write non-linear and context-sensitive dialogues.

As a change of pace - and for reasons many of our readers probably can guess - we didn't use Unity this time as game engine for Mops & Mobs, but Godot instead. After only a few weeks of evaluation and orientation we're confident with our choice - Godot definitely has its quirks and short-comings, but allows quick iteration and prototyping and is perfect for the scope of the game.

A parchment that declares: We are hiring! Looking for a Dungeon Custodian Extraordinaire

So far, we created a short prototype, where you can play test our idea of becoming a dungeon janitor. Sounds like a job you'd like to do? Head over to itch.io to download the free demo!

If you want to support this project, you can also wishlist Mops & Mobs on Steam!