Cache Dash - An Introduction (Patreon)

This week's Patreon update is half announcement, half confession.  For the past month or so Jason and I have been working on a side project to help us build income so we can devote more effort into our gamedev careers.  We had hoped to just quietly build a small game and release it as a surprise, so I'd been splitting my time between making Dead Winter comics and character animations, as well as designing and building assets for the new game, and sort of cramming time really hard to make it appear that nothing was amiss, but this has started to burn me out so we talked and decided it was time to let Patreon in on the secret project.  I'm working on the next comic page right now, but I didn't get as much done as I wanted so I'm going to update that next week with a bigger chunk and continue to work on it until it's completed, but this week I'll introduce you to the new project.

Cache Dash is a game about two ravens who are trying to steal food from each other. It's an arcade-style PvP game that focuses on short bursts of basic skill checks.  The central idea of our development process is to be efficient, learning how to smartly recycle assets to make a complete game. Dead Winter involves a lot of animation frames- every action is drawn twice to accommodate two weapon states- but Cache Dash shares one set of animations between two player birds, palette-swapped characters like Bubble Bobble's green and blue protagonists. The idea of it being a competitive game means we can get more out of less, since the meat of the game is using the tools provided rather than trekking through story or environment.

Part of why we wanted to keep this game under wraps was because we've tried small side projects before and they got sidetracked or we were overwhelmed by what was needed to execute them. We're a lot more experienced than when we started out so we have the knowledge to apply what we learned working on the Dead Winter game towards creating this. For me this is also a test of my art asset finalization method, converting sketches into full colored sprites. That's a process I'll be using once Dead Winter's art is all blocked in, but for now I'll be refining the process on these two cute birds. Additionally, and probably most importantly, releasing a smaller completed game will help carry us from saying "we're working on making video games" into being able to say "we have made a video game, you can see what we're capable of for yourself". We have a very strong set of collective skills, but I think it's important that we actually prove what we can do if we want to build a foundation for future game development.

When we set out to make video games I was hesitant to make a PvP title, despite loving those types of games a lot.  When you put people against other people then there's the pressure that someone else can see your mistakes, and that can be very stressful and intimidating to some people.  Cache Dash approaches the competitive element from an indirect angle; rather than pitting people directly against one another, both are competing against a common objective. There are five stages planned, each with a unique objective- the idea is that no matter who you are as a player, there can be one stage that you're "really good at", so if you're not great at one you can count on another later on in a set.  

Each stage is structured around an "objective" and an "obstruction".  The objective is the primary task we mentioned earlier, in almost every case it's doing something in order to get food. The obstruction is a secondary task you can perform to hinder your opponent's progress towards getting food. The idea is rather than being purely about executing the stage's basic skill test, there's also an element of timing and resource management, so if someone might be at a mechanical disadvantage (i.e. they don't press buttons quite as fast) they can still play to a strategic one (they know when and where to obstruct their faster opponent). We've blocked in the five stages in the game so I'll break those down for you real quick.

FOREST----------------------

This is the first stage we've completed assets for (seen at the top of this article).  In the Forest two ravens will peck at either side of a tree trying to be the first one to get to the center, where the tree will tilt to their side and the fruit will drop out of the knothole for them.

Objective: Press the button to peck the tree.  The longer you peck the more tired you'll get- you're not a woodpecker, after all!  Pecking slows down the more you commit, but you can head to the outer edge of the stage and hop into the river to cool down with a nice bird bath, restoring your pecking speed.  Balance how long you want to commit to pecking between birdbaths to try to win.

Obstruction: The longer you peck, the slower you walk. If you see your opponent is ready to make their way to the bird bath you can jump and press the button to bonk your head on the treetrunk, which will drop a pinecone onto the other bird's side (always outside first, then the inside pinecone). You can catch them going to or from their river and stun them for a moment, giving you a chance to peck or take a birdbath of your own!

BEACH ---------------------- 

The Beach is the only other stage where each bird is isolated in their own side of the map.  Inspired by an Aesop fable and an Archimedes puzzle, the birds' objective is to drop coconuts into a tube of water to elevate a watermelon piece until it falls out onto their side.

Objective: Bonk the tree and a coconut will fall down on your side.  As it rolls into the catapult you can scoot over and press the button to activate the lever.  A meter will appear, and if you time your second button press when the meter is in its sweetspot the catapult will launch and drop the coconut into the water tube!  Three coconuts is all you need to raise the water level and win your food.

Obstruction: This event is about careful timing and precision, making sure you line up a shot in a sweeping meter [----==--|-]. When you bonk the tree, instead of letting the coconut roll into your own catapult you can keep mashing the button and as soon as the coconut lands you'll punt it straight across at your opponent!  If they're not paying attention they'll get bonked, and if they happen to be aiming when they get bonked their needle will jump to a random spot on the sweeping meter, likely causing them to miss their shot and have to try again!  You can jump over coconut punts.

CITY ---------------------- 

In the city there is no dividing structure keeping the two ravens apart, they're free to cause mischief on the other bird's side of the stage! A pizza slice is suspended on a cable, and each bird has a crank to turn to power a generator to try and make the pizza slice pull over to their own side.  If it reaches the hook it drops down and one lucky bird gets a pepperoni prize!

Objective: This is the button mashing stage.  Mash the button as fast as you can to turn the crank on your generator and build up as much power as possible.  The blue bars on the side of the generator will tell you how much power you're at- one side's pull minus the other side's pull equals the direction and rate at which the pizza will move.

Obstruction: A friendly DJ critter needs power for their turntables.  If you're feeling mischevious you can take a break from your power generator to go plug the DJ booth into your opponent's power strip, which will drain power from their own generator and turn on the speakers! They can walk over and unplug the plug, or plug it back into your own power strip if they wish.  A global feature is being able to peck at your opponent to try to fluster them for a moment, and without a tree in the way you can defend the plug if you're confident your opponent can't outcrank it while you're neglecting your own generator.

MOUNTAINS ---------------------- 

A snowy raven playground! A piece of food is frozen in a block of ice, and each raven has a campfire on their own side of the stage. Push the ice cube closer to your fire and make sure it finishes melting on your half of the stage to win!

Objective: Make sure the ice cube melts in your territory. The campfire has a set of bellows next to it, you can jump on the bellows to increase the size of your campfire, increasing the range and rate at which it melts, so if you pump it up to max size you won't need the ice cube to be as close to melt at the same rate as a smaller fire. Walk into the side of the ice cube to push it.

Obstruction: Over each campfire is a pinetree branch.  Snow accumulates on the branch over time. Hop up and give the rope attached to the branch a tug and dump a bunch of snow onto your opponent's campfire!  The longer you wait the more snow accumulates, and the more snow you drop the smaller you make the campfire. If your opponent is pushing the ice cube you can push from the other side, but if you're the second one to push you will only slow it down, rather than stop it entirely.  Be careful your tail feathers don't get pushed into the campfire, though!

MANOR ---------------------- 

The ravens find themselves in a spooky manor, as ravens often end up.  A piece of food is locked in a cage with three padlocks, and the only lightsource is a single hand-cranked lightbulb. Some of the manor's ghosts appear and hide themselves in one of the room's twelve containers- find the ones with the keys and be the first to free your fruity snack.

Objective: Every ten seconds a set of three ghosts sweep in and hide in three of the containers.  Only one ghost per set of three has a key, the other two have vaguely key-shaped objects. A sharp eye will help you track the movement of the ghosts as they sweep in, but you'll need light to see and to venture further from the center without getting spooked by ghosts popping out of the darkness!

Obstruction: Instead of each bird having their own item to interact with, there's one shared resource which they both need.  Someone's gonna have to turn that crank to light up the room.  If you open a container containing a bad ghost you'll be spooked and frozen for a moment!  Ghosts sweep in and inhabit random containers- bad ghosts always fill empty containers, and key ghosts can displace and overwrite bad ghosts.  A new wave of ghosts sweep in every ten seconds, and all rounds are sixty seconds each.  

The idea for a game format is there's five stages, you can pick which ones you want to go to and either win a "game" of best-of-five or accumulate points per win.  Two games is a set, and the first to win two sets is the winner.  At sixty seconds a round this gives a competition a good bit of time without being over too quickly. We have plans to use the core assets to build a single-player story mode as well, to help the game feel more feature-complete and robust.

The idea for the aesthetic of the game came in the process of planning it.  I thought, what if the setting was just all animals, but sometimes they just wear one article of clothing?  I think it's cute and gives it a distinct character.  The idea of the five stages is also based on biomes where ravens can be found. Ravens are very smart birds and not a lot of media celebrates them, so this game is a way to have something corvid-related out there for people to enjoy. We think people will like a proper Bird Game, so we're working hard to put out something small, efficient and fun to help establish ourselves as game developers.

Now you're in on the secret! I'm going to keep juggling my other two projects, but I didn't want you to think I was slacking on my weekly output. Jason is building the forest stage right now and I'm mostly caught up on my art asset obligations for the core features so I can focus more heavily on finishing my comic page. 

Thanks for your patience and your support of our work!  We want to do the best job we can for you.