NGDC Tag Archive

“Candle Knight” announces new trailer, release date and prestigious festival win!

September 19, 2022• Videogames

The Mexican 2.5D action-adventure game Candle Knight just announced an amazing new trailer, dropped a playable demo and also their official release date

Mexico City, Mexico – September 2022 – It was just announced that Mexican 2.5D action-adventure Candle Knight will officially release on January 20, 2023 – and to celebrate that a brand new trailer has also been released alongside a playable demo on Steam

Wield your flame to overcome menacing creatures lurking in the shadows of a ruined castle, use the dynamic difficulty system to your advantage, traverse challenging platforming sections and solve cryptic puzzles inside surreal paintings in this 2.5D action adventure platformer.

In addition to all this, Candle Knight also recently won a qualifier spot at the prestigious Nordic Game Discovery Contest (NGDC) as the competition moves to its sixth season. The win was announced recently during the BIG Festival in Brazil and the sixth season of NGDC Grand Finals will be held in November.

“When I heard that Candle Knight won the Contest, I was blown away. I couldn’t stop thinking about all the effort our team had put into the project and the road it had traveled. This moment marks a huge milestone for our game and supports all the love and hard work that we hope all the players can feel.” says André Torres, Special Effects director at Dracma Studios.

While we’re waiting for Candle Knight to be released, you can already sign up on the wishlist at Steam or try the new awesome demo. You can find Candle Knight on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1879680/Candle_Knight/

Check out the brand new trailer here: https://youtu.be/g5q7DBTWags

Follow Dracma Studios at Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, Youtube and on their Website for more information.

For assets, please go to: https://prnordic.box.com/s/qm031vhr7xc8bhjokutwaqgsa9hl3o1t

About Dracma Studios
Dracma Studios is a Mexican indie development studio that was founded in 2019 in Yucatán, México, with a team of talented developers from all over the country with the goal of creating amazing games and unforgettable experiences that resonate with our players and that brings the industry closer to our country, creating opportunities for the next generation of Mexican and Latino Game Developers.

About the Nordic Game Discovery Contest
Building on fourteen years of organizing successful games industry activities, including the annual Nordic Game conference, regional funding programs, overseas networking events and other developer support initiatives, Nordic Game launched the Nordic Game Discovery Contest (NGDC) in 2016 – an exciting, competitive challenge where selected game projects are showcased live in pitch competitions at partner events across Europe and around the globe. Learn more about all the NGDC Season VI qualifiers – and get ready for Season VI right here.

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Thought-provoking game draws attention and gets recognition from established gaming conference!

October 7, 2021• Videogames

There You Are features stop-motion-inspired graphic design and with its step-by-step game process it structures the story to move forward as we explore the story of the family and solve the goals presented throughout the game shaping the whole story.

Los Angeles, California, USA – October 7, 2021 – The exciting sixth qualification round of the Nordic Game Discovery Contest (NGDC) took place during the Exposición de Videojuegos Argentina (EVA) this week. Three selected game studios competed in the online pitch battle, hosted by Nordic Game’s own Jacob Riis and judged by the brilliant Eugene Maleev from Xsolla, Esther Tan from WhisperGames and Alexey Izvalov from Global Game Jam.

In the end, US-based studio Funky Dango swayed the judges most with their game There You Are, an exploratory narrative experience about moving away from the past and accept loss, featuring stop-motion-inspired graphic design and two endings from the player’s choices and actions.

There You Are dives into the topic of grief through the story of a young girl, Su, and explores what has happened to her family, as well as the young girl and her father’s relationship as they move forward and accept the past and the loss of her mother. While many games already touch upon this type of topic to a certain extent, There You Are uses both storytelling methods and game design principles to exquisitely craft each story beat and depict an emotional bittersweet story.

Started from a thesis project about unresolved grief by one of the developers, There You Are was created with the idea that in life the loss of loved ones is inevitable. Those who can remember our first encounter with death know that childhood experiences can be frightening and lonely. If handled with warmth, understanding, and caring, our early experience with death can be an opportunity to learn about living and dying. 

Rong Deng, the founder of Funky Dango says “To be a qualifier at Nordic Game was a happy surprise!! It was a big fortune for us could be selected to attend the Nordic Game Discovery Contest. We are so grateful that we could have the opportunity to show our game to publishers and get direct comments and feedback from them. Nordic Game provides us, indie developers, a bridge to discuss, and learn from each other. We cannot express how thankful we are!!!”

The player has the opportunity to decide the fate of the story and get one of two different endings based on the player’s choices and actions throughout the game.

There You Are is free to play and is available at: https://solr.itch.io/there-you-are

Release on Steam is planned for the near future

There You Are Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63HUEsHjBiU

Please find assets here: https://prnordic.box.com/s/kd9ht0inenr8y07uz1rngbfx3v4k6ewb

About Funky Dango

Funky Dango was founded in 2021 by Rong Deng and Rui Huang. Funky Dango focuses on creating engaging and thought-provoking games with colorful, vintage, and stylized art direction. Each game from FD will taste like a dango, a chewy delight. In 2021, Funky Dango released its debut title, There You Are. It got awards, showcases, and selections from domestic and overseas, including EVA Digital 2021, DreamHack Beyond,  Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival 2021, World Cinema Antwerp Belgium 2021, Urban Mediamakers Festival, and World Cinema Milan.

About the Nordic Game Discovery Contest:

Building on fourteen years of organising successful games industry activities, including the annual Nordic Game conference, regional funding programs, overseas networking events and other developer support initiatives, Nordic Game launched the Nordic Game Discovery Contest (NGDC) in 2016 – an exciting, competitive challenge where selected game projects are showcased live in pitch competitions at partner events across Europe and around the globe. Learn more about all the NGDC Season IV qualifiers – and get ready for Season V right here.

About the Nordic Game conference:

Nordic Game is the leading games conference in Europe, and 2021 marks its nineteenth and twentieth editions. Gathering thousands of industry professionals in Malmö annually, Nordic Game is the one and only “home turf” meeting place for the highly successful game developers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Nordic Game doubles up again with NG21 on 26-28 May and in November, following last year’s digital debut at NG20 and twice the knowledge, emotion and business at NG20+.

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“The Light of The Darkness” from Brazilian QUARTOMUNDO wins in Italy

April 26, 2021• Events & Trade Shows, Videogames

Brazilian Metroidvania-style game swayed the judges and earned a seat in the NGDC Season V Grand Finals at NG21 this fall.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – April 26, 2021 – The Nordic Game Discovery Contest (NGDC) is online and on the move with its fifth season, now presenting its most recent qualifier which was won in Italy, more precisely online with the DStars Connects conference.

The Light of the Darkness from QUARTOMUNDO blends Castlevania progression, exploration and RPG aspects with Legacy of Kain story, dialogue and fan theories. It is a Metroidvania game inspired by the beloved classics. Explore the Lands of Oblivion, a cursed place between the worlds of Light and Darkness. Play as the first and unique hybrid into a world filled with rich storytelling and an intriguing, original history.

“We couldn’t be happier with Nordic Game for being accepted at the competition. The Light of The Darkness has been around for a while now, but after winning NGDC during DStars in Italy it is like we are really on the map of Indie Games.” says Fernando Rabello, CEO of QUARTOMUNDO. “We have been getting so much attention, there are so many good things happening to us… From an Indie Dev perspective NGDC is just an amazing initiative!”

The game is currently in Alpha, but you can already now sign up to follow or wishlist on Steam and be updated when it hits Beta – You can find The Light of the Darkness on Steam at https://store.steampowered.com/app/1369430/The_Light_of_the_Darkness/

The selected game will earn a seat in the NGDC Grand Finals at the November edition of NG21 in Malmö, Sweden, as well as prizes from Xsolla, Microsoft, WhisperGames and PR specialists Games Branding.

Check out the awesome elaborate gameplay video: https://youtu.be/MKu3tvAwD2Q

Please find assets at: https://prnordic.box.com/s/4pclac30d8ewld6rrb333y421jgdukwe

Follow “The Light and the Darkness” on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheLightoftheDarkness

About QUARTOMUNDO

QUARTOMUNDO is a 3D Animation and Game Development Studio based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We make games for people having fun, of course, but also for telling stories that relate to meaningful life issues. At this very moment, we believe that intolerance is a relevant subject we all should talk about, so we decided to develop a sous-like metroidvania around the story of Sephius, the first and only hybrid in an universe divided between two ancient rival strains: Pales and Darks.

About the Nordic Game Discovery Contest

Building on fourteen years of organising successful games industry activities, including the annual Nordic Game conference, regional funding programs, overseas networking events and other developer support initiatives, Nordic Game launched the Nordic Game Discovery Contest (NGDC) in 2016 – an exciting, competitive challenge where selected game projects are showcased live in pitch competitions at partner events across Europe and around the globe. Learn more about all the NGDC Season IV qualifiers – and get ready for Season V – at discovery-contest.nordicgame.com.

About the Nordic Game conference
Nordic Game is the leading games conference in Europe, and 2021 marks its nineteenth and twentieth editions. Gathering thousands of industry professionals in Malmö annually, Nordic Game is the one and only “home turf” meeting place for the highly successful game developers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Nordic Game doubles up again with NG21 on 26-28 May and in November, following last year’s digital debut at NG20 and twice the knowledge, emotion and business at NG20+.

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First game to qualify for The Nordic Game Discovery Contest 2021 – “The Endless Wyrd”

January 19, 2021• Events & Trade Shows, Videogames

South African produced game “The Endless Wyrd” wins big at NGDC and is heading for Early Access release this fall!

January 19, 2021 – In this dice-based, deck-building, roguelike adventure, scavenge the Wyrd and escape the approaching Thing of the Dark. Load your dice with powerful augments to create your own synergies and combos and stack the odds in your favour. In the rabbit hole of the Wyrd, the only way back up, is down.

Produced in South Africa, “The Endless Wyrd” recently won the first qualification round of the NGDC Season V, which took place during Africa Games Week in Cape Town in early December and have therefore qualified for the big Nordic Game Discovery Contest this coming summer in Sweden!

“To us, The Endless Wyrd is the quest for the stupidly overpowered and we can’t wait for players to uncover the ridiculously overpowered synergies and combinations that we have in store“, says Janke van Jaarsveld, CEO of Design Imps, “We are also very proud of the game’s South African roots, boasting the unique comic art style of Willem Samuel, who’s band, SkreeAlleen, incidentally also lent their talents to the soundtrack.“

“The Endless Wyrd” is scheduled for Early Access release in Q3 of 2021 and an early Alpha demo is currently available on Steam. “At Design Imps we are committed to the concept of “Together we can make it better”. It was the reason we implemented an easy to use modding system for Fhtagn! – Tales of the Creeping Madness and the reason we want to have Early Access. We believe that with the input of players we can make this game amazing!”, says Janke.

Check out the reveal trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6roy7syGfQc

One Minute gameplay trailer: https://youtu.be/tDDkoAWuXqo 

The Endless Wyrd is available as an Early Alpha Demo on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1227330/The_Endless_Wyrd/

For assets, please go to: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19VKDsabTZktiM-y590xo7WMBpFoS6XYA?usp=sharing

Press Kit: https://www.indiedb.com/games/the-endless-wyrd/presskit

About Design Imps:

Design Imps was founded in 2010 by Janke and Ilana van Jaarsveld as a bootstrapping Indie Studio in Pretoria, South Africa. Through the help of friends and family and after years of paper prototypes and double jobs, the company finally started development of their first title The Creeping Madness, in 2017. To keep the project alive, focus was shifted in 2018 to create Fhtagn! Tales of the Creeping Madness, in order to secure much needed funds. The team decided to place a hold on The Creeping Madness in 2019, till the studio could grow more in size and experience and so The Endless Wyrd was born and production on this dice-based roguelite deckbuilder is scheduled to enter the Early Access phase in Q3 of 2021. 

For more information, look up: https://designimps.com/

The Endless Wyrd Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/XPVwgFT

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