Greetings Togges Trainees,
We are back with a new exciting topic to discuss in today's dev diary! We will take a trip back in time and read about our inspiration behind Togges and how the idea was born from something completely different to what you will see when experience the full game at the release on December 7th!
Like the game itself, that's a crazy story. Initially, Togges was kind of Bomberman-ish, where instead of removing blocks, you (the player) add the blocks. But we were focusing on the single-player aspect because that's what I most love about this franchise.
Since we were doing a single-player game, and because of our past experiences with 3D art and design, we were trying to create immersive, atmospheric worlds, with cartoonish stylish visuals, like something along the line of Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. But one thing that we realized really early on while prototyping is that it's not exactly adding blocks that makes it fun to play, it's where you place the blocks.
The idea naturally grew with this simple approach, and the initial inspiration was left behind (Sorry Bomberman fans!). But instead, we noticed that it was a very simple and addictive gameplay loop, at the same time very unique and weird, so the Katamari inspiration was inevitable. In the early stages of development, we even had a similar game mechanic like in Katamari: Increasing the size as you play the game. In the end, we adapted this idea to the green Togge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gUzEqUEW9w
Some people compare it to the Pikmin series as well. While it was not intentional, I can see why. In Togges, there are multiple Togges colors, and each one has a different ability that expands the game's main mechanic, like in Pikmin. The colors were added to the game to create emergent gameplay, where the player can overcome the challenge of how they feel right. This idea came from playtesting, where people were trying to break the game, so we completely embraced it instead of removing the possibility!
Of course, it was not a straight line. Since we started Regular Studio, our goal has been to make something unique. While we achieved our goal, it wasn't without a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to make this idea work.
The game is seen as a puzzle platformer, but it was not created with this in mind. The design approach with Togges was exploring the idea of adding blocks, no matter what it is. So, we created a concept and asked ourselves: "How would those little blocks react to this situation?" - For example, how do those little blocks behave in a big city? What kind of activities would you expect to see with this concept? And so we created the levels, themes, stories, mechanics and level design with this approach.
It was a really fun ride; I can assure you this! We pushed our creativity to the limit, and we are really proud of the crazy things we managed to create with a single game mechanic that doesn't change throughout the whole game.
Writing about the inspiration behind Togges brings back so many memories and makes us really emotional about our progress over the years. And we even have so much more to share with you! In the next Dev Diary, we will look closer at the infamous King President and Togges!
Thanks so much for your time, friends! ːsteamhappyː
Lucas and Felipe - The Togges Team
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1550270/Togges/
