Howdy everyone!
This marks the first status update for Digbeat on Steam, so I have a handful of things I want to cover including some FAQ and future plans!
First: What even is Digbeat?
- Digbeat is a rhythm-digging arcade game inspired by games like Cadence of Hyrule, Downwell, and Super Motherload
- It was made in 3 days during a game jam in Feb 2022 by me (Jertlemiah), Flowt, Shae, and Indy Andy, and can still be played on Flowt's Itch page!
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So then what's Digbeat: Godot Deeper?
- Digbeat: Godot Deeper is a sort of remake/sequel to Digbeat, refining, expanding, & reinventing the game in many ways
- Originally this project was really just supposed to be "Digbeat: Godot Edition"; a sort of new year's resolution & learning exercise in teaching myself Godot with no prior experience by porting over the original from Unity
- At first I gave myself till the end of January 2024 to learn Godot and port over the game, however as I worked on the project I found myself wanting to make changes and additions to the game
- So v.1.0 "Godot Edition" became v.1.1 "Go Deeper" as the 1-month scope straight remake turned into a 2-month scope with minor changes
- Then as I showed it to friends and the original team, I was encouraged to bring it to Dreamhack Dallas so the project turned into v.1.2 with a 5-month scope, new features like multiplayer, & a new name again with "(Go)dot Deeper" (a combination of the original two names)
- Then seeing hundreds of people play the game at Dreamhack encouraged me to polish up the game even more and bring Digbeat to Steam, so here we are 9 months after I started this little project with v.1.3 "Digeat: Godot Deeper" (I promise I won't change the name again unless I get in trouble for it)
So what's happening with Digbeat now?
- Digbeat: Godot Deeper currently has a closed beta going on for v.1.3 to test the game as I implement the final features of the Steam Integration
- There's currently 10 players with a beta key, but I can send out more if there's any interest
- Progress will be a little slow since I just moved from the Texas to Germany, but I should still hit the target date of Oct 24th
What exactly is coming in v.1.3?
- 20 achievements! Most of them aren't too hard, but there's a couple that I think will take some people a bit to unlock
- Keyboard input remapping & input display overrides! Time to let people customize how they play the game
- Updated menus & new settings!
- Secrets! Shhhhhhhhh
- A Global Leaderboard through Steam! Compete with people from all over the world for the best score
- You may have also noticed that all the Steam store screenshots are using the 1.2 version of the game (with the wrong name), so all of that will be replaced (probably soon)
FAQ: Why aren't you charging money for Digbeat: Godot Deeper?
- I get asked this a lot and basically it's because the IP was created as a team and I don't feel that I own it and so I wouldn't want to sell the game without them
- That said, I've talked to all of the original team and they've encouraged me to sell the game for money and give me their blessings, but it's just something I can't shake
- Maybe in the future I will make a proper Digbeat 2 or a paid DLC, but until then if you are interested in supporting me you can buy a mini physical copy of the game from the Society Of Play's Zette Market (though I would wait until after the Steam release so that the USB has the most up-to-date version of the game)
- It's the one exception I've allowed myself for making money off of this because it's more about buying a really cool physical case of my own design than it is about buying the game, if that makes any sense
Anyway, that's everything for now! I'll share more status updates as we get closer to the release date and as the beta gets more updates & changes.
Cheers!
Jeremiah