Gamezebo was at GDC this year, catching up with our favourite mobile games developers. On our final morning at the show, we met the talented Brazilian studio Ludic Side. You might know these guys best as the developers of Mr …
Gamezebo was at GDC this year, catching up with our favourite mobile games developers. On our final morning at the show, we met the talented Brazilian studio Ludic Side. You might know these guys best as the developers of Mr Square.
During a lovely meeting, Ludic Side showcased its upcoming action RPG Hoppia Tale, which is basically a combination of Zelda, Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, and Stardew Valley. It’s got a little bit of everything, basically.
You play as an anthropomorphic animal that hops (hence the name) around a colourful world, chatting to villagers, exploring dungeons, and battling enemies.
From what we saw, the dungeons were pretty challenging despite the simple controls. You simply swipe and hold in a certain direction on the screen to move that way. If you prefer virtual controls, that option is there too. Bump into an enemy and you do damage to them, a chest and you open it and collect the treasure.
Learning the enemy attack patterns was pretty essential. You had enemies that would hide in grass, and perform a powerful AoE attack once spotted. You had to lure them out, avoid the attack, then unleash vengeance upon them. Other enemies had ranged attacks to avoid and there were plenty of traps and other obstacles to keep away from.
There are a wide variety of dungeons to battle through, and you can earn coins along the way that you can use to purchase new animals to play as, costumes to wear, and accessories. The latter provides statistic boosts like increased damage, more health, and a higher critical hit rate.
If fighting isn’t your bag, you can build and customise your own home with a variety of different furniture. You can then invite your friends to visit and hang out with them. That sounds nice and cosy to us.
That’s not the only thing you can customise either. You can create your own dungeon levels to play through, and fire them out through the ether for fellow players to check out. If they like them, they can rate them to boost them up the leaderboards.
Ludic Side has some exciting plans for the future too, including a Stardew Valley-type farming simulator side game, mounts, and new worlds full of dungeons to battle your way through.
Hoppia Tale is actually out right now on Android in beta (Google Play), so you can check it out right now if you like the sound of it. A big update is planned for April 27, which includes a new world themed on toys.
