Portfolio Archives

18 Jan

News about our upcoming game

Albeit we’re trying to sort out a few technical issues right now, we’ve not stopped working! In fact, we started 2024 working hard! We’re thrilled to announce that we’re hard at work on a new Match 3 game project, as we commented previously. While we can’t reveal all the details just yet, we couldn’t contain our excitement and wanted to share a sneak peek into what’s to come. Rest assured, there’s plenty to look forward to! First and foremost, we’re planning to release not just one, but two versions of the game: a standard edition and a Collector’s Edition, following a similar approach to our management of Nocturnarya and Spooky Dwellers 2. We believe that this will cater to the diverse preferences of our gaming community. Whether you’re a casual player or a dedicated collector, we’ve got you covered!

The development process is in full swing, with all the levels of the game already designed (90 for the standard version, 150 for the Collector’s Edition). Our artist is currently pouring her creativity into crafting stunning visuals that will transport players into a captivating setting. The game will revolve around a female lead who is determined to beat the odds and surpass those who have disparaged her.

However, we must admit that there’s still a lot of work ahead. We’re currently focused on designing the minigames and other essential elements that will make this game stand out. Stay tuned for more updates in the upcoming weeks as we reveal more about this new project. We like how the game is coming out and can’t wait to share it with all of you!

26 Dec

Nocturnarya among the best Match 3 games of the year!

Hello fans and players of Nocturnarya! We are thrilled to announce that our vampire-themed Match 3 game has captured the 3rd spot in the Best Match 3 games of the year on Big Fish Games, the largest casual games portal! For a small studio like us, this is an incredible achievement! You can see the full list of winners here: Best games of 2023 on Big Fish Games.

Big Fish Games Best Match 3 games of 2023

First and foremost, we want to extend our deepest gratitude to each and every one of you who has supported and played Nocturnarya. Your enthusiasm, feedback, and dedication have been instrumental in making this achievement possible. We couldn’t have done it without your continuous support, and we are truly humbled by the overwhelming response to our game. We want to thank our artists, beta testers, and especially you, the fans of Nocturnarya.

Incidentally, in 2022, we also clinched that 3rd spot on Big Fish Games with Spooky Dwellers.

Big Fish Games Best Match 3 games of 2022

We’d also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the other winners of the Best Match 3 games of the year. It’s important to acknowledge the remarkable talent and hard work put into creating these amazing games, from well-established franchises. Furthermore, we want to extend our appreciation to all the developers of the Match 3 games released this year, and we commend your efforts in pushing the boundaries of this genre. I feel that the Match 3 games released this year were really good.

Once again, thank you for being a part of our Nocturnarya journey. We are excited to continue delivering captivating and enjoyable gaming experiences to all of you. Stay tuned for more updates and new games!

22 Nov

Localization of Nocturnarya is completed

The localization of Nocturnarya took exactly one month. It was a complex project, with numerous dialogue lines and a few challenging sections, as discussed in a previous post. Some terms posed difficulties during translation, such as Blood Cartridge, Fang Sword, Bloody Spirit, Diabolical Nurse, and others. We included the option to switch between vampiress and vampire identities for narrative purposes, without any impact on gameplay (our tests confirmed that there were no bugs resulting from this feature).

Submissions of the localized versions of Nocturnarya (German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian and Portuguese) are already underway, to our regular publishers. These localized versions will be available for Windows only, and there are no plans for a Steam release. All in all, considering both the time spent on localization and the development of the original English game, Nocturnarya stands as our largest project to date. Since Spooky Dwellers 2 was already localized in September, we can now shift our focus towards developing a new game.

Regarding this new project, we’re still discussing a few ideas. One of our goals for 2024 is creating at least one Match 3 game, that’s for sure. However, we’d like to explore other genres, if time and budget permit. We’ll likely write a post when we have clearer ideas about our next title. Stay tuned! 🙂

11 Nov

Nocturnarya: localized versions

Our current project is the localization of Nocturnarya Collector’s Edition. As usual, our target languages are: German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. It’ll be a Windows-only release. This localization is a daunting task, which comprises a few intricate parts:

The Story: Nocturnarya’s story is a bit long, as the game builds a particular vampire lore, with adventure, scheming, military invaders, treasons and loyalty. The game portrays several characters of which the most important is you, the player. At its core, it’s a battle between you and Grysmore, the boss of the human invaders.
The vampire and the vampiress: In the original English game, you can choose how you want to be referred to as the story progresses: as a vampire, a vampiress, or a rockstar renegade. Localizing this is tricky, because of articles and genre-specific details in all the target languages. We’ll be removing the rockstar renegade option, and will do our best to keep the vampire and vampiress options. However, if it proves to be too error-prone we’ll just scrap this option altogether.
The Village: The game has a section that allows you to build a 3D village for your vampire tribe. However, the help window and the tutorials amount to a lot of text to translate.
The Match 3 levels: This includes all the help texts, instructions and user interface of the Match 3 levels.
Collector’s Edition goodies: Last but not least, we’ll have to translate the extra stories and minigames offered as Collector’s Edition exclusive bonuses.

If everything goes smoothly, this localization should be completed by the end of this month.

27 Sep

Spooky Dwellers 2 is coming soon

Yes, the sequel for our Halloween-themed Match 3 game, Spooky Dwellers, will be available in a few weeks through several publishers, and eventually here on ikigames.com. The game’s Match 3 levels will showcase the distinctive gameplay of Spooky Dwellers, guiding a light from talismans to the ghosts on the boards. In Spooky Dwellers 2, we’ll introduce a few novelties to this mechanic. For instance, there will be the presence of Big Spooky Dwellers that require multiple lights to be hit. We believe it will be a really fun game!

In the original Spooky Dwellers, you decorate a terrace with Halloween objects as you progress through the game. Spooky Dwellers 2 takes it a step further: now you’ll be able to create a 3D Halloween playground. You can buy and place houses, roads, pumpkins, and many more Halloween-themed objects on the terrain. You have the flexibility to rotate and reposition your buildings and objects as you prefer. It’s quite cool. We also included this 3D village building feature in our previous game, Nocturnarya. However, Spooky Dwellers 2 expands upon it with improved navigation controls, creepy objects, ghosts, pumpkins, and many other features. If you purchase the Collector’s Edition of Spooky Dwellers 2, you’ll also have the opportunity to enjoy the Spooky Tour. This feature allows you to walk around your 3D Halloween playground! And the game has much more novelties!

Spooky Dwellers 2’s Halloween Playground

It’s been quite a journey. The development of Nocturnarya began in October of last year, and we announced it in December of the same year. Nocturnarya was completed in July, and we immediately started working on Spooky Dwellers 2. We hope you enjoy both games!

PS. Here’s a fantastic guide for Spooky Dwellers 2 by our friend and guru player Kathy Lew (aka SynthpopAddict).

21 Sep

Coming Soon: Spooky Dwellers

Update: Here’s a guide for Spooky Dwellers, comprising levels from both the Standard and the Collector’s Edition.

After several months of hard work, our new Match 3 game is complete. The name of the game is Spooky Dwellers and it features a cool and fun mechanic. Essentially, on most of the Spooky Dwellers boards there are ghosts on the edges (the dwellers), and there are also sacred talismans that emit a light to repel those ghosts. Your goal is to destroy obstacles on the board and direct the light towards the ghosts. Of course, there are also several mini-games, such as hidden objects.

Furthermore, the game will have 2 versions: Standard, and Collector’s Edition (which includes 60 bonus levels, more mini-games and many other features). These versions will be available for Windows and, hopefully, macOS (still a work in progress).
The game should be available for sale next month. We hope you like it 🙂

09 Apr

Coming up: Suddenly Meow 3

After helping the fairies in Suddenly Meow 2, Tim is gearing up for a new adventure. If everything goes well, we should have a beta of Suddenly Meow 3 by the end of this month, looking forward to a May release. In this new version we’ll be adding more usability features and further Match 3 challenges! 90 new levels with plenty of Match 3 puzzles! You’ll have to put your thinking cap on!

02 Aug

Suddenly Meow and what’s next

We have spent over half a year completing a new Match 3 engine and a game using that engine. Our new game is Suddenly Meow, a Match 3 with puzzle elements, so you’re going to need your thinking hat! Suddenly Meow consists of 90 levels with progressive difficulty, varied challenges and Match 3 battles. In addition, for the first time we include in one of our games the possibility to choose between Relaxed, Timed and Limited Moves modes. Suddenly Meow is a step forward in terms of the direction we want our future games to take.

And today we have just completed the localization of Suddenly Meow into 6 additional languages (French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch). We have been really busy, and without further ado we are already in the early stages of our next Match 3. At the moment, we don’t have a new DragonScales in mind, but maybe in 2022 we might find the opportunity to develop DragonScales 8 (we already have some ideas and part of the story). So our next project will also be a Match 3 in the conventional sense, and we will use the engine we developed for Suddenly Meow, incorporating some extensions and optimizations.

We hope you like Suddenly Meow!

08 Nov

10th Corpse: Tips and Solutions

10th Corpse is, at its core, a Match 3 game with an eccentric set of characters and an eclectic array of gameplays. Here we present a few 10th Corpse tips and comments. The game comprises several minigames and challenges, specifically:

Match 3: 100 levels. There are many challenges. Collecting icons, destroying crates, boss battles, gravity-immune icons, free-swap icons, killing gargoyles, rechargeable icons, breakable tiles, buttons that show hidden cells, keys that must be led to doors, magnifying glasses that must be led to fingerprints, and much more. The player will also have 5 rechargeable power-ups. Here are some videos showing solutions for a few Match 3 levels of 10th Corpse.

Match 3: Level 1 of 10th Corpse

Match 3: Level 8 of 10th Corpse

Match 3: Level 18 of 10th Corpse

Match 3: Level 21 of 10th Corpse

Match 3: Level 86 of 10th Corpse

Arkadiusz Boxtrap: The goal is removing all the skulls which are placed on a board. In order to remove those skulls you’ll have to place pieces on the board, trying to form 3 x 3 areas of squares covered by your pieces (or 4 x 4, etc.) Skulls trapped in those 3 x 3 areas will be immediately destroyed. Each turn you’ll get 2 pieces to place on the board. By the way, pieces can be rotated with a right-click before placing them on the board.

10th Corpse: Level 5 of Arkadiusz Boxtrap minigame

Arkadiusz KOMBI!: Groups of pieces will fall down, following gravity, and you’ll have to move and rotate them in order to form rows or columns with 4 or more pieces to remove them. The levels’ goals require combining a few pieces of some color, or destroying all the monsters in the level. Include monsters in your combinations of pieces in order to destroy them. Pieces can be rotated, and you can switch between mouse or keyboard controls.

10th Corpse: Level 3 of Arkadiusz KOMBI! minigame

Trivia questions asked by Jake (a.k.a., The Lover of Wisdom) and questions by other characters: from time to time, the characters in Mansion Vinterfragen (especially Jake) will ask you questions. Jake’s questions are trivia questions, like how old was Napoleon Bonaparte when he was crowned Emperor (the answer is 35.) The questions asked by other characters are not usually of this type, and are more related to the personality of each of them. The player will have to try to guess which is the answer that each character would like. For example, Arkadiusz is a bit masochistic, and therefore it is necessary to answer him in the most cruel way possible (for example, there is a case where Arkadiusz asks what he should expect from the critics about his game, and the correct answer is “Expect pain!”.) In any case, if the player gets these answers right, some of her statuses for the Match 3 levels will go up (e.g., the power bar will fill up faster, or her attacks in the battles will be stronger, and so on). The player does not receive any penalty for incorrect answers. However, as mentioned, getting the answers right improves the player’s attributes in Match 3 levels.
Hidden Objects: There are 13 HO scenes. Most of them correspond to 9th Corpse, a game inside the game. One of the central characters of the game is Professor Arkadiusz, a game designer whose games pervade Mansion Vinterfragen. The player will be able to play a few of his games: the above referred Boxtrap and KOMBI!, and parts of a fictitious HOPA entitled 9th Corpse. All the hidden object scenes have hints that can be used without any precondition. Simply, after using a hint, you’ll have to wait a while for the hint button to become available again.

Level 2 of “9th Corpse” Hidden Objects minigame

Further 10th Corpse tips can be found in this fantastic and complete walkthrough.

The official page of the game contains additional details and screenshots. You can purchase the game here.

20 Feb

NagiQ on Steam

We’ll be releasing our game NagiQ on Steam 🙂 The release date is set for March 5:

NagiQ is a family-friendly, word game. It’s a great game to practice English vocabulary, and you’ll have to think a lot to complete all the 100+ boards of the game. Here’s a trailer with the basic gameplay:

Basic gameplay: Type words and connect the mystic letters.

We’ve added 10 Steam achievements to the game, corresponding to the trophies you get for completing the following actions:

Capture 2 mystic letters in a single play.
Capture more than 2 mystic letters in a single play.
Length of a word greater or equal to 15.
Complete a board with an amount of words lower or equal to the number of mystic letters on the board.
Complete a board in less than 10 seconds.
20 consecutive boards completed, without exit / reset.
15 consecutive boards completed, without using hints.
Score >= 20,000
Score >= 100,000
Score >= 200,000

Updating NagiQ on Steam

NagiQ is the first game we released, back in 2011. The game was created with Ren’Py, and in hindsight those were really fun development times. In order to integrate Steam achievements I updated the game to use the latest Ren’Py version. In short, these are the changes I had to make: