Indie Calendar - Overruled!

What is Dlala Studios' Overruled? Why it's a four player brawler with a unique rule changing mechanic where players play cards to switch out the rules and objectives. As you might suspect it's rather chaotic and often hilarious.

"Overruled! is a multiplayer brawler like no other - players change the rules as they play, directly influencing the dynamics and direction of combat," explains designer Loudon St.Hill when asked for a quick explanation of the concept.

We caught up with Craig Thomas and AJ Grand-Scrutton, from Dlala Studios last spring for an interview and back then AJ told us:

"This is a game for us, we made a game that we want to play. So there's lots more cards, features, all this stuff we want to get in so that we have a perfect experience... But we've got a roadmap that could last us forever."

"Rather than come up with a cool game concept, we first thought about what we want the players experience to be; we all wanted to make a single screen multiplayer game," said Loudon St.Hill, discussing the concept once more. "This was what we all grew up playing, and were playing at the time. Stuff like Bomberman, Mario Kart, WWF No Mercy and Worms. A game that allows friends to sit down together and talk smack and have a laugh together. We then considered another important element of how we play games: being horrible to each other! We wanted multiplayer mechanics that were mean, unfair and remarkably close to cheating. To facilitate a group of players to come together and troll each other and have a laugh while doing it!"

"Aj came back from a holiday during which time he played a card game called Flux, which is all about changing the rules and objectives of the game. We then really wanted a game where that happened.... So we made Overruled! a game with familiar modes and objectives like King of the Hill and Deathmatch, but with the whole new idea of giving the players the power to change the game entirely at any moment."

Overruled! has been available via Steam Early Access since August and the plan is to continue to flesh out the game with more characters and cards until it's ready for full release (soon). A console port hasn't happened yet, but the plan is to release the game on PS4 and Xbox One.

We then asked Loudon St.Hill to describe what the development process thus far has been like.

"Insanely fast. 1 week after establishing a basic concept, we had a playable prototype. Lots of squares shooting smaller squares and jumping about on slightly bigger squares BUT, the ability to change the rules was already fun and in some cases hilarious."

"9 weeks later we had a booth at EGX Rezzed in Birmingham in March. Which was as insane as it was terrifying. By this stage we had 1 map, 2 characters that both had recolours so there was 4 playable and a whole bunch of rule change cards. And the response from the public was unanimously positive. Everyone loved playing our game and so many people came back over the course of the weekend. It was absolutely amazing... I might have cried a bit."

"Since then we have been to every event that would have us. We now have loads more maps and rule changes, a single player challenge mode and 9 characters that some super sweet YouTubers and streamers have lent their voices to. For example iBallisticSquid as Fruit Punch, Mousie as Sasol and lionheartx10 as Judge Mental."

Obviously, there's more work to be done on Overruled!, and perhaps it will be one of those games where new features will be constantly added. Nonetheless Dlala Studios have ambitions that stretch beyond the full release on Steam and console versions.

"We can't wait to release Overruled!, the response we have had so far has been immense and we are really looking forward to launch," says St.Hill. "We are also hoping to strengthen Dlala Studios with some fresh crew members and a new working space. And already have intentions for our next project."

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