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Our own David Caballero caught up with Dust Games, now that the release of their hoover multiplayer action project Roombattle is so close to launch, as well as getting an idea of the amount of game modes and content it will include, and also the impressive physical version of the concept they offered to the attendees at the fair.
"Hi Gamereactor friends, those are the balloons popping in the background because we are in front of Roombattle's booth at the BCN Game Fest.
I saw you guys, I think for two years in a row, I saw you at the IndieDevDay last year and I think that..."
"This is our third year, yeah.
Your third year, but now, for the first time, you are about to release.
It's closer, it's at least closer.
So, what's the status of the project?
I like it, it's a multiplayer, vacuum cleaner, action game."
"You have this very physical, very real-life demonstration of the experience which I think is really nice to sell the game and to explain the game to other players.
So, first of all, what's the status of the project?
When are you probably going to release?
So, at this point, we are more or less finishing the game."
"The full content of the game will finish this year, so you can imagine more or less how will be the launch in between first quarter, second quarter of the next year, more or less.
But yeah, it's not a definitive date, but yeah, more or less."
"What can you tell me about the main gameplay loop here?
You can play multiplayer, you can play six people, but what are you going to do?
Is it going to be free-for-all, is it going to be cooperative?
So, it's a game that we are planning to have a lot of different game modes."
"We have battles, mixing with minigames, also only battle, also only minigames.
And this all you can play also with your partners, all versus all, in team mode.
And also, if you are alone, you can play also with the bots, because we will add the bot feature that also, at this moment, are finishing in the development team."
"But yeah, it will be like this kind of diversity to have fun in different ways, in a lot of different ways.
I guess it makes sense to have bots when we are talking about smart devices.
Tell me a little bit about the demo that you have been showing for several years, the physical one, because of course you have like a proper, you cannot see it, but you have proper game controllers to control the vacuum cleaner."
"There are PS3 controllers.
PS3?
There are no problem, but yeah.
This was like, we had the idea to have this physical version, so we contacted three years ago with Danny, the director of the event, and they told us we need a bigger ring than the ring we told to them."
"So yeah, it was like a way to be different at the event, so there are a lot of games, beautiful games, incredible games, but you need to be different, you need to be creative, absolutely.
So this is a way to attract the people, and then we have a video game that is so much fun than this, and also mixing digital with physical experience, so I think that it's incredible."
"What came first, the egg or the chicken?
Did you sort of build the game on top of the idea of having these machines battling, or did you sort of have a prototype in software, and then you came to the physical version?
First was the video game, but previously on this, I made this battle with our vacuum cleaners with my friends at my home, so yeah, it's a mixing, because the idea is we made this with my friends at home, then we made the video game, and then we have our robots fighting in the real life, so it's like a loop."
"So yeah, absolutely, but the first idea, I think that we saw this in a Vine video, so 10 years ago more or less, so we have also this inspiration, a Vine, yeah, absolutely.
That's very retro.
It's like TikTok for the new gen."
"When Vine was a thing, right?
And also, we can see the main mechanic here, which is the same when you're battling, but then you have some deeper cooperative mechanics that you have."
"What else are you going to do here when you play the game?
Okay, so basically, you control a vacuum cleaner with balloons at the back and a shuttle at the front, so the main objective is to pop the balloons, that's it.
Also, you can dash to different places to have this extra movement, and also we have all the furniture of the game, you can destroy and you clean it, because you're a vacuum cleaner, so you make the mess and you clean it later."
"And that's not all, because as I said, we are mixing two genders, we are mixing fighting casual games with party games, so between the matches, between the rounds, there will be mini-games around, for example, football mini-games, race mini-games."
"We have also a Dance Dance Revolution mini-game, Really?
Yeah, because our programmers are very fond of this kind of games, so I have this mini-game and it's so fun, so yeah, absolutely."
"All right, and finally, this is mostly in its core, it's a multiplayer crazy party game.
What are the platforms you are considering for release, and can we expect it to release on different platforms during next year?
We can promise Steam, but we know that this game needs to be, for example, on Nintendo Switch, so we are working on that, also in all the platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and also in the future, if the launch goes well, we have also the plan to maybe mobile, because the controls are very accessible for everyone, this is a very important point that we want to make this game that everyone can play, that it's an important thing for us, that the game needs to be accessible, the game needs to be very easy to play, very easy to understand, so this is a way also to expand the game in other platforms, as mobiles or this kind of more portable platforms."
"You guys working on a new game already?
We have ideas, but as we are in a full development part on this moment, we don't have any concept, but yes, we have ideas, and we will have another game after this.
You first have to release this one, and to have a little bit of a cleaning."
"Yeah, the next is like, I don't know, like a Dyson game.
Just imagine, you have to get your hair very curly and looking very nice.
Thank you so much for your time, Carlos, good luck with the publisher, and good luck with the release in Q1, Q2."
