Howdy hey, Howdy Hi!

Pumpkins patter through air, there’s frowsty climes everywhere! It’s prime time for specters, ghouls, and eldritch monstrosities to shine! Everyone at DVNC Tech wishes you a safe spooky season!

Whether a longtime fan, or a first time reader, we hope it’s deathly clear we’re transparent. Having companies you love ghost you about their games development practically sucks the life right outta ya! Honestly, we’d be booing too if it happened to us.

That’s why we’ll kick off our October updates with an exposé of the ways we’re striving to revolutionize the gaming industry. Our potent brew will titillate, summoning witches to celebrate!

(Disclaimer: We will not summon witches into your home. We wholeheartedly support the dreams, privacy, health, and well-being of magic practitioners, managers, and creators alike!)

                                                  It Takes A Village

Games are life’s reflections. Everyone’s cultures, identities, and stories are worth exploring, but simply aren’t because representative individuals can’t find footholds in the industry. Far too often, company resources are scant. Internships and entry level opportunities carry strict caveats and limited availability. Do-it-yourself game programs can be daunting or expensive.

These hurdles are changing though, because players and creators are working together in order to remove gaming stigmas. The way we see it, just like how children need a village to guide and protect them, video games require countless amounts of love, support, and attention to function.

When differing ideas and artistic expressions come together, unforgettable memories are born.

That’s where DVNC’s, “It Takes A Village,” server comes in!

Adapted from the Monochrome workshop, the Village provides professional opportunities for new and veteran creators hoping to make a difference, including often misrepresented and marginalized voices like the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities. Our aim is to erase the boundaries barring these creators from entering game development’s highly competitive industry. To achieve this, we encourage our globally based artists, writers, musicians, and programmers to incorporate their unique expertise and perspectives into every game, asset, concept, and idea. We want everyone to be proud of their work and show budding creatives that there’s never a bad time or way to begin a creative journey.

Someone out there in the world will resonate with our creative’s stories, and work alongside them to foster even more perspectives, and dreams. And even beyond that? If only one person smiles because of something we made, we think that’s an amazing legacy to leave.

Speaking of unforgettable legacies, DNVC’s IPs are going through exciting changes big and small!

                                               Monochrome RPG

As we continue drawing out Greyshade valleys animations, Otto’s heard rumbling rumors about mysterious creatures hiding in the shadows.

Googly gumballs! Goopy globs are invading Greyshade Valley! The Gazer blobs first overworld movements have arrived! Our artists worked hard to create the right perspectives and line weight for the sprite, keying in on making Gazer move in a single sweeping motion. This helps him retain a more fluid-liquid like-consistency throughout his frames, rather than jittering him off the page to inch him forward. His teardrop shape emphasizes how the enemy morphs, wiggles, and slides across floors. His single eye never wavers from his target. Otto better bake their puns golden if they hope to butter up these Gackle groupies.

Fear not, our cuddly comic will have plenty of items to treasure with our reworked chest animations! Where they used to leap off the floor, shaking as they tumbled open, these wooden wonders now explode apart in Greyshade’s greyscale halls. The animators really wanted to excite people when they got an item! What better way to do that than by having the lid fly back on the back hinge? It gives the player a better view of the whole chest, and allows subtle sparkles suiting the somber environment to light up the walls and floor.

In other news, as Otto’s house gets worked over we hope the buzz doesn’t disturb any Buzzers.

                                      General Development Updates

Throughout October, updates to Village membership agreements are rolling out. We’re testing out brand new work hubs too, specifically Airtable and Glide. We hope the change will help streamline the process for creatives to submit deliverables, get their work credited, and find project documentation. We’ve also got some really exciting projects to talk about! Our programmers are currently in the process of opening Metaverse spaces for businesses! We’re inviting Village animators and artists to assist in the creation of explorable, virtual reality chat rooms accessible via URL hyperlinks. We’re also proud to announce a marketing partnership with Garbology kids, a female owned, environmentally friendly brand!

On the more creative side, this month features two interconnected events in Toontober and Typetober! Artists and writers follow pre-chosen prompts for a chance to win prizes, including recognition in blog posts, social media posts, and newsletters!

                                                             Set VR

Looking to enhance your combat and relaxation skills, but don’t have tons of time or space? Set VR has got you covered! Available on Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2, this game teaches you self-defense, yoga, and meditation on your time, dime, and skill level. 

We built the game using fully rendered 3D environments, taking advantage of VR’s dynamic movement tracking to play around with a player’s perspectives and awareness. The game’s goal is to put you toe to toe with AI sparring partners who’ll push your reaction time and muscle memory to the limit. Virtual assault training scenarios ensure players will be prepared for whatever life throws their way.

We’re constantly looking for feedback to improve our simulations, so when our team got the chance to travel to a Texas game conference we were pretty excited. We had tons of fun helping folks download Set VR onto their headsets! Seeing everyone’s reactions in real time really gave us a sense of how to slow down, speedup, or better explain attacks and defensive measures. We plan on rolling out pre-thanksgiving updates in two to four weeks. These will include numerous quality of life changes, such as updated pause menus and controller support.

After Thanksgiving, we’ll be focusing on implanting an online multiplayer feature!

                                                            Rosett

Ghastly, technological beams light your screen, rose petals patter among your keys-or thumb if you’re scrolling on mobile. The beautiful world of Rosett is yours to explore!

Telling Romeo and Julien’s story as they navigate the tribulations of love and demonic overlords threatening to destroy the planet; Rosett seeks to understand how one’s place in the world changes based on circumstance and chance meetings. For gameplay we decided on a multiplayer, snake-like RPG, where every portion of the snake became a party member. Enclosed, 2.5D animated maps with randomly generated enemies force Romeo and his followers to overcome tough obstacles while saving townsfolk. Bonds with followers acquired in the playing field directly impact usable skill sets, encouraging strategic formation combinations.

In the latest testing build, development switched to the Unity 2021 game engine, introducing new particle FX and base post processing. During our Villiage showcase, we discussed differences between combat attacks and took suggestions for balancing ability mechanics. We also showed off our latest follower class, the Lancer!

We’re tightening gameplay structure for future builds, defining user interfaces, objectives, currency and follower rewards, rules, win conditions, and character actions. Technical aspects are likewise being refined, such as enemies spawn and item drop rates, audio quality and style, camera controls, mapping, movement, inventory and ability inputs.

These updates will drastically improve player experiences for upcoming Rosett tournaments!

In lieu of these updates, narrative motifs like science-fiction, fantasy, romance, environmentalism, and a hero’s true motivation and purpose inspired our writers to flesh out the follower’s players team up with while traversing Rosett’s magitek ridden lands. Each follower class carries their own gameplay style and personality, making a menagerie worth experimenting with.

Our prototypes include variations of Rogues, Lancers, Warriors, and Mages with more classes set to release in the coming weeks.

Here’s a sample of our 1-star Warrior class, dubbed the “Scrapper”:

“No matter where they are, Scrappers can usually be found working the front lines. Across the world of Rosett there’s no shortage of security, bodyguard, or mercenary work that needs doing. However, it’s easy for a Scrapper to fall into the cogs of the machine, becoming nothing more than a violent tool for others to use. For this reason, many Scrappers cling to a vibrant identity in order to stand out.”

And another sample of our 1-star Rogue class, dubbed “Streetwise”:

“Knowing how to bypass security is just as important as knowing their way around a dagger. From pesky electric locks that need picking, to manitech safes that need hacking, a Rogue must be able to handle it all if they want to get what they want. Rogues have a reputation of toying with their foes and playing hard to get in a fight, using their days running with shady crowds, and all their experiments with manite-laced suits and gear, to camouflage their movements to their advantage.”

Scrapper Sketch Concepts Featuring Characters Styx+Stone!

                                             A Nebulous Universe

Faith in, acceptance for, and promotion of a developer’s diverse talent, vision, and identity has been a guiding principle of DVNC since its founding. We will never give up on uplifting creators or supporting companies and their vision! No one deserves to feel their ideas will never be appreciated, or that their work will never achieve anything spectacular.

We believe no idea is ever too late, or a creator too small, to make a difference.

If you’d like to support us, we’re always grateful for shout-outs on social media! It not only motivates us in our goal of creating games everyone is represented in, it empowers the Village’s creative vision. No matter how nebulous their contributions are in their minds, your support shows our creatives their work helps everyone’s universes shine.

Be sure to tune in to our socials too, to receive game updates. We promise you’ll find something to howl about!

Until next time y’all, stay spooky!

-The Devs and Creatives at DVNC.

Follow our socials for all the latest updates on our upcoming titles: 

The Monochrome RPG Twitter

The Monochrome RPG Instagram

Rosett Twitter

Rosett Instagram 

Rosett Website