In today’s games industry, with open development platforms and self-publishing tools readily available to everyone, games need to have a hook and an original angle in order to stand out in this highly competitive market. Taking the essence of old-school top-down space shooters, Dimension Drive aims to do that with its dual-battlefield mechanic. This is a split-screen set-up with two dimensions running side by side that a single player must warp between in order to defeat enemies, solve puzzles and generally progress through its colorful comic book-style world. When asked how the team came up with the concept for Dimension Drive Jimenez said:
Fending off an alien invasion across two dimensions simultaneously sounds rather frantic, and the ability strike a balance between a chaotic concept and rewarding gameplay is crucial to this type of game.
When asked about how the team are approaching the games difficulty Jimenez explains that they are aiming to create an experience that will satisfy shooter veterans, but won’t alienate those less familiar with the stereotypically punishing genre.
As already mentioned, Dimension Drive almost wasn’t funded.
The team had a second shot at Kickstarter after the first attempt was sabotaged. In the final hours of the first campaign, 2Awesome Studio received a pledge of €7,000 from a mysterious savior, leaving Dimension Drive just €200 shy of its €30,000 goal. Much to the delight of the team the project was funded, but disaster struck when Kickstarter informed them that the generous donation was, in fact, fraudulent - dashing the spirit of a company that was unfairly conned into believing their dreams had just come true. Addressing the team’s reaction to the failed campaign, Jimenez said;
But 2Awesome Studio and the gaming community believed too much in the potential of Dimension Drive to let it end like that, and leading lady Jack came back fighting fit with a second Kickstarter campaign.
And after the gruelling business of running two Kickstarter campaigns there’s no rest in sight for the team.
The game has also reached many of its stretch goals that now need to be fulfilled. These will add a boss mode, horde mode and also the chance to share dimensions with a friend via two player local co-op, or blast them away in PvP. Curious as to how two player mode will be incorporated into the dual dimension set-up we quizzed Jimenez about it.
Unfortunately, Dimension Drive missed out on the stretch goal that would have seen it reach the console market via PS4. But the team hasn’t ruled out the possibility of bringing the game to other platforms.
With Dimension Drive expected to launch at the end of 2015 for Windows, Mac and Linux, we asked Jimenez what the future holds and whether we’ll see any more space shifting antics from the studio.
Special thanks go to David Jimenez for this interview. More information about Dimension Drive can be found on the game’s website or by following 2Awesome Studio on Facebook and Twitter.
