Space Invaders-inspired Doughlings: Invasion releases on PS4 next month

In Doughlings: Invasion the good old space invaders that we know and love since 1978 are at it again. This time it’s up to Morpheus of the Doughlings dimension to lead this homage of a counter-attack!

Good old days

A few years ago when I began attending investor meetings for Hero Concept with the “PR smile” equipped the first question I heard was always: “what will your first project be?”. Without hesitation my answer was a resounding “A tribute to an arcade classic!”.

This was probably due to my tenure as the guitarist of the metal band Battlorn in the ’90s. There are unwritten rules at the “start-up level” in the music industry. First you cover classics in small venues. Later on as the band grows popular it establishes its own style. After convincing ourselves this crazy formula could apply to the video game industry our brick-breaker project Doughlings: Arcade swiftly materialized.

New tricks for an old pony

However old the song you are covering is the result becomes just as meaningful. Golden Earring’s 1975 track Kill Me Ce Soir was a b-side cover by Iron Maiden in 1990. Listening to the two versions one could live through 15 years of musical and technical innovation.

Under the guiding light of this metaphor we decided the second game in the Doughlings universe should be a fixed-shooter.

Looking from the periphery revitalizing a classic might seem the easy route. However the other side of the coin probably looms larger; a cover may be of Iron Maiden quality, but it can also be an unmitigated catastrophe. Unless players find satisfying amounts of nostalgia and innovation, they’ll chase you with pitchforks.

“I understood that reference”

Many found comfort in the “geeks are sexy” years of the past decade. However even before the dawn of this new age we hardcore gamers had been ardent followers of the subculture.

What I’m saying is that there is a binary separation between people who receive the full cultural impact of “state the nature of your medical emergency” on the medic units in Starcraft and those who don’t.

Surely the subculture grows and shrinks simultaneously inside the minds of each successive generation. At Hero Concept we believe in keeping alive some of the things we think matter.

In Doughlings: Invasion our five levels are called Beach, Landing Ground, Field, Streets, and Hills. So when one beta tester wrote “We should never surrender!” in the subject line, I almost put on my Thug Life glasses and responded with a succinct “Deal with it!”.

Fun facts about the Doughlings Universe

• My biggest inspiration was the ’70s animation Barbapapa. Its shapeshifting creatures was molded by the Super Frog and Worms visuals by Team 17 and embodies the physical characteristics of the Pokémon Geodude.
• Doughlings are a technologically advanced society despite living in a pastoral dimension. They have been intercepting TV broadcasts since 1936 and are fans of our popular culture.
• Doughlings’ interest in wheat fields and windmills are not diet-related but due to their method of reproduction. The gender-free Doughlings are made of water and flour. They reproduce through mitosis once they reach a certain age.

That’s all folks!

The game will be released worldwide on 1st August and has English and Turkish dubbed voiceovers along with subtitles and UI in German, Italian, French, Russian, Japanese, Portuguese, Polish, and Spanish.

At Hero Concept we hope that you gamers get the perfect mix of nostalgia and innovation from our second game Doughlings: Invasion!