Outerloop Video games prides itself on being a minority-led, absolutely distributed indie recreation studio that creates accessible video games with depth about underrepresented cultures and themes. (See how different standout indie recreation devs are doing related inspiring work.)The developer actually got here to my consideration with its final recreation, Thirsty Suitors, a narrative-based recreation that was like a cross between Scott Pilgrim and Bollywood musicals with the trendy RPG battles of Persona 5. Its themes of household, meals, and tradition had been additionally actually sturdy, which carry over to its upcoming recreation Dosa Divas, although in observe it is really much more than simply, say, Thirsty Suitors 2. The premise is, nevertheless, no much less eye-catching.”I had the concept throughout Thirsty Suitors on a Miro board, and it was about two aunties in a mech,” inventive director Chandana Ekanayake tells me. “The idea in my head was too enjoyable to discover – what does that imply? Who’re they? What is the world? We’ve to elucidate much more as a result of it is a type of sci-fi setting with an entire bunch extra lore to determine.”
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(Picture credit score: Outerloop Video games)To sum up, you play as two sisters, Samara and Amani, who, with their mech Goddess, are on a journey to go to their household, however alongside the way in which additionally go to different cities being taken over by an evil quick meals empire, which additionally occurs to be run by their youngest sister, Lina. It will get sophisticated, to place it mildly (which is ironic, because the studio cheekily refers back to the recreation as having a spicy narrative).”We like the concept of there being two cooks which might be working round with a meals truck mech and individuals are hungry for varied issues,” says Ekanayake. “The entire recreation is themed round flavourful elements, and expertise even have a flavour kind, so for those who match a ability to an enemy’s weak spot, you will get them right into a stuffed state.”Meals is not only for buffing your occasion members, however a key half can be cooking dishes, such because the titular dosas, a crepe-like South Indian road dish, for individuals who have forgotten tips on how to prepare dinner for themselves after being enticed by Lina Meals’ fast and handy quick meals. It is a message that comes by means of whenever you come to a fishing village the place the villagers are going hungry, regardless of there being fish all over the place, maybe a blunt metaphor for wider points.”There is a scene within the demo the place the villagers are like, ‘We removed all our pots, we do not know what to do with them anymore’. It is this in numerous sectors of the true world. Equally, within the video games house, a number of small studios purchased up into larger studios, and we’re now additionally seeing a type of collapse of that, which is not sustainable over the long run. We needed to attempt to deal with that as a theme as nicely, however with meals.”Every day design information, critiques, how-tos and extra, as picked by the editors.
(Picture credit score: Outerloop Video games)
(Picture credit score: Outerloop Video games)Whereas the type of Dosa Divas would possibly really feel acquainted to followers of Thirsty Suitors, not simply due to the scrumptious 2D meals artwork drawn by the studio’s idea artist Vijay Krish, or returning voice actors, albeit solid in very completely different roles, there’s really fairly a structural and aesthetic change required.There’s extra a standard RPG quest, which sees the trio journey to completely different cities – do not go pondering an entire world map, because the studio is retaining its scope at a sustainable measurement – so there’s extra stage design concerned to make every location distinct, such because the fishing village, an underground one buit on an enormous tree, and a extra prosperous city with large McMansions. Nonetheless, Ekanayake additionally says that these places are designed with somewhat extra abstraction; evidently, the way in which the fishing village is offered as a sequence of interconnected isometric floating islands.
(Picture credit score: Outerloop Video games)
(Picture credit score: Outerloop Video games)”We pushed for extra stylised, largely as a result of the digicam pulls again extra, so what you lend to the artwork type is being chunkier,” he explains. “We pushed much more of the graphic 2D parts. In Thirsty Suitors, it was much more character-driven within the sense that we did close-ups of 3D characters they usually had been greater constancy. We’re not doing a lot right here, so we’re utilizing the 2D animated portraits for once they’re speaking, that are larger on display, whereas the characters are smaller on display.”In the end, Dosa Divas looks like an evolution for Outerloop, whereas nonetheless retaining its core themes and the studio’s mission assertion intact. “It is each a mechanical must push issues additional for the story, world-building, artwork, and animation,” he concludes. “There’s extra expression with the cooking system since you’re additionally combining elements, and folks have completely different desires and wishes. There’s extra expression with the battle system, with good blocking and assaults, and expertise with extra mechanical expression. Larger participant expression has been the purpose with this recreation.”Dosa Divas is coming to PC and consoles in early 2026.
