Game Rant recently attended LvL Up Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, where we were able to spend some time at PM Studios' booth. PM Studios is a developer and publisher that often helps other developers/publishers get their games into retail markets, as well as digital distribution markets. Overall, PM Studios does a little bit of everything, which is also reflected in the games it chooses to develop, publish, and co-publish.
Variety is the spice of life, and while that saying is a little old hat, variety is certainly the spice of PM Studios. During my time at their booth, I played a hack-and-slash roguelite platformer, an asymmetrical multiplayer game, a simple but engaging simulator, a retro 2D top-down adventure game, and a fun3D platformer. If I had to summarize my thoughts on each game into one word, that would be “creative.”
Dragon is Dead
Developed internally by PM Studios,Dragon is Deadis a hack-and-slashroguelite platformerwith shades ofDiablo 2mixed in. Players take on the role of a Successor who is able to be reborn when dying, setting up the simple yet effective device for its roguelite elements. While we could not get past the boss, a tree with three faces called Longmere, seeing how repeated runs could work let the game shine. We found ourselves enjoying the menus and seeing all the ways players could build their characters. Players are also rewarded for defeating all the enemies in each area, and those rewards go a long way in defining a run. It’s clear that there’s a lot of work and nuance put into its progression system, with players needing to make the right decisions and have the right amount of luck to create an effective, synergistic build.
Artifacts can be collected that modify how certain skills work. The skill tree is already well-developed and detailed, and perhaps theseskill trees are where itsDiabloinfluenceruns deepest. Then, equipment comes into play where players have to decide what’s best for whatever build they’re working on. Finding the perfect synergy behind these three elements drives each run’s build, and perfecting that build and run effectively drives the “one more run” feeling ofDragon is Dead.
The best part is thatDragon is Deadhas been in Early Access for a while now, and it’s moving toward its 1.0 content-complete release. It should have been a crime to miss its Early Access phase, but its 1.0 release became something immediately on our radar.
Table Flip Simulator
Table Flip Simulator, on the surface, is a pretty simple concept: get mad, throw stuff, and flip tables. It starts off with someone being fed up after their capitalistic boss forces them to work overtime without pay on their birthday, and it spirals into something incredulous and silly. After smashing up the office, breaking photos of our boss, and flipping the table, the core gameplay gimmick would then apply to feeding cats in our apartment, finding hidden mermaids on a beach, serving coffee, building a cabin in the woods, and fighting a college professor. This is just a handful of levels that were available in this demo, representing just a slice of the full game.
In each of these levels were a selection of challenges, some of which were hidden. Players are not told to save someone from a shark on the beach level, for example, but there’s a temptation to throw anything at everything, including a steak at a shark. The core goals are creative and finding the other hidden challenges adds to a fun experience, and it is something fans of simple, fun, and creative simulators should keep an eye out for.
Bandit Trap
Bandit Trapis anasymmetrical multiplayer gamewhere one player is the Trapper and the remaining three are Bandits. It’s likeHome Alonewhere the Trapper is Kevin McCallister and the Bandits are like Marv and Harry. It’s the Trapper’s job to ensure that their traps do enough damage to the bandits that they win the game, while the bandits have to acquire 10 treasures to win.
At the start of the game, the Trapper gets two minutes to drop traps around the house. The bandits arrive after that, where the Trapper has to stay alive, protect their treasures, hide, and can manually activate their traps (although many of them are automated). Meanwhile, the Bandits can each carry their own tools and power tools, with crowbars being good for opening doors and jackhammers being good for breaking furniture. In furniture is where bandits find treasure and traps. The tools offer little timed skill-based events to open these things faster, while the traps range from bombs and water guns to homing rockets and whirlwinds.
It’s worth highlighting that this was a demo, this game is still in development, and ultimately it was a lot of fun. However, the biggest challenge for the developers remains balance in an asymmetrical multiplayer game. The trapper is incredibly strong, it feels like, and oftentimes has less to do to win than the bandits. Once the traps are set, Trappers can get risky and take them over manually, but placing the right traps in the right locations (thus protecting the treasure) goes a long way. It’s easy to see how a Trapper could do nothing once traps are placed and still win.
Still, hopefully with some balancing changes, this could be agreat party gameto work into aJackbox/Among Us/Fall Guyskind of party game rotation. It’s a ton of fun and the concept is really creative. It’sHome Alone if it were a video game, and it lives up to that pitch.
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyois a 2D top-down adventure game that feels reminiscent ofclassic, old-schoolZeldagameplay. Story-wise, the demo shows us entering our Auntie’s house and finding her right before she is attacked by four baddies. They seem to be charging special batteries with her energy, and they seem likely to be the main enemies. However, something goes awry, and our Auntie gets fused with our yoyo. We set off from there for the Safe House before the demo came to an end.
While brief, that old-schoolZeldavibe stood out immediately. As we fought enemies, we were often encouraged to interact with the environment with cool directional points that could redirect our yoyo and hit tons of enemies at once. Really,Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo’s gameplayis a strong selling point, while the retro vibe is a strong hit of nostalgia too. I would say, it’s also pretty obvious that if it only relied on this that it could grow stale quickly. However, as long as the developer ensures there’s plenty of environmental and gameplay variety with its yoyo, enemies, and the like, then it might go that extra mile for retro fans.
Yooka Replaylee
Yooka Replayleeis the remastered and definitive editionofYooka Laylee. In short, the developers wanted to tackle all the feedback the project received, whoich then ballooned into a bigger development project than expected. The result removes a lot of friction, opens a lot of doors, and retains that specialYooka Layleevibe. We were only able to play a brief demo of Tribalstack Tropics, but everything stood out strongly from animations down to mechanics. All of Yooka-Laylee’s abilities are unlocked from the get-go, and the double jump is just replaced by one tall jump. It’s designed to simplify a lot of things, but retain all the charm and natural playstyle of players.
During our demo, we saved Clara Lost from some enemies and also played theRextro Bytes Back mini-gameavailable in the level. It was simple, had a nice momentum, had a decent challenge to it, and overall, it was just a good time in fresh, yet familiar world. It’s clearly made for fans, but it’s also bound to be a great entry point thanks to how clear its improvements are.
Game Rant was provided travel and lodging for LVL Up Expo for the purposes of this preview.
