We’re super excited to be able to share some of the development story about biped, our upcoming couch co-op game that the team at NEXT Studios will be releasing next year on PS4, and then on Nintendo Switch!

Biped is a co-op game based around ragdoll physics and the use of the controller’s analog sticks to control each of the character’s LEGS, not just the character themselves. Biped is special in many ways and it has been a truly fun game to make as well as play. So today we’ll spend a little time talking about where the idea for the game came from.

Initial biped concept

Back in 2017, two of the team’s developers Ru Zhenchao and Zhao Jing were prototyping another concept in which a biped side character was conceptualized to support part of the design intentions.

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‎‎‎Initial rough gameplay

At the time we hadn’t planned to make a game around such biped characters. But as we continued with the original concept we realized that in fact, the biped characters were not only fun to control but also cute and exciting to watch!

By rotating the analog sticks, players get a 1 for 1 control over the legs and this creates a sense of purpose for each action and each input. The physics and controls created an immersive experience and brought the player directly into the game so that they could FEEL each and every step.

After spending more time with these secondary characters, the team thought, “Hey, we might have something special here.” So we decided to shift the project’s focus from the original concept to the two-legged robots and lo and behold, biped was born!

Concept art of Aku and Sila

In the next developer blog, we’ll talk more about how we integrated co-op into the biped experience. Thank you for all the interest in biped and our cute, quirky robots, Aku and Sila!


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Thanks!
- biped Dev Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1071870/biped/

The game cover for biped. Aku is blue (left) and Sila is red (right).

Hey everyone!

IndieCade Europe 2019 has announced that Biped is the winner of the Audience Choice Award. From the entire dev team, Aku and Sila, would like to say thank you for all of the support and enthusiasm showed so far!


Our whole development team, as well as Aku, and Sila would like to say thank you to everyone who supported biped during the event.

IndieCade is one of the top international indie game festivals, and it brings thousands of indie games around the world to join in the fun. Biped is the second title of NEXT Studios that has won an award at the event. Last year, our rhythm game Nishan Shaman won the Innovation in Aesthetics Design Award.


We had so many people gather around our stand!

Biped remains the work in progress and there is still plenty of room for optimization and polish before we ship it. Aku and Sila are training for your smoother and comfortable control experience for the final version. The environment that we polished and the details on the characters that we are applying as we speak is all focused to bring you even bigger joy when you play with your partner – and we hope that you will notice those small details as you venture through this joyful adventure with the partner of your choice.



Stay tuned for more news from us very soon.

Cheers!
- biped Dev Team