Article / News

Chicory Dev Reveals Beastieball, a Volleyball RPG with Cute Beasties

by on June 8, 2023
Beastieball Artwork of a human character running through a field with their colorful Beasties playing volleyball

You likely know of Wishes Unlimited‘s games. While Wishes and Greg Lobanov have been making games since 2008, their games really found the spotlight with 2018’s Wandersong and especially 2021’s Chicory: A Colorful Tale. Today, during Day of the Devs, Wishes revealed their next project, Beastieball. Beastieball is a turn-based RPG centered around recruiting a variety of colorful Beasties to play volleyball.

Beastieball is set in a vibrant open world, filled with a diverse cast of Ranked coaches. As you may guess if you are familiar with other creature collectors, defeating these coaches is how you’ll raise your own ranking, to earn your way into competing in the Crown Series.

  • Beastieball Artwork 001 Axolati
  • Beastieball Artwork 003 Bildit
  • Beastieball Artwork 004 Cherrily
  • Beastieball Artwork 006 Kichik
  • Beastieball Artwork 009 Sefren
  • Beastieball Artwork 010 Servace
  • Beastieball Artwork 013 Shooga
  • Beastieball Artwork 014 Skibble
  • Beastieball Artwork 016 Sprecko

Each Beastie has a unique personality, and how each of them interact with one another will influence how they play together as a team. Every one also has unique traits, strengths, and weaknesses. As Beasties play together, their bonds can grow in a variety of ways, becoming besties, partners, rivals, or possibly even sweethearts. These bonds will determine what kind of combo move a pair can learn, which are unique to every possible pairing. It sounds like you’ll be able to spend a lot of time finding interesting pairs and combo moves, and developing strategies around them.

Beyond playing volleyball and helping to bring out your Beasties’ best, there are further story elements to discover, as you’ll meet friends and rivals along the way, including someone known only as the “Sports King” who wishes to see the “ultimate Beastieball match.”

  • Beastieball Screenshot 010
  • Beastieball Screenshot 009
  • Beastieball Screenshot 007
  • Beastieball Screenshot 004
  • Beastieball Screenshot 003
  • Beastieball Screenshot 002
  • Beastieball Screenshot 005
  • Beastieball Screenshot 008
  • Beastieball Screenshot 006

Interestingly, Beastieball did not begin development after Chicory, but rather during. Though the inspiration behind the game goes a bit deeper, so I’ll let Wishes’ own words explain it:

When Greg and Alexis first met they bonded immediately over a mutual love for creatures. They vowed that someday they’d make a creature-taming game after they’d built up experience working together. Spurred by sports anime they watched while locked at home in a pandemic, they finally started prototyping Beastieball in 2020 as a break from Chicory.

Chicory’s later success opened many doors for them, but it also set a high bar of quality and reception which they wanted to surpass with their next project.

It was a long road from the first prototype to their first announcement. There were many art direction tests, technical hurdles getting a 3D world working in Game Maker, and design challenges creating a novel battle system that worked for both single-player and Pvp, that was simple to learn and deep to master. Not to mention the challenge of designing so many unique creatures with an expanding team of concept artists from around the world.

Beastieball is coming to Windows and macOS (both in Steam and DRM-free forms) at a price point of $24.99, with additional platforms possibly coming later. Right now, Wishes is aiming to release sometime in 2024. In the meantime, you can see more on the Beastieball Steam page and official website, and keep an eye on their upcoming Kickstarter campaign.

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Mike Salbato

Mike Salbato

Mike has been with RPGFan nearly since its inception, and in that time has worn a surprising number of hats for someone who doesn't own a hatstand. Today he attempts to balance his Creative Director role with his Editor-in-Chief status. Despite the amount of coffee in his veins, he bleeds emerald green.

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