Sunday, 27 June 2021 19:30

Dome-King Cabbage Dev Describes a Development Process like Building LEGO

Written by Ramon Hara
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Cobysoft Co. talks to Game Rant about the development process behind the visual novel Dome-King Cabbage, and how it's similar to building LEGO.

It's no secret that game developers all have unique processes when creating video games. Many AAA developers employ hundreds of people to work on a single title, smaller studios can just have a handful of people, and some work on a game alone. At E3 2021, players who tuned into the Future Games Show may have seen Dome-King Cabbage, a visual novel with monster-collecting RPG elements.

Although the monster-collecting aspect of Dome-King Cabbage isn't similar to games such as Pokemon, developer Joe Buchholz of Cobysoft Co. said Japanese manga and Capcom's Ace Attorney franchise inspired the visual novel. The developer shared more insights into Dome-King Cabbage's development with Game Rant, and discussed how the whole process is similar to building with LEGO.

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Watching Dome-King Cabbage's trailer at E3 2021, one can't help but wonder how Cobysoft Co. was able to come up with all the unique environment and character designs in the game. While Dome-King Cabbage is still under development, everything that has been shown so far is a testament to the wild and vivid imagination of Buchholz, which gives Dome-King Cabbage a colorful and unique aesthetic.

Buchholz said the best analogy they could think of for their development process is, "Playing with LEGOs." Buchholz said they would often take pre-made blocks and put them together to see which combination works best.

"I'll take a base body-mesh, do a cloth simulation on it to give it clothing, then sculpt a head in Blender and attach it to the body, for example."

The same process goes for the creation of Dome-King Cabbage's colorful worlds, and Buchholz explained how this process is one of the beautiful things about 3D art, given developers can start building a personal visual library of character and environment models, and then re-use assets whenever needed.

Similar to Dome-King Cabbage's monster-collecting RPG elements, the designs of the monster themselves bear no intended similarity to the popular creatures found in the Pokemon franchise. In Dome-King Cabbage, players will come across various monsters ranging from blobs of slime to creatures that resemble humans. The trailer and photos released of Dome-King Cabbage so far are proof of Buchholz's unique design for the visual novel's monsters. Buchholz clarified that the inspiration for the aesthetic of the monsters is all over the place.

"It's kind of a milieu of various Japanese monsters that I grew up watching on TV and collecting cards of."

In the end, Dome-King Cabbage is shaping up to be a unique visual novel that should please fans of the genre. Not only will it offer an interesting story revolving around a job interview, but it will also incorporate a unique take on the monster-collecting RPG. However, for players following the development of Dome-King Cabbage for years and new fans alike, it appears the game is still far from release.

Buchholz revealed the struggles of working on the game, and the biggest obstacle they continue to struggle with is making a living. The dev clarified that not only is Dome-King Cabbage self-made, but it is also self-funded, which has a tremendous impact on the development. However, Buchholz is committed to seeing the project through and said they are currently working on securing more stable funding to ensure that Dome-King Cabbage will release to the PC soon - and hopefully to other platforms as well.

Dome-King Cabbage is in development for PC.

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