Wireframe - #34 - 2020

Early Access

Attract Mode

12 / wfmag.cc

Early Access

Attract Mode

Elite alien sports and pleasing sponsors in Drink More Glurp

t’s a physics game – but don’t run away

screaming, please: Drink More Glurp,

from CATASTROPHIC_OVERLOAD, is

specifically designed to be something

of an outlier in this weird world where

‘physics’ denotes a genre. How? By aiming to

actually be fun to play, and not setting out to

frustrate the player, all the time, forever, until

you never want to play Surgeon Simulator ever

again. Ahem.

Aliens have recreated a selection of Earth’s

sports, see, and have got them a bit wrong.

From there, we have the jumping-off point –

throw in a number of sponsors, all of which has

way too much influence over proceedings, and

add in a huge focus on multiplayer (both actually

playing and spectating), and you’ve pretty much

got the idea behind Drink More Glurp. It’s like if

I Am Bread was designed as something to play,

not endure; it’s like Getting Over it With Bennett

Foddy, but for more people and actually aimed

more towards ‘fun’ than ‘punishing’. Actually,

the developers looked more towards traditional

multiplayer stalwarts – the Overcookeds, the

Worms, the Gang Beasts of the world, and

it shows.

With James Letherby (artist) and Joshua Burr

(programmer) ready to chat, we threw a few

questions about Glurp their way; responses

were provided as a dual hive mind. “We were

very keen to make a silly physics game but

were very aware that we needed to make it

accessible enough so that players will actually

have fun playing,” they tell Wireframe. “Especially

in a party setting where you don’t have time

to practice.”

“We wanted it to be fun to watch and fun to

pick up and play, but we also wanted a high skill

ceiling where you can become super-graceful

and accurate with your techniques. Some

physics games will always fight you on that

because they’re built to be intentionally difficult

• sometimes frustratingly difficult. We don’t want
  people to be frustrated; we want players to go
  from having a sense of novelty, to discovering,
  improving, and showing off new techniques
  over time.”
  Moving from early split-screen prototypes to
  a single-screen, hot seat style of play proved
  the eureka moment for Glurp’s development:
  “Suddenly the pressure was off to do super-
  well because the sense of holding up the game
  goes away,” the duo explain. “And suddenly,
  watching each other became a part of the game.
  The crowd laughs along and cheers and will even
  give hints and tips to players. It’s heartwarming
  to see.“

OBEY, CONSUME

I

GENRE

Glurp drinking sim

FORMAT

PC

DEVELOPER

CATASTROPHIC_

OVERLOAD

PUBLISHER

The Yogscast

RELEASE

2020

Info

 Even without friends, you

can still compete across

leaderboards. It is primarily

a party game, though.