Ravenlok Launch – Event Recap

Teacups & Treasures

On a fine Thursday in May, the Cococucumber team, partners, fans and friends gathered in a private space to celebrate the launch of Ravenlok. This was not your average game launch party… In fact, it turned out to be quite the fancy tea party, complete with a custom high tea menu and string quartet performing two very special songs from the game!

High Tea

Guests were treated to three tiers of high tea scrumptiousness, from the cucumber (get it?) cream cheese sandwiches, to the buttermilk Earl Grey scones and delightful raspberry cupcakes. Taking inspiration from Alice in Wonderland, the Ravenlok high tea menu was designed by co-chefs, Spencer and Tosh, from Fare Food Co (also owners of the beautiful space) and Ravenlok director, Vanessa. Alongside the food, there were four selections of teas from Sloane Tea, a Toronto-based woman-led brand, to complete a feast for the palettes.

Music to Our Ears

Upon entering the space, guests were treated to the soothing sounds of a string quartet playing a carefully curated list of songs from animated films, games and movies. To be specific, the setlist is exactly 37.5% Disney songs, which to the discerning ear will hint at many of Ravenlok’s inspirations.

Next, guests gathered to witness two very special songs from Ravenlok, “Castle Gate” and “Queen’s Chamber”, performed live for the very first time by the lovely string quartet led by Vedran from GTA Strings. Mike Rocha, Ravenlok’s composer, gave a few words of introduction before the sounds of keys and strings vibrated the air with a goosebump inducing performance, perfectly capturing the magic and emotions of the game.

“I’ve got to say, some of you have really committed to the theme – I’m just glad nobody showed up as the Caterpillar Queen!” — Ravenlok director, Vanessa Chia

Ravenlok Remarks

A speech by Ravenlok’s game director, Vanessa, introduced guests to the dev team: Martin, Justin, Danielle, Simone, Vicky, Leona, Mike and Finnie, the hard working crew who built the rocket ship that launched Ravenlok to success. A special shout out was given to the three co-op students Patricia, Yuan and Kia, who worked on the game during their internship.

Partners CMF, Ontario Creates, Xbox and Epic Games were thanked for their support, as well as playtesters from Ontario Game Testers, Alanna and Delaney from DnA Creative and the great team at Continue Agency for their marketing and social support.

“Bellissimo!!!!” — 5 star review of Ravenlok (in Italian)

Cococucumber’s co-founder Martin gave an update on the soaring number of players that Ravenlok has seen since launch and read touching reviews from players all around the world. These words reflected how Ravenlok captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands, making it Cococucumber’s most successful game to date.

Ravenlok Milestones & Key Facts (From 18 May 2023)

  • Over 375,000 players in 2 weeks
  • 86% positive rating on the Xbox global stores
  • Over 2,000 five stars player reviews on Xbox US global stores 
  • Top countries by players: United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada

Next, a surprise! A cake was brought out for Vanessa to celebrate her upcoming birthday and to mark her achievements as director, producer and writer on this remarkable game.

Finally the afternoon soiree wrapped up with a Ravenlok quiz about the team and game, with fun prizes that included a limited-edition Ravenlok tee and very special Ravenlok playing cards! For the dev team, this event also served as the start of their week-long, much deserved, post-launch break after the very hectic and thrilling release of Ravenlok.

Planet of the Eyes – Behind the Scenes 👀

For the 1 year anniversary of Planet of the Eyes on PS4 and Xbox One, we are sharing some behind the scenes stuff from the archives. This game had a pretty intense production but it’s always nice to take a step back after to look at the journey and appreciate how far we have come.

We hope that you’ll indulge us today… cue vault opening SFX!

 

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How to Get a Writer On Board

In one of our early meetings with Will O’Neill, writer on Planet of the Eyes, Martin brought in all his level designs made on a huge sketchpad from Dollarama. When Will did not look at Martin like he was insane (or maybe he did but he ignored that part) and actually decided to work with us, we knew that we found ourselves a writer!

 

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How to Demo Your Game

Who knew that a huge part of game development was learning to demo your game properly. Our first time showcasing Planet of the Eyes was at a winter Bit Bazaar at the old Gamma Space on Richmond St. It’s great to spot some familiar faces in the crowd playing the demo, buying merch and supporting us from the start.

 

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How to Win at Voice Recording

Another highlight of production was recording the audiologs with voice talent, Alex Lewis. This was probably the most DIY set-up we did, with Will directing the session over Skype and Alex with his headphones bandaged to his head (because it was busted) reading the lines. Take note indies, this is how to get things done 😉

 

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How to Do Glamour in the Game Industry

Video games in general is not a very glamorous job, so we were very honored that Planet of the Eyes was nominated as a finalist for Best Indie Game at the 2015 Canadian Videogame Awards and that we had the chance to attend the award ceremony. Well, we didn’t win (it went rightfully to Klei for Invisible Inc) but it was great to be there to celebrate and see the game up on the screens!

 

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Thank YOU!

Finally, we thank you with all our hearts for supporting Cococucumber and playing Planet of the Eyes. It’s been a hectic and unforgettable ride making this game, but as one weary and wise traveler once said, ‘We’re in this together.’

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🤖 Happy Anniversary Planet of the Eyes! 🤖

 

 

Wishlist! Day of the Devs! Mini Worlds!

Hello everyone! As we write, we are in sunny San Francisco getting ready to set up for a round of year end showcases in the West Coast. More on that below, but first – big news!

 

Wishlist Riverbond!

That’s right folks, Riverbond has a Coming Soon page on Steam! If you or your friends are the PC playing type, please click on the Wishlist button on the Riverbond Steam page here.

Adding Riverbond to your wishlist is super helpful as you’ll get an email from Valve telling you when the game releases, which at the moment is some time in 2018.

We’d really appreciate it if you could help spread the word by liking or sharing this news on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Also, if you prefer follow Riverbond news in another way, there’s always our newsletter:

Cococucumber Mailing List



 

Day of the Devs

This one’s a good one! We’re excited to showcase Riverbond at Day of the Devs, a one-day event organized by the fine folks at Double Fine Productions and iam8bit.

This is family friendly and FREE event happening in San Francisco on Saturday, Nov 11th with lots of very cool games, live music and maybe a food truck. If you’re in the Bay area and are thinking of attending, RSVP here.

Don’t forget to stop by to say Hi to Martin and Vanessa if you spot them, and pick up a cute Riverbond pin for memories.

 

Mini Worlds!

Over the past weeks we’ve been previewing dioramas of some of the Worlds that you’ll be visiting in Riverbond.

In case you missed it, here is a handy compilation of the first three mini voxel worlds!

 

That’s all for now, we hope to see you at Day of the Devs for some game related shenanigans!

– Team Cococucumber

Planet of the Eyes Console Debut

We’re excited to announce the release of Planet of the Eyes on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this week.

To celebrate, we’re giving PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold subscribers a -20% discount for two weeks. Oh, and for all you Steam (PC/Mac) players it’s also -20% off until 25 Sept, 2017!

 

Download here on your preferred platform:

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PlayStation 4Americas | Europe | Japan
Xbox OneGlobal Store
Steam (PC/Mac)
Humble Store (PC/Mac)

 

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Press Reviews

There’s been some great reviews of Planet of the Eyes, check out what people have been saying:

“I love Planet of the Eyes. It’s a short game, but a perfect adventure that comes with a smart sci-fi story.” 90/100

Xbox Hub

 

“Perfect for a playthrough in one sitting”

Gamereactor

 

“The pacing of the story is perfection, allowing enough time between logs to soak in the games atmosphere and combat the games platforming mechanics.”

Xbox Game Reviews

 

 

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Other News:

Interview: We chatted with PS4Blog.net about Planet of the Eyes, achievements, and some updates on Riverbond.

Process: If you’re curious about how we Designed the Robot in Planet of the Eyes, we also blogged about that on the Made with Unity website.

 

Share the <3

Finally, if you haven’t already, please follow us on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram and show us some Launch Week <3 by liking or sharing these posts:

 

Thanks for your support! Do the Robot Dance!
– Team Cococucumber

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