Gardiner Bryant, a YouTuber who’s been in the Steam Deck/Linux gaming scene for nearly a decade, has recently published the retro-style Dudelings: Arcade Sportsball on Steam and the Itch store. Per the Steam store page description, it is “a fast-paced sportslike” that is a cross between Pong and Foosball.

As someone who’s known Gardiner for a while – and even worked on the scripts for some of his videos – I wanted to learn more about this game, what development was like for him and the rest of his team, how he met the “Steam Deck Verified” criteria, and how the overall reception has been since release. You’ll also get a glimpse of the goodies we have in store for the near future!

TL;DR

• Dudelings is Gardiner’s first game, which he describes as a “long journey” but “fun and quite educational”
• the name “Dudelings” came from Gardiner’s younger brother, who called his drawings “doodlings”
• development started nearly two years ago in August 2022
• two programmers, two artists, and three musicians
• developed in Godot with GD Script
• tools used: Aseprite, GIMP, Audacity, DaVinci Resolve, GodotSteam
• difficulty of development rated as 4 – “it wasn’t very hard. Just time-consuming”
• export process to Linux and Windows – “shockingly painless”
• Mac testers wanted – talk to Gardiner on Mastodon
• fitting Steam Deck Verified criteria: set resolution to 720p, legible text, ensure Deck’s buttons work as intended
• reception: “entirely positive”
• new update coming later this month with a new game mode, new arenas, new game rules, new announcer packs, achievements, and other Steam integrations

First of all, congratulations on the release of Dudelings. Is this the first game you ever published?

Thank you! And yes, to answer your question this is the first game I’ve ever published. It’s been a long journey but it’s been fun and quite educational.

Where did the name “Dudelings” come from?

Well, Dudelings: Arcade Sportsball was inspired by a prototype my little brother made. The original prototype was built in Unity and it featured generic human figures (they looked almost like the generic unset profile pic on Facebook or on forums somewhere). The art style was essentially doodles and my brother called them “doodlings.” Originally, that’s what we were going to go with but I decided that “Dudelings” felt more Google-able.

The “Arcade Sportsball” bit was my attempt at taking the piss out of the games industry. There are too many games with names like Sparkshadow [colon] Grim, Dark Subtitle. So when it came to naming my game, I thought it would be funny to give it the silly “Arcade Sportsball.”

How long has Dudelings been in development?

To be honest, I don’t know exactly. The first commit to our git repo was January 31st, 2023 but I believe we were working on it as early as August or September of 2022. So, a good while.

How many people are involved with the development of the game, and what have they each contributed?

Over the course of development we’ve had two programmers, two artists, and three musicians contributing in one way or another.

The lead programmer on the project prefers anonymity so I’m going to respect that. However, I have written a fair bit of code for the upcoming beta.

I’ve also done most of the art, though my girlfriend has contributed some spritework as well.

As for the music, the vast majority of it has come from The Brothers Nylon. They’re my favorite band and they are extraordinarily talented. They produced the entire soundtrack in less than a week!

We’ve included some of my early alpha tracks in the official soundtrack, as well.

What engine and scripting language(s) have been used for the development of Dudelings, and why?

Godot and GD Script. And it has primarily been due to my belief in free and open source software. Free software is never going to try to screw you over like the Unity rugpull tried to do a this year. All the code is available for you to modify, if you need to, as well.

It also helps that Godot is amazing… though I’m personally not a fan of the Pythonic syntax of GD Script.

Coming from the webdev JS/PHP world, GD Script’s lack of curly braces and other quirks truly make it a brainbender to read. However, I picked it up pretty quickly and feel like a seasoned Godot engine pro at this point.

What operating system have you used the most while developing Dudelings, and what other tools have you used?

Linux is (as always) my preferred OS. And my lead dev used Linux for most of the development, too. Though my lead dev did utilize Windows for debugging purposes.

I used Aseprite for all the spritework, GIMP for most of the higher-resolution art, Audacity for audio, and DaVinci Resolve for the video stuff (of which there was a surprising amount). You’ve gotta use the right tool for the job. Finally, we use GodotSteam to connect the game to the Steam API.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most difficult, how would you rate how easy or how difficult it is to make a game like this?

Well, an arcade-style game like Dudelings is going to be easier than a platformer or an adventure RPG. I’d say we learned a lot during the process, too. It was probably a 4 in terms of difficulty if I had to boil it down to a number. It wasn’t very hard. Just time-consuming.

So Dudelings is available on both Linux and Windows. What was the export process like? Did you have to do any extra work to make one particular port work, or was it just a one-click process?

Godot provides a shockingly painless export process. Honestly, it has mostly “just worked” and we’ve had no issues at all.

You just need to download the Godot “build targets” for the platforms you want to export to. Then just run the exporter. For a game like Dudelings, it takes less than 10 seconds to build for Windows and Linux.

I did have to file an issue with the GodotSteam library when I went to implement achievements into the game. The game wasn’t building when using the GodotSteam plugin. However, the maintainer was super easy to work with and helped me resolve my issue within 24 hours!

Any plans on making a Mac version?

I didn’t have a modern Mac to test against. If someone has a Mac and would like to help test, we are not opposed to it! Exporting for Mac is easy, but I don’t want to release a build we haven’t confirmed works. You can reach out to me on Mastodon if you want to help.

We’re hoping to get an Android and probably an iOS build out later this year. But that’s only going to be after we finalize the next feature update.

Dudelings is Steam Deck Verified. What did you have to do while developing the game to make sure it fit this criteria?

Honestly, targeting the Steam Deck was my #1 priority. I cannot stress this enough: the Steam Deck is literally the only way I play games anymore. I have a $4,500 gaming PC and I only play games on my Steam Deck. 🤣

When it comes to Deck Verified status is to just follow Valve’s guidance. For us, the biggest considerations were:

• Target 720p as a standard resolution
• Make sure text is legible on the Deck’s screen
• Ensure the game is playable using the Deck’s controller

When Dudelings launched we didn’t have an option in the Steam dashboard to submit the game for verification. But a bit after launch the game was automatically queued and we received Verified status on our first go!

How has the overall reception been to Dudelings since it was released?

As of writing the game has entirely positive reviews. Most people say that it’s a unique and fun experience and that it’s fun to play with their families. To be honest, that’s the best complement in my book.

There’s a small community of players who have reached out and helped with the public beta, too. That’s been nice.

Can you give us a teaser as to any upcoming features coming to Dudelings?

Well, there is a public beta right now on Steam. We’re targeting July 18th for release. It has a new game mode, new arenas, new game rules, and new announcer packs from some rather famous voices. The new update also includes achievements and other Steam integrations.

Its very exciting and I hope everyone enjoys the free update when it launches on mid-July!

Dudelings: Arcade Sportsball is on sale for 20% off on Steam during the Steam Summer Sale until July 11th. You can also grab a DRM-free copy over on itch.io. And for those of you who have a Mac, get in touch with Gardiner – he’ll need your help testing a Mac OS version of Dudelings.