Dev ➤ Test ➤ Repeat | May 2025

If you just wanna see the games showcased at this event, click here.

I live in Denmark in the Copenhagen Area. In Copenhagen we have this volunteer run bi-monthly event going called Dev ➤ Test ➤ Repeat (click the link to hear more about the event!) which more or less is what it sounds like on the tin. You develop some kind of game (usually), you come to this event, you test it with people and then you take that feedback with you home to do some more Development, rinse and repeat.

For those of you who don't know what this is it's primarily run by two fine people named Alexander Birke and Kristian Hedeholm and has been going for a while now, only getting bigger every time it's held. The event is completely free of charge, but tickets are limited to be sure we are not overcrowding the spaces they can get access to. So far I've participated in a few of these this time we were at the familiar Unity building in Copenhagen. It's the usual spot but some times we move to a different location.

We also had free pizza and drinks!

The Showcase

I came to this showcase with a game to show off. One that has been developed by the Danish company Teacup Games originally but which I then took over development for as the previous developer was moving on to something else. The game is primarily being made with me as programmer and designer and Thomas-Bo as vision holder and product owner. It's a narrative horror game about a less than kind husband.

The game is called Hell Dive and is out on Steam right now!

I didn't get to see as many games as I wanted to this time around however most of the games I did see were familiar faces whom you can read about in my last post from March here. That said, I did get to talk to one new developer as well as getting to chat a bit with some others although without having time to try their games myself! First, let's take a look at the new developer I spoke to.

March to the Heart

The game has a nice clean 2D artstyle that reminds you of an organic battlemap. I got to play it a little bit where I had to move units around, think about my strategy to push the enemy cells out and do takeovers not disimilar to games like Civlization. I had a sitdown with artist Aia Kragh to hear about the game. It's a tactical rogue-like deckbuilder which takes place inside a dying body. You play as defensive forces that try to regain territory which has been infested by enemy forces. The initial game idea was developed by Jonathan Skjøtt and then Aia was brought on the project later. You move around base cells and try to use strategy and tactics to the best of your ability to engage in biological warfare against other cells. It also has elements of sci-fi and a narrative to keep you invested. Future plans might include multiplayer although for now the focus is getting the game out on PC and perhaps consoles. The game is supposed to be available by Summer 2026 but is put up on steam by June 2025 so keep an eye out for this game!

You can sign up to a newsletter about the game on their website below.

• Company: Meanwhale Games
• Platforms: PC
• Check Them Out: Website

Boardgames

Yes, you can also showcase boardgames here! Not just videogames. There were a couple of boardgames this time around however three were new to me so I had to go check them out while others were deep in play. The first one was a game about taking over your enemy's bases and pushing your advantage while part of the map is obscured. It reminds me of some of gamemodes found in popular game League of Legends specifically the 3v3 Mode.

Secondly we have another boardgame which wants to do away with traditional dice. Instead of using dice to do decide what happens with actions, like attacking, finding loot, etc. in this minimalistic RPG experience you instead have to find matching pairs of cards to do actions. This means that as you play the game and progress and cards get flipped you can combo cards together should you be good enough to remember where flipped cards are, setting of a chain of cool actions.

Lastly we have an interesting dice game using four sided dice to make a strategic yet suprisingly simple and fun game. On a triangle board each player has different colours of four sided dice. The goal of the game is to takeover the other player's dice and beat them off the board, being the last player standing. The way you do that is to pay attention to what number is currently pointing up in the air on the four sided die. You can flip your die that many times across the little boarders that make up the triangles on the board. So if you have 2 on top then you can flip a die twice from one spot to the next. The next time it's your turn, you then have to go by the new number on top of the die to see how many times you can move it and so on. The way to take over a piece from an opposing player is then to have enough moves on a die to roll over it and take it's spot.

It's a suprisingly simple game yet has quite some depth and consideration to it. Also a very creative usage of the four sided dice!

Join in

If you are in Denmark and around the Copenhagen Area you should definitely come by! Just go to this page and look out for the next event announcement: Dev ➤ Test ➤ Repeat. Even if you don't have a game to show, come be a tester. Someone's gotta do it right? It's not just a testing event, it's also an amazing opportunity to network with other fellow developers. All people who showed up today are indie developers part of a growing and close knit community. Even if what you have isn't much, still bring it and have some people test it! That's how you can figure out if you are going in the right direction with your idea, or if you need to tweak and redesign some things.

Test a lot, and test often. Especially with strangers who will give you the honest truth!

Hope to see you there. If you see me, please don't hesitate to come and say hello! You are also welcome to hit me up on BlueSky any time!

(psst! The event is free, there's free drinks and pizza and some times industry people show up!)