Chew Chew Mimic - Dreamcast Edition Now Available for Pre-Order from Orc Face Games

Chew Chew Mimic, one of the latest efforts from renowned UK-based developer Lowtek Games, has taken a step closer to reaching the Dreamcast with pre-orders opening on the Orc Face Games website over the Easter weekend. For the princely sum of £15 (inclusive of shipping until the end of April), you can pick up a physical copy of the game, which comprises a professionally pressed disc and eight page full-colour manual enclosed within a sealed jewel case. Fortunately for the those who have long since switched their disc drive for an optical disc emulator, a complementary digital version is included too, to be accessed via a QR code on the manual. Also of significance is that those pre-ordering will not have a lengthy wait either, as Orc Face have informed us that they are aiming to have copies out the door by the end of May 2025.

So what is Chew Chew Mimic all about? Well, in a nutshell, it’s a bright and breezy puzzle game where the player is tasked with placing tiles in a formation that will allow one of four knights to reach the end of each of the 100 levels. Following on from the likes of Flea! and Tapeworm Disco Puzzle, the game maintains numerous signature Lowtek elements, including a distinctive art style, pun-heavy cutscenes, and a chiptune soundtrack from composer Tuï. The story goes that the game, which takes inspiration from a certain cat-and-mouse (and spaceship) Dreamcast classic, was first conceived by retro gaming YouTube personality John Riggs (who previously also brought us Yeah Yeah Beebis II) and Alastair Low after a couple of fateful encounters at gaming conventions. 

Right from the off, although being primarily developed for the NES, Chew Chew Mimic was touted for a Dreamcast release. Indeed, when we first got wind of the project in 2023, it was looking likely that a version for our beloved Sega console would be made available simultaneously with, or at least soon after, the NES version, as arrangements had been made with prolific Dreamcast publisher Wave Game Studios. Alas, versions for the NES, Evercade and Playdate came and went, whereas the DC edition entered a state of limbo when Wave seemed to enter an indefinite publishing hiatus as the months of 2023 rolled by with little progress. Thankfully though Orc Face Games, founded in 2024 by HarleQuest’s lead developer Ross Kilgariff, has picked up the thread, and will now be ensuring that Chew Chew Mimic isn’t added to the Dreamcast’s voluminous directory of cancelled indie titles.

Dream Disc '24: Dreamcast Homebrew Game Jam Top Ten Revealed!

It's been a couple of months since Dream Disc '24 —a brand new homebrew development jam for the Sega Dreamcast— wrapped up, providing us with a variety of awesome new software for our favourite white Sega box in the process. Well, co-organiser of the jam, Ross Kilgariff of Orc Face Games, has finally announced the top ten! 

A panel of judges made up of well-known names from our scene —including Ross himself, Derek Pascarella, The Sega Guru, Falco Girgis and Alastair Low— each submitted lists of their top 10 entries, and points were awarded to those chosen games based on each one's position (10 for 1st, 8 for 2nd, 6 for 3rd, and 3 for any other position), with frequency on each judge's list deciding a tie breaker for third place.

This resulted in the list you see below of the judge’s overall top ten Dream Disc '24 entries. All ten games will be featured on an upcoming physical Dream Disc '24 compilation disc from Orc Face Games, and the developers of the top three will each receive cash prizes from a prize pool accumulated from donations by Orc Face and other generous souls.

I will effectively just be reiterating the results from Ross' post on the Orc Face blog, but to get a full rundown of every game each talented dev produced for Dream Disc '24, check out the article I put out back in January. We also have an episode of the DreamPod coming your way soon that will go over each of the winners in more detail with organisers Ross and Cypress (PsyOp Studios). So watch this space! (Update: here’s the episode!)

Every Dream Disc '24 entry is available to download for free on the jam's itch.io page. 

Seventh place (tie): 
Rizzo Island Remix by Dreameater Games
dRxLaX by dRxL_dk
Murph's Big Puddle Fishin' by PsyOp Studios
Order of Titan by bertholet and Ajaxpigeon

Sixth place: 
Trick Truck by WufSoft

Fifth place: 
Starship Madness by yomboprime

Fourth place:
Black Hole Descent by Frogbull

Third place:
The Eternal Sleep by Locked Door Puzzle

Second place:
Defuseball by Freakdave

First place:
Sky Pirates of Etalmar by WufSoft

So those are the winners of Dream Disc '24! Congratulations to everyone who made it onto the judge's top ten list, and thank you to all the talented developers who took part. We here at the Junkyard loved playing through each entry.

What was your Dream Disc ‘24 top ten? Let us know in the comments below, and hopefully we'll see you again for Dream Disc '25!

Dream Disc '24 Dreamcast Game Jam - A Showcase of All 24 Entries!

The entry period for the first ever Dream Disc game jam —a homebrew jam for the Sega Dreamcast— came to an end on January 3rd. Organised by Cypress of PsyOp Studios, and Ross Kilgariff of Orc Face Games, the jam was created with the aim of uniting the talented developers of the Dreamcast homebrew scene behind the shared challenge of developing new software for the console in a short space of time — and boy, did they deliver! 

Although judging is still yet to take place, each entry is already available to download from the Dream Disc '24 itch.io page for free. While the majority of submissions take the form of bitesize game demos for play on the console itself, there are also VMU games and some other miscellaneous pieces of software to check out too.

As detailed in Lozz's article from October (check it out for more details on the jam), the top ten entries chosen by the judges will go on to be featured on a physical compilation disc from Orc Face Games. While we intend to talk in more detail about those chosen games on an upcoming episode of our DreamPod podcast, for now I wanted to showcase every submission here so you can learn more about them and choose your own personal favourites from the bunch! 

Update (08 March 25): the judges have made their decisions! Click here to see the top ten.

Junkyarder Mike Rogers also took the time to record some footage of all the Dreamcast software entries, which we have uploaded as a nice compilation to YouTube, which you can watch below. I also recommend checking out The Sega Guru's great coverage on each entry as well.

So without further ado, let's get into the entries — all 24 of them. 24 entries for Dream Disc ‘24. How fitting!

Game Entries

Each of the 20 games submitted to Dream Disc '24 is unique, with an eclectic mixture of gameplay, graphical styles, and game engines on offer — there's something here for everyone to enjoy. 

While compatibility can vary, you should be able to burn all of these games onto a CD-R, stick them on an ODE (i.e. GDEMU, MODE), or play them on an emulator like Flycast.

A-Blaster by PrOfUnD Darkness

Mashing up ideas from classic space shooters Astro Blaster (Gremlin/Sega) and Megamania (Activision), A-Blaster is the first of many entries that will be challenging your dexterity. You get a single life to shoot down nine single-screen levels’ worth of alien invaders, as they move quickly across the top of the screen. To help overcome their barrage and be within a chance of staying in the game, you have a “warp” ability at your disposal (a feature made famous by Astro Blaster), which slows down enemy movements and lasers for a few seconds.

Download A-Blaster

Beach Box by PsyOp Studios

A complete remake of a Summer Jam 2024 entry, Beach Box is the first of two submissions to Dream Disc '24 by jam organiser Cypress, aka PsyOp Studios. This summery romp may be made up of simple shapes, but its gameplay is addictive. Taking control of a little square, the aim is to dodge larger rectangles by jumping or shifting dimensions, collecting coins as you go. It's sort of like Flappy Bird, except if Flappy Bird was actually fun. You also don’t have to give yourself carpal tunnel to play it.

It's a nice touch to see such a simple game have such a surprising range of unlockable power-ups and characters. I'm still trying to collect enough coins to get the little sock dude, Murph.

Download Beach Box

Big Drill by captkuso

Big Drill is what trendy internet pundits would call an "idle" game (wait, does that make me one of them?), in which you are in charge of a... big drill. It does what it says on the tin, really. 

Basically, the 3D blocks on screen are mined away automatically, with your resource numbers —which are listed on the right-side of the screen— increasing as you go. When your resources total specific amounts, it's time to take charge and buy upgrades for your drill. Upgrades include speeding up the drill, making it more durable, and increasing the amount of resources it collects. Pick the correct upgrades at the best time to see how deep you can drill.

For those looking to challenge themselves further, there is also a "prestige mode" to unlock, which resets any current progress and starts you again at a higher difficulty. 

Keep your eye out for a video detailing Big Drill's development coming to captkuso's YouTube channel in the next couple of weeks.

Download Big Drill

Dream Disc '24 Game Jam - More Details and an Interview with the Organisers

On the 23rd of October, the organisers of the Dream Disc ‘24 Game Jam revealed their forthcoming event to the world, and, in the days that have since passed, their announcement has produced quite a buzz, not only within our niche scene, but across the wider gaming world too.

For some, the title of this hotly anticipated 'jam' may be confusing though, so let me break it down in lay terms. A game jam is a time-restricted event at which developers of various kinds will conceptualise and begin creating games. Much like a musical jam, the idea is that people with complementary skills will band together, sometimes with total strangers, and experiment in an open-minded environment. The hope is that the focused attention these conditions produce will result in some innovative results. Alas, it’s always a possibility that some of the outputs will be hideous abominations, but the learning and networking experience can be useful in and of itself nonetheless. 

In the case of the Dream Disc’ 24 Game Jam, developers are being encouraged to congregate online around itch.io and the Simulant Discord between Friday 20 December and Friday 3 January to “collaborate, build, tinker and show off” their projects. That being said, projects that were begun prior to these dates can be submitted, and entrants are welcome to drop by and introduce themselves whenever they may wish. In another wise move from the organisers, it’s also the case that, in addition to games, software utilities and even hardware can be accommodated for too.

So, that clears up the sticky issue of what ‘jam’ means. What about the ‘Dream Disc ‘24’ part? Well,  thanks to one of the event’s main sponsors, Orc Face Games, the top ten entries (as judged by expert panel) shall subsequently be featured on a physical CD-ROM to be made available to the public for the cost of shipping alone. If that wasn’t enough incentive, there is also a cash prize pool to be shared by the top three entrants. This currently stands at close to $900 USD, and in a peculiar twist of fate has been buoyed by advertising income that had been set aside for a contest to be hosted by the website DCEmu 15 years ago that never materialised. Those funds are now finally being put to good use thanks to one of the administrators of that OG website, darksaviour, digging them out all these years later. Of course, the pot is likely to grow further too as news spreads and additional donations are received. 

Orc Face Games: New SEGA Dreamcast Indie Game Publisher from HarleQuest! Developer

The Kickstarter for Ross Kilgariff's 3D Dreamcast dungeon crawler HarleQuest! may have launched on April Fool's Day 2023, but it is quite clear from the community hype surrounding it that it is definitely no joke. Back in January, we asked Junkyard readers to tell us their most anticipated indie release as part of our Top 25 Dreamcast Indie Games poll, and HarleQuest! won out unanimously, receiving 80% of the total vote.

As the release of HarleQuest! draws closer, and our mitts frankly perspire at the prospect of getting a physical CD copy of the game in them, the universe (or rather, Ross!) has thrown us a curveball with regards to how the publishing of the game will now be handled.

Originally WAVE Game Studios were announced to be producing all the physical versions of HarleQuest!, but Ross has now chosen to self-publish the game through his brand new indie development and publishing studio, Orc Face Games. On Twitter, the brand new Orc Face Games account tweeted the following:

"Hi everyone! With the recent decision to self-publish HarleQuest! for the SEGA Dreamcast, we have started Orc Face Games - a new development and publishing studio! Stay tuned for a video announcement next week, along with the results of our recent Dreamcast indie game survey."

The survey that Ross is referring to in this tweet is one he put out at the beginning of the month, which asked a variety of questions that aimed to "gain a better understanding of the people who play independently made Dreamcast games in 2024". It's a great sign that Ross has looked to the community for feedback when setting up this new studio, and I'll be intrigued to find out what the consensus is from those who voted in the video he'll be putting out next week on his YouTube channel.

We reached out to Ross to get the scoop on everything Orc Face Games…

DCJY: Great to chat to you once again, Ross, and congratulations on the new venture! What can the Dreamcast community expect from Orc Face Games going forward?

Ross: As a publisher, our top priority is to build trust with developers. We live in the indie/homebrew community daily and want to do our part to help developers actually get things over the line into a polished physical release at a reasonable cost. A little down the road we will offer help with every aspect of development including funding, our 3D engine + tools, creative (art, music, sound, branding), porting... but for now we're looking to team up with developers who have an existing game or demo in the works and want to get the physical version made and into players' hands. In any case, if you're a developer at any stage, please reach out to us! We'd love to hear from you even if it's just for a chat!

That sounds great. Obviously HarleQuest! will be the first release from Orc Face Games, but do you have any plans for future titles that you can let us in on?

There is a concrete plan for what's happening after HarleQuest! and it involves a full 3D remake of an indie Megadrive/Genesis game for the Dreamcast. We know exactly what that's going to look like and it's going to be insane! After that, we will be starting a larger project again with a new IP which is still in the early stages, but it'll be bigger than HarleQuest! - that's all I'll say on that for now! As a developer, our focus is finishing HarleQuest! and making it the best game possible.

We’re certainly excited to get our hands on HarleQuest!. For those who missed the Kickstarter, where can they pre-order a copy? 

HarleQuest! pre-orders are now up on the Orc Face website for anyone who missed the Kickstarter! The site is still pretty simple but it works. We'll spruce it up a little before the HarleQuest! launch. In the meantime, you can visit [the Orc Face Games website] to pre-order the game in your preferred region style.

***

I look forward to seeing Orc Face develop into the next big-deal Dreamcast indie publisher. With an experienced developer like Ross at the helm, passionate developers could really get the help they need to help get their games pushed out to the community at large. With that in mind, I wish Ross the best of luck with this new studio. You can follow both him and Orc Face on Twitter for updates.

Are you excited to see what the future holds for Orc Face Games? Let us know in the comments below, or on any of our usual social media hangouts.

Related articles:

• DreamPod Episode 115: Talking HarleQuest! with developer Ross Kilgariff
• A Very Early Look At Dungeon Ross