Description

xDasher is a frantic local coop game about dashing through monsters with the proper colour to get higher combos and scores.

Up to 4 players join a team of Dashers and set off into a dim dungeon. Their quest is to eliminate all monsters lurking within. Eventually, they will be haunted by a ghoulish, four-headed beast and must face it in a thrilling boss fights.

This is a game where co-op actually means cooperative, because all players share a health bar and any monster encounter requires every player to do their part. The gameplay is entirely colour coded, meaning each player can only damage monsters highlighted in their colour. Players need to attack monsters alternatingly and within a small time frame to kill them. Thus, xDasher evokes old-school couch co-op feelings, where players start yelling at each other, given the fierce battle against time, the hustle of aligning their tactics and knowing they will only make it as a team.

In the spirit of arcade competition, the teams also fight for the highest score on an online leaderboard. As a team, players increase the score by killing monsters and advancing through the dungeon. As an individual each player can earn special awards to show off their prowess.

History

The journey started at the Franconian Game Jam in Summer 2019 in a small town in Bavaria, Germany. The theme “Back to the couch” inspired three students of Computer Game Studies to come up with the idea of a fast-paced couch co-op game, where the players must work together to win, but can only attack enemies by dashing through them. This was the beginning of xDasher.

Positive feedback from the colleagues at the game jam made Lena, Peter and Sven decide to found their own small company, Pixel Beef Games, to share their game with the world. Since then they have exhibited xDasher at different local gaming events in Bayreuth, Nuremberg, and Hamburg, where it was well-received. “It was great to see people, especially children, having a good time playing our game.”, says Peter.

As the vision for xDasher was always to make a game that brings people together, the team aims to evoke couch co-op feelings that are only possible to achieve in co-located play. xDasher forces players to communicate with one another when playing, a design goal supported by a shared health bar and enemy encounters requiring every player to do their part, making cooperation between players crucial.

With this goal in mind the game evolved, and the team proudly presented a free demo at the Steam Summer Festival 2020.

Since 2021, all members of Pixel Beef Games, and thus the company itself, have been located in Munich.

Features

  • Up to 4 Players Local Coop
  • Over 80 handcrafted levels
  • Single Player Mode
  • Online Leaderboards
  • Full Controller Support (XBox One, Xbox 360, PS4, and other)
  • Simple Controls (2-"Button"-Game)
  • No Story Twaddle

Videos

TrailerYouTube

GameplayYouTube

Images

Widgets

About Pixel Beef Games

Boilerplate
We are Pixel Beef Games: We love beef and we love pixels!
More information
Pixel Beef Games was founded in January 2020 by three university students from Bayreuth, Germany. xDasher is their first game.

xDasher Credits

Peter Mentz
Game Design, Level Design, Social Media, Editing (Pixel Beef Games)
Sven Schäfer
Programming, Game Design (Pixel Beef Games)
Lena Voß
Art, Project Management (Pixel Beef Games)
Paul Redetzky
Music (Freelancer)