Project Introduction
Peglin began as a game jam project called “Goblin Drop”, created at the 2019 OrcaJam, a small annual game jam hosted in Victoria B.C., Canada. (check it out here: https://gedig.itch.io/goblin-drop-jam)The theme of the jam was “fall” (as in the season) but we decided to interpret it as falling physics. Physics immediately brought us to Peggle, PopCap’s classic 2007 physics-based puzzle game. Another inspiration (and obsession at the time) was Slay the Spire, and we wanted to somehow incorporate deck-building roguelike mechanics. Goblin Drop was born, and we couldn’t pull ourselves away from the game. After the game jam, COVID-19 gave us a lot of extra time to dedicate to passion projects, and we were able to pour our souls into this little goblin.
Peglin is a turn-based RPG, where you battle enemies them with pachinko gameplay. You build a deck of orbs and relics that you can use on your journey to do damage and buff your stats. Unlock new Peglin classes by reaching achievements, and challenge yourself to the “Cruciball”, where each level is gets increasingly spicy.
About Developer
Red Nexus Games was originally started in the summer of 2015 by Dylan Gedig to release his local-multiplayer game The Shipwreck League. Starting a business while finishing a computer science degree proved to leave little time to actually work on the game, so Dylan teamed up with May Gardens to instead bring May's in-progress game, Friday Night Bullet Arena, to a commercial release.Red Nexus released Friday Night Bullet Arena on Steam, itch.io, and Humble on September 30th, 2016, and released the game on Xbox One on January 18th, 2017. Friday Night Bullet Arena was a finalist for a Canadian Video Game Award and a SXSW Community Choice Award but unfortunately wasn't enough of a commercial success to continue working on indie games full time.
The Red Nexus Games team went their separate ways and continued to individually work on various prototypes on the side of full-time jobs until Peglin's unexpected Early Access success on Steam in April 2022 gave the studio another lease on life. Peglin sold over 400K copies in its first year in Early Access and has been the recipient of numerous awards even before reaching a 1.0 release.
Red Nexus Games has been strongly connected to the Canadian indie game scene from its beginnings at the University of Victoria. Dylan Gedig, the founder and CEO, was the president of the UVic gamedev club, and helped grow the club to what it is today. After graduating from UVic, Dylan continued to give back to the Canadian indie scene through his various roles in IGDA, Global Game Jam, and Games for Our Future (http://dylangedig.com/).