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|-|Next Up Hero=

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The next two Digital Continue titles released in 2018. The first of these, which took roughly 13 months to develop including time spent in Early Access on Steam, was Next Up Hero, an online roguelike action game published by [[:wikipedia:Aspyr|Aspyr]] where the player can respawn "Echoes" of any fallen player to fight by their side as an NPC companion and have their audience participate on Twitch and Mixer streams. Next Up Hero was negatively received, citing the imprecise controls, unfair difficulty, the storyline and dialogue vignettes not lending themselves to the gameplay and online-only elements. Prior to the game's release, a two-issue comic series titled Spoken World would come out, written by Tringali and lettered by Justine Raymond. This comic detailed the backstory of the game's protagonists and the world they explore within the game, which has any creation influenced by song. The trademark for both the game and the Spoken World comic would be declared "Abandoned" by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office<ref>[https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=87482494&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch Next Up Hero, USPTO]</ref><ref>[https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=87384669&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch Spoken World, USPTO]</ref> - despite this, Next Up Hero's servers remain active as of November 2025.

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The next two Digital Continue titles released in 2018. The first of these, which took roughly 17 months to develop including time spent in Early Access on Steam, was Next Up Hero, an online roguelike action game published by [[:wikipedia:Aspyr|Aspyr]] where the player can respawn "Echoes" of any fallen player to fight by their side as an NPC companion and have their audience participate on Twitch and Mixer streams. Next Up Hero was negatively received, citing the imprecise controls, unfair difficulty, the storyline and dialogue vignettes not lending themselves to the gameplay and online-only elements. Prior to the game's release, a two-issue comic series titled Spoken World would come out, written by Tringali and lettered by Justine Raymond. This comic detailed the backstory of the game's protagonists and the world they explore within the game, which has any creation influenced by song. The trademark for both the game and the Spoken World comic would be declared "Abandoned" by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office<ref>[https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=87482494&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch Next Up Hero, USPTO]</ref><ref>[https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=87384669&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch Spoken World, USPTO]</ref> - despite this, Next Up Hero's servers remain active as of November 2025.

|-|JumpStream=

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JumpStream was the second Digital Continue game released in 2018, developed in only ~~a few~~ months. This was a competitive platformer that utilized streaming interactivity, allowing for the audience to co-operate or mess up the player's progress within a level. Unlike Next Up Hero, which had Twitch integration, this was solely utilized with Mixer. According to archives within the Wayback Machine, no playthroughs of JumpStream were featured on Mixer, and the game was nowhere to be found on the site. The game had very little critical reception, with the Steam score of 65% Positive Reviews coming from just 20 players. With Mixer itself closing it's doors in June 2020, the game's interactive elements were discontinued, rendering it unplayable. The game is still available for download on Steam, however, and is able to load menus and let players explore the level select area, but very little of it can actually be completed.

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JumpStream was the second Digital Continue game released in 2018, developed in only four months. This was a competitive platformer that utilized streaming interactivity, allowing for the audience to co-operate or mess up the player's progress within a level. Unlike Next Up Hero, which had Twitch integration, this was solely utilized with Mixer. According to archives within the Wayback Machine, no playthroughs of JumpStream were featured on Mixer, and the game was nowhere to be found on the site. The game had very little critical reception, with the Steam score of 65% Positive Reviews coming from just 20 players. With Mixer itself closing it's doors in June 2020, the game's interactive elements were discontinued, rendering it unplayable. The game is still available for download on Steam, however, and is able to load menus and let players explore the level select area, but very little of it can actually be completed.

|-|SuperMash=

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After two and-a-half years of development, the genre-blending title SuperMash released in 2019 on the Epic Games Store, with console releases coming in January 2020 and a Steam version coming the following year. Although the rejected Drawn to Life pitch would inspire SuperMash, the idea of a game that can make games came to light back in 2016, and ~~would~~ developed in three phases.<ref>[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/a-game-makes-games-how-an-indie-studio-crafted-genre-blending-supermash-1264607/ A Game That Makes Games: How an Indie Studio Crafted the Genre-Blending ‘Supermash’, Hollywood Reporter]</ref> The game's format allowed for six genres to be blended together - Platformer, JRPG, Stealth, Metroidvania (titled "Metrovania" in-game), Shoot-Em-Up and Action-Adventure - resulting in every Mash being different from the last.

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After two and-a-half years of development, the genre-blending title SuperMash released in 2019 on the Epic Games Store, with console releases coming in January 2020 and a Steam version coming the following year. Although the rejected Drawn to Life pitch would inspire SuperMash, the idea of a game that can make games came to light back in 2016, and was developed in three phases.<ref>[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/a-game-makes-games-how-an-indie-studio-crafted-genre-blending-supermash-1264607/ A Game That Makes Games: How an Indie Studio Crafted the Genre-Blending ‘Supermash’, Hollywood Reporter]</ref> The game's format allowed for six genres to be blended together - Platformer, JRPG, Stealth, Metroidvania (titled "Metrovania" in-game), Shoot-Em-Up and Action-Adventure - resulting in every Mash being different from the last.

Although critics were initially impressed by the concept prior to release, the game released to middling-to-negative reviews. Reasons cited include imprecise controls, technical issues, an underdeveloped story, some of the Mashes being considered either too bland or too random, and a generally lackluster execution. Digital Continue promised more genres would arrive as DLC, however no new genres were added following the game's release; two genres can be found within the game files - Rhythm and Beat-Em-Up (titled "Brawler" internally) - suggesting that Digital Continue did in fact have further plans for the game at one point.

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</div></div>

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===Development on ~~{{Icon|TR}}~~===

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===Development on Drawn to Life: Two Realms===

The game's development was a lengthy one, and Tringali was prepared for anything it took to get it greenlit. According to Tringali in an interview with Nintendo Everything:

{{Quote|text=As executive producer on the first two games, I wanted to do another Drawn to Life game even going back to the final years at 5TH Cell. There were always circumstances that prevented it from happening. After starting Digital Continue in 2016, I continued to look for opportunities to revisit the franchise. I knew the biz dev guy at 505 Games, so we’d connect from time to time and I’d mention some ideas we had for the franchise. Late in 2018, we pitched a concept and the timing worked out to bring a new title to the franchise.|character=Joseph M. Tringali}}

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Tringali stated the game's development lasted 18 months, and the launch build of the game was confirmed to be from November 6th, 2020, meaning the game's production possibly started in May 2019. Throughout that time, Digital Continue wanted as many past developers back as possible for Two Realms; as well as 5th Cell developers who migrated to the team when it opened - such as David J. Franco, who reprised his role as the composer once more for Two Realms - the team also brought in sprite artist Chern Fai and character artist Edison Yan back for this game. Tringali also wrote the story himself, taking inspiration from the previous installments while also attempting to bring a new direction for the series going forward.

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The game's development suffered from a range of development issues, including crunch, assets being replaced, a large number of [[Unused & Removed Features/DTL3|unused content]], controller issues leading to the game's introduction of [[Sticker|Stickers]] and ideas being changed constantly throughout development. While not confirmed, the COVID-19 pandemic is also believed to be a contributing factor to the faulty development. ~~Prior to this, the~~ game was classified by regional ratings boards, with the rating from Taiwan's Game Software Rating Regulations being leaked on October 22nd.<ref>[[File:TRTAIWANRATING2020.png|100px]]</ref> This was followed by a trailer being uploaded by accident by the 505 Games French YouTube channel on November 3rd, leading to it being unlisted and removed; the game would later be revealed three days later.

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The game's development suffered from a range of development issues, including crunch, assets being replaced, a large number of [[Unused & Removed Features/DTL3|unused content]], controller issues leading to the game's introduction of [[Sticker|Stickers]] and ideas being changed constantly throughout development. While not confirmed, the COVID-19 pandemic is also believed to be a contributing factor to the faulty development. The game was classified by a vast range of regional ratings boards, with the public discovering the game via the rating from Taiwan's Game Software Rating Regulations being leaked on October 22nd.<ref>[[File:TRTAIWANRATING2020.png|100px]]</ref> This was followed by a trailer being uploaded by accident by the 505 Games French YouTube channel on November 3rd, leading to it being unlisted and removed; the game would later be revealed three days later.

Drawn to Life: Two Realms would release on December 7th, 2020 to middling-to-negative reviews, particularly for the [[Nintendo Switch]] release, which lacked touch-based drawing despite the system having a touch screen. Other reasons across all platforms cited the inconsistent art direction, the storyline and gameplay not being properly refined, plot holes and contradictions from the previous games, the absence of user-drawn assets like in previous titles and a large number of bugs and glitches. Digital Continue acted quickly, releasing patches that attempted to fix these issues, though a number of them remain. These patches would release via DLC in two waves titled the Creative Pack, each bringing new levels, Hero templates and Stickers.

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*** Issue #1: Wenly*

*** Issue #2: Ovalia*

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* [https://store.steampowered.com/app/846780/JumpStream/ JumpStream] (2018)*

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* [https://store.steampowered.com/app/846780/JumpStream/ JumpStream] (2018)**

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* [https://store.steampowered.com/app/872720/SuperMash/ SuperMash] (2019)**

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* [https://store.steampowered.com/app/872720/SuperMash/ SuperMash] (2019)***

* [[Drawn to Life: Two Realms]] (2020)

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*The comics had no subtitle between them, so they are going by the protagonist of each issue for simplicity.

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*The comics had no subtitle between them, so they are going by the protagonist of each issue for simplicity.

**The game has since been rendered unplayable following Mixer's closure, but is still accessible and available for download.

***This game was released on the Epic Games store in 2019, but was released on Steam in 2021.

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Revision as of 19:06, 20 November 2025