BOO!!
This year again we're bringing the Halloween spirit to Rip Them Off, starting today! The spookiest time of the year is nearly here and Rip Them Off wants to give you a fright with all-new content and seasonal customizations in this chilling limited-time event: - The Halloween Map of Terrors! Creepy spiderwebs and awful bats await you in a brand new map with hair-raising music composed especially for the occasion. - Ghostly Dupes! A special new spooky animation sees the Dupes glide through the air without touching the ground. They might be dead, but they still have shopping fever! Perhaps thats what they died of? - New spine-tingling hidden items! Find hidden items in each map to see an atrocious animation! - A terrifying new app icon. - A hideous new title screen. - Seasonal UI customizations thatll make your skin crawl! Have fun with the Ghostly Dupes on the Halloween Map today! Oh, and dont forget to keep following The Boards recommendations!

[ 2024-10-16 13:27:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're bringing the Halloween spirit back again to Rip Them Off, starting today!

• The Halloween Map of Terrors! Creepy spiderwebs and awful bats await you in a brand new map with hair-raising music composed especially for the occasion.
• Ghostly Dupes! A special new spooky animation sees the Dupes glide through the air without touching the ground. They might be dead, but they still have shopping fever! Perhaps thats what they died of?
• New spine-tingling hidden items! Find hidden items in each map to see an atrocious animation!
• A hideous new title screen.
• Seasonal UI customizations thatll make your skin crawl!

Thank you so much for playing Rip Them Off, and please do leave a review if you enjoyed the game, it helps so much! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295860/Rip_Them_Off/ BOO!!

[ 2023-10-17 08:27:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

BOO!! This year again we're bringing the Halloween spirit to Rip Them Off, starting today! The spookiest time of the year is nearly here and Rip Them Off wants to give you a fright with all-new content and seasonal customizations in this chilling limited-time free update:
- The Halloween Map of Terrors! Creepy spiderwebs and awful bats await you in a brand new map with hair-raising music composed especially for the occasion. - Ghostly Dupes! A special new spooky animation sees the Dupes glide through the air without touching the ground. They might be dead, but they still have shopping fever! Perhaps thats what they died of? - New spine-tingling hidden items! Find hidden items in each map to see an atrocious animation! - A terrifying new app icon. - A hideous new title screen. - Seasonal UI customizations thatll make your skin crawl! Have fun with the Ghostly Dupes on the Halloween Map today! Oh, and dont forget to keep following The Boards recommendations!
Thank you so much for playing Rip Them Off, and remember, please do leave a review on Steam if you enjoyed the game, it helps so much!

[ 2022-09-13 18:53:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're bringing the Halloween spirit back again to Rip Them Off, starting today!

• The Halloween Map of Terrors! Creepy spiderwebs and awful bats await you in a brand new map with hair-raising music composed especially for the occasion.
• A special music only during the event !
• Ghostly Dupes! A special new spooky animation sees the Dupes glide through the air without touching the ground. They might be dead, but they still have shopping fever! Perhaps thats what they died of?
• New spine-tingling hidden items! Find hidden items in each map to see an atrocious animation!
• A hideous new title screen.
• Seasonal UI customizations thatll make your skin crawl!

Thank you so much for playing Rip Them Off, and please do leave a review if you enjoyed the game, it helps so much! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295860/Rip_Them_Off/ --- Be sure to follow us on your favorite social media platforms to stay up-to-date on Rip Them Off and all our other games:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lozange_Lab
• Discord: https://discord.gg/U4bv5WA
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LozangeLab/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozange.lab/

BOO!!

[ 2021-10-15 08:30:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Buongiorno a tutti ! Rip Them Off is now available in italian !
We'd like to thanks our friends Marloo Studios for helping us with the translation:
Have fun and remember, please do leave a review if you enjoyed the game, it helps so much! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295860/Rip_Them_Off/ . Ava & Mat

[ 2021-08-27 07:22:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Rip Them Off is now fully translated in italian !

[ 2021-08-27 07:19:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! This update brings full controller support to Rip Them Off. Now you can control the whole game using your favourite joystick, mouse, keyboard and/or touch screen.
Thank you so much for playing Rip Them Off, and remember, please do leave a review on Steam if you enjoyed the game, it helps so much! ...and please do join us on Discord so that we can chat directly: https://discord.gg/U4bv5WA Ava & Mat

[ 2021-01-14 20:18:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

BOO!! Don't worry, it's just Ava and Mat from Lozange Lab (and we're not actually ghosts, we promise). We hope you're well, staying safe, and looking after each other. We're very excited to reveal that we're bringing the Halloween spirit to Rip Them Off, starting today! The spookiest time of the year is nearly here and Rip Them Off wants to give you a fright with all-new content and seasonal customizations in this chilling limited-time free update: - The Halloween Map of Terrors! Creepy spiderwebs and awful bats await you in a brand new map with hair-raising music composed especially for the occasion. - Ghostly Dupes! A special new spooky animation sees the Dupes glide through the air without touching the ground. They might be dead, but they still have shopping fever! Perhaps thats what they died of? - New spine-tingling hidden items! Find hidden items in each map to see an atrocious animation! - A terrifying new app icon. - A hideous new title screen. - Seasonal UI customizations thatll make your skin crawl!
Also new in this update: - tapping on an entrance now displays the path the exiting Dupes will take - the tutorial has been improved - a new animated page in the manual - reduced difficulty on some levels through reduced milestones - various improvements and fixes Have fun with the Ghostly Dupes on the Halloween Map today! Oh, and dont forget to keep following The Boards recommendations! To those of you who haven't yet tried Rip Them Off, we think now is the absolute best time to dive in, spooky season is our favourite after all. And to those who have, thank you so much for playing Rip Them Off, and remember, please do leave a review on Steam if you enjoyed the game, it helps so much! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295860/Rip_Them_Off/ The ghosts of Ava and Mat (we lied!), signing off... -- Be sure to follow us on your favourite social media platforms to stay up-to-date on everything Rip Them Off: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lozange_Lab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LozangeLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozange.lab/ ...and please do join us on Discord so that we can chat directly: https://discord.gg/U4bv5WA

[ 2020-10-15 17:05:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey friends, Mat and Ava of Lozange Lab here. We hope you're all safe and well. Following the exciting launch of our latest game, Rip Them Off, we are moving full-speed into the free post-launch content plan we have for the game! The first update, which is available right now, is a brand new Map of the Moment! If you didn't know, on a regular rolling basis, we'll be releasing a Map of the Moment, this map will be one that is currently available, but we'll be shaking things up by changing and shifting aspects of the map, and adding fun modifiers to gameplay. With each Map of the Moment, you may find the Dupe entrances moved, different Dupe paths, less shops, more shops, shops in different places... The possibilities are endless! Map of the Moment also allows us to experiment with new and interesting changes / modifiers to give your normal Rip Them Off gameplay experience a bit of a twist. With that said, we are excited to introduce the very first post-launch Map of the Moment!

Map of the Moment: Sanzu-no-kawa

The classic shopping street of Sanzu-no-kawa has been turned on it's head with Map of the Moment. When you dive into Sanzu-no-kawa with Map of the Moment, you'll soon feel the changes to the established map. Entrances have been shifted and two spots for gameplay modifiers have shown up to the shopping party. For those of you who have this map nailed down to a tee, you'll find yourself needing to relearn the ropes we really hope you don't disappoint The Board! This Map of the Moment will stick around for 10 days or so, until the arrival of a very spooOOOoooky, seasonal event... Oops, we've said too much already! Please do give it a go, and let us know what you think in the Rip Them Off Community Hub, we'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Enjoy, and thank you again for your support! Mat & Ava x -- Be sure to follow us on your favourite social media platforms to stay up-to-date on everything Rip Them Off: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lozange_Lab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LozangeLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozange.lab/ ...and please do join us on Discord so that we can chat directly: https://discord.gg/U4bv5WA

[ 2020-10-05 14:46:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey friends, It's been almost a week since we launched Rip Them Off on Steam, and we've been so happy with the response from our players, so thank you! We launched with a lovely little 10% discount on Rip Them Off and sadly, that discount ends tomorrow, so be sure to make the most of it while you can! Ourselves and The Board are all about saving money, so we know a good deal when we see one, and this is a good deal! In all seriousness though, we'd be over the moon if you decided to make the most of the discount before it ends tomorrow, it would be a perfect end to our launch week. There's not just one discount on at the moment, we've also got a 16% discount on Rip Them Off: Jazzy Edition, which bundles the game and our jazz-tastic original soundtrack for one smooth package. Check that out below: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/16252/Rip_Them_Off__Jazzy_Edition/ Finally, now that Rip Them Off is out in the wild, we'd love to hear what you think! Please do join the discussion over on our Steam Community Hub and let us know the good, the bad, what you'd change etc. We're always striving to make our games better for our players, and getting your feedback is the best way to do that. The link for our feedback Steam Discussion is right here, we'd love for you to join us: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1295860/discussions/0/2847921219536488671/ Alternatively, you can join our lovely community Discord and feedback to us there instead if you fancy: https://discord.gg/U4bv5WA Thank you again for your support, and please continue to Rip Them Off! Stay safe and well, Ava and Mat x Be sure to follow us on your favourite social media platforms to stay up-to-date on everything Rip Them Off: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lozange_Lab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LozangeLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozange.lab/ ...and please do join us on Discord so that we can chat directly: https://discord.gg/U4bv5WA

[ 2020-09-30 16:06:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello! We are incredibly pleased to say that Rip Them Off is OUT NOW! Rip Them Off is out now on Steam for PC, Mac, and Linux users, and you can get 10% off with our celebratory launch discount. What would a video game launch be without a brand new launch trailer? Check it out!

[previewyoutube=BdJQj1pvI2I;full][/previewyoutube]

Later today, we're hosting a celebratory gameplay livestream right here on our Steam page, please do join us! All the details on the livestream can be found right here:

https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/1295860/announcements/detail/2787122624549065379

We'd be forever grateful if you would add Rip Them Off to your Steam library, it's been a lot of hard work, but we're just so excited to get it into as many hands as possible. Remember, Rip Them Off is 10% off during launch week, so act fast for a great discount! Alongside the standard edition, we're also excited to launch the Rip Them Off: Jazzy Edition bundle which includes the game and our pretty great (if we do say so ourselves) original jazz soundtrack. Check both versions out on the Steam page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295860/Rip_Them_Off/

Thank you so much, and see you later for our launch stream celebrations! Ava and Mat x

Be sure to follow us on your favourite social media platforms to stay up-to-date on everything Rip Them Off: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lozange_Lab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LozangeLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozange.lab/ ...and please do join us on Discord so that we can chat directly: https://discord.gg/U4bv5WA

[ 2020-09-24 15:03:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello friends! It's been a long time coming, but today we are finally launching Rip Them Off! We can't wait for you to dive in to our satirical tower defense puzzler later today, speaking of which, here's the launch time of Rip Them Off wherever you are: France: 5pm CEST Spain: 5pm CEST Germany: 5pm CEST UK: 4pm BST US: 8am PT US: 11am EDT Japan: Friday 12am JST Russia: 6pm MSK China: 11pm CST Brazil: 12pm BRT To celebrate our exciting launch, we're going to be streaming Rip Them Off live right here on our Steam page. The stream will begin two hours after launch, we'll have the live chat running so please do come and ask us anything about Rip Them Off and join us in our celebrations! Be sure to set a reminder on the right side of this page so you don't miss our launch stream. :) Remember, to be notified of exactly when Rip Them Off is released and ready to buy, you can hit the wishlist button below.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295860/Rip_Them_Off/

Thanks, and see you all for the launch celebrations! Ava and Mat x

Be sure to follow us on your favourite social media platforms to stay up-to-date on everything Rip Them Off: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lozange_Lab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LozangeLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozange.lab/ ...and please do join us on Discord so that we can chat directly: https://discord.gg/U4bv5WA

[ 2020-09-24 13:40:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey friends, NEXT WEEK IS LAUNCH WEEK!! We're so excited to be launching Rip Them Off on Steam next Thursday, September 24th, we can't wait to hear what you think of our jazzy tower defense puzzler.

If you haven't already, we'd be forever grateful if you could please, please, please hit the Wishlist button below. That way you'll be notified upon release, and it'll help us to reach more people with Rip Them Off:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295860/Rip_Them_Off/
--- Now that we've all wishlisted Rip Them Off (), let's discuss two important and exciting features we recently implemented into Rip Them Off ready for launch, starting with leaderboards!

Leaderboards

That's right, leaderboards are ready and raring to go in Rip Them Off! This means that, at launch next week, you'll be able to take what you've learnt about being a corporate money-making machine, and challenge your friends (or rivals!) to a high-score battle.
Every map in Rip Them Off has it's own leaderboard, so consider this us challenging you to hit the top spot (or top three, we'll be kind) in every city. Don't forget we'll be hanging around on the leaderboards too (we're pretty good at this game, you know?), so come and show us what you've got!

Map of the Moment

Map of the Moment is a key part of our post-launch plans for Rip Them Off, and we're super excited to about it! On a regular rolling basis, we'll be releasing a Map of the Moment, this map will be one that is currently available, but we'll be shaking things up by changing and shifting aspects of the map, and adding fun modifiers to gameplay. With each Map of the Moment, you may find the Dupe entrances moved, different Dupe paths, less shops, more shops, shops in different places... The possibilities are endless!
Map of the Moment also allows us to experiment with new and interesting changes / modifiers to give your normal Rip Them Off gameplay experience a bit of a twist. You'll see the first Map of the Moment arrive pretty soon after launch, so keep an eye out for them! ---

In other news, we're celebrating next week's launch of Rip Them Off with a 66% off sale on our strategic, turn-based puzzle game Swim Out! From now until 5pm CEST / 4pm BST / 8am PT on Monday September 21st, Swim Out is 66% off on Steam that's quite a bargain if we do say so ourselves!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/662200/Swim_Out/ If you do pick up Swim Out (firstly, thank you so much!), then please do leave us a positive review on Steam, it helps immensely and the more people who pick up our games, the more we can make. --- That's all from us for now. Again, we can't wait for you to dive into Rip Them Off, it's been a labour of love for us and we think you're going to love it.

Rip Them Off releases on Thursday September 24th here on Steam for PC, Mac, and Linux, and remember, your Wishlist is invaluable to tiny indie dev teams like ours, so please consider adding Rip Them Off to yours:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295860/Rip_Them_Off/ Thank you, be safe. Ava and Mat x Be sure to follow us on your favourite social media platforms to stay up-to-date on everything Rip Them Off as we approach the exciting launch on September 24th: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lozange_Lab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LozangeLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozange.lab/ ...and please do join us on Discord so that we can chat directly: https://discord.gg/U4bv5WA

[ 2020-09-18 15:01:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Thursday! How is everyone holding up? We hope you're safe and well. :) A couple of weeks ago, we hosted a closed beta test for Rip Them Off. If you were one of the many who took part, thank you! The feedback we received was immeasurably helpful, and it was just amazing to finally get our game into people's hands, if only for a little while. Today, we thought we'd give you all a little development update so you can see what we learnt from running the beta test, and what changes have now been implemented based on our testers wonderful feedback. We used our Discord server to chat with our beta testers, and share screenshots and videos, it was really useful. Please do join our little community: https://discord.gg/U4bv5WA

So, what did we learn from the beta test, and what changes are we making based on the beta feedback?

Firstly, we were stunned to read that absolutely everyone said they loved the art style, the original concept, and the humour of the game. We also received loads of positive feedback about our original music, and testers were impressed by the level of polish of the game. This was great to hear! The number of bug reports was also very low. The reported bugs were very specific to some configurations, and were fixed during the beta. We're now confident in the stability and quality of the game for the release on September 24th. One point of feedback we received is that some players wanted more guidance, to better understand what is under the hood. However, this was not the case for everyone, so we've implemented an optional in-game manual, called "Retail Entrapment 101". This manual explains, with texts and graphs, how things work for the Dupes' entrances, the differences between shops, and also provides some tips to help players perform better. As it's written by Rik, the writer of Rip Them Off, the tone remains as humorous and satirical as the rest of the game. Reading it is optional, as it slightly spoils some of the mysteries of the game, so players who'd like to discover those by themselves may want to keep that in mind!
Staying on the theme of guidance, we received feedback from the beta suggesting that the difficulty ramps up too early, so we added a few steps to the tutorial for a smoother learning curve. First one shop, then two, then two streets, three shops etc. These now appear one by one during the tutorial phase. One of the questions we needed answering with the beta was "how should we divide the levels?". We implemented two options for our testers: [olist]

Subdivision per "Objective": Each Milestone progressively increases the Number of Days and the Money Goal, each milestone being played on the exact same map as the Final Milestone Map.

Subdivision per "District": Each Milestone progressively increases the Number of Shops and the number of Dupe Entrances, each milestone being played on a sub-section of the Final Milestone Map. [/olist] To see what players preference was, we set different subdivisions for each level and asked them what they preferred. And to our surprise the majority of answers was...both! So we've decided to keep both systems, some maps having the subdivision per objective while other the subdivision per district.

We've changed/added a whole bunch of other new things too, all based on the feedback we received in the beta:

• We've improved the menus: beta testers suggested navigating by a simple click on the left or the right side of the selected item. It was a great suggestion, so we implemented it and now it's so much quicker to change level or your save game.
• We've added handy visual indicators on the Dupes' entrances with their colour-coded frequencies and their daily progress.
• We received remarks from players that they'd like to know what their planned action is for as long as it's waiting to be executed, so we've added indicators at the bottom right of the screen that show the cost of the planned action, the type of shop you're going to buy, and whether or not it's an upgrade.
• Oh and while we were at it, we also improved the Dupes animation, we hope you like it!

So there you have it! Our beta test was a huge success, and has set us up nicely for Rip Them Off's launch on September 24th! Thank you once again to our lovely testers for your time, patience, and excellent feedback. :D If you haven't already, we'd love it if you could please hit the big 'Wishlist' button below, so that you can be notified of when Rip Them Off is released, but also of further updates like this one as we head towards launch. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295860/Rip_Them_Off/ Stay safe, Ava & Mat x Be sure to follow us on your favourite social media platforms to stay up-to-date on everything Rip Them Off as we approach the exciting launch on September 24th: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lozange_Lab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LozangeLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozange.lab/ Imgur: https://imgur.com/user/LozangeLab ...and please do join us on Discord so that we can chat directly: https://discord.gg/U4bv5WA

[ 2020-09-10 12:47:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey there, friends, We hope you're safe and well as we somehow barrel into September in the most bizarre year imaginable. Today, we wanted to answer a few more questions we've received from the community regarding working from home, and our pretty unique situation as a husband-and-wife development team. Remember, if you'd like to ask us any questions yourself, about Rip Them Off or anything else Lozange Lab related, feel free to start a discussion with us in our Steam Community Hub: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1295860 Let's answer some questions, shall we?

Its been a tough year for everyone, but for game developers worldwide, the process of creating games has been made more challenging with work-from-home and lockdown orders. As a small indie team, how has 2020 been for you, and how has it affected development of Rip Them Off?

Since we started Lozange Lab around 5 years ago weve been working from home, side-by-side. Our office is right here in our apartment! To switch between work and homelife, after a day of work we would usually go out to have a drink, see a friend, or go for a walk. This was very limited during the lockdown, and of course we missed those relaxing moments. Those moments were really what was making us take a break and call it a day, so sometimes it was hard to stop working all the time. We had the feeling of being locked in the office, and working longer hours is often inefficient. Lockdown may have led us to have a more cynical tone in Rip Them Off, it was a little bit more light-hearted at the beginning. It still is now though, but just in a more peculiar tongue-in-cheek way. Also, making a game where customers visit shops when it's very regulated these days, makes us think about lockdown itself. We really start to wonder at what point peoples wellbeing matters more than the economy.

Whats one thing you miss about developing a game pre-lockdown?

We usually take the opportunity to make some kind of play test of our upcoming games during video game conventions. It's very informative to watch people play your game, their reaction, what they like or dislike or don't get at first sight. It's also nice to be able to directly talk to our players. Once the conventions finished, we debrief and eventually fine tune parts of the game based on their feedback. This year's conferences were all cancelled, at least in their physical form, so unfortunately it was not possible to run such play tests with many players. For Rip Them Off, we ran a private, closed beta test with a very limited number of players but it wasnt as informative as a public playtest. To balance this we decided to run a public closed beta test in August and launched a call for testers. We received a huge number of responses, beyond all our expectations, and were able to run a very interesting test with many testers. We were blown away by their reactions and their very detailed reports. They really enjoyed the game and went very specific into what they'd like us to improve. Having a Discord server now (wed love for you to join us! : https://discord.gg/U4bv5WA) allowed us to discuss directly with our beta testers. We even had them test an early version of a feature we're working on for the first major update of the game after its release!

Lozange Lab is a husband and wife development team, thats really cool! Whats it like developing games with your partner?

We met at a computer science university, our dream was to make games together. We worked in big IT companies for a few years, each of us in a different company first but during the last few years we were even able to work together in the same company. Then we decided to make our dream come true, and created Lozange Lab to make games together. Although not all aspects of having your own company are cool, making games together is super cool!

What are the three best things about developing a game with your partner?

As "birds of a feather stick together", we don't have radically different points of view, no fundamental disagreements, so it's easier to find consensus when we do not agree on something during game conception. It also helps to have the same kind of humour when you go for a satirical tone in the game! When we watch a movie, read a book, play a game, or anything that can be used as a source of inspiration, if it gives us an idea about a funny game mechanics or an original concept we can immediately discuss it and share our point of view. Personal agendas are taken into account in the development planning, we can totally decide a last-minute change based on a personal event which may not be possible in a standard development setup. --- Thank you for joining us in our second Q&A as we approach Rip Them Off's release on PC, Mac, and Linux this September 24th, right here on Steam. Please do give the game a wishlist using the button below, it's truly an enormous help in reaching new players: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295860/Rip_Them_Off/ Thank you, and as always, stay safe. Mat and Ava x Be sure to follow us on your favourite social media platforms to stay up-to-date on everything Rip Them Off as we approach the exciting launch on September 24th: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lozange_Lab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LozangeLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozange.lab/ Imgur: https://imgur.com/user/LozangeLab ...and please do join us on Discord so that we can chat directly: https://discord.gg/U4bv5WA

[ 2020-09-03 14:08:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey friends! Mat and Ava here from Lozange Lab. In just over a month we're launching our new puzzle / tower defense game Rip Them Off on Steam for Windows, Mac, and Linux users. We can't wait! But ahead of our September 24th launch, we need YOUR help. That's right, we're launching a beta test program that'll give you the chance to play Rip Them Off before anyone else, and become an integral part of our development process by providing us with essential feedback on your experience. Using your feedback, we'll be able to further balance the game, learn what you love, what you think could be improved, what might be missing from the experience, etc. Your feedback is essential for us to release the absolute best game possible, one that you'll want to play and recommend to your friends. Excitingly, we're giving selected beta testers the option to have their name credited in the game, as our way of saying thank you for providing us with your wonderful feedback. The selected players will also be invited to an exclusive Discord server where you'll be able to feedback to us directly (or fill out our feedback form if you'd prefer!). Of course, this means you'll also have the opportunity to ask us any questions that you may have about the game, our previous games like Swim Out, or game development in general. If you are interested in beta testing Rip Them Off, and providing detailed feedback that will help us to improve the game, please be sure to fill out the form linked below: RIP THEM OFF BETA TEST RECRUITMENT FORM : https://forms.gle/h77RtgKWe61HKxxy7 (NOTE: After submitting your response, Google will likely give you an error message, but we are receiving all of your responses! There's no need to submit twice - thank you) Your support is invaluable to indie developers like us here at Lozange Lab, and we would be incredibly grateful if you were to lend us a hand with the final, crucial stage of development of Rip Them Off. We can't wait to get you in the game and experiencing our satirical puzzle / tower defense / management game for yourselves! If you don't have time to sign up for our beta test, please do add Rip Them Off to your Wishlist below: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295860/Rip_Them_Off/ Thank you, and stay safe. Mat and Ava x Be sure to follow us on your favourite social media platforms to stay up-to-date on everything Rip Them Off as we approach the exciting launch on September 24th: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lozange_Lab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LozangeLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozange.lab/ Imgur: https://imgur.com/user/LozangeLab ...oh, and if you could please like this post just down below as well, that would be an amazing help!

[ 2020-08-18 14:01:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Thursday, friends, We are delighted to finally, and officially announce that Rip Them Off the gorgeously abstract tower defense / economic management puzzler featuring witty capitalism satire is coming to Mac and Linux users via Steam on September 24th! Yes, that means that on September 24th, we'll be landing on Windows, Mac, and Linux, because we leave no personal computer player behind. We're incredibly excited about our big launch day, and we can't wait for you to get your hands on Rip Them Off, but we've got plenty of work to do before then to make this our best game yet. If you just can't wait, then do remember to check out an in-depth deep dive into RTO with our painstakingly crafted gameplay preview featuring commentary from Lozange Lab's own Ava Loz (that's me, hi!). Check it out below: [previewyoutube=aRqsrU19QGI;full][/previewyoutube] If you have any questions about Rip Them Off, or suggestions on things you'd be interested in seeing in these Steam updates, let us know by commenting below, or hit us up on our social channels: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lozange_Lab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LozangeLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozange.lab/ Imgur: https://imgur.com/user/LozangeLab ...and remember, if you Wishlist Rip Them Off (you can just press that big 'Add to your Wishlist' button below right now if you'd like), it would mean the world to us and help us to spread the word about this game that we are so, so excited to be making. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295860/Rip_Them_Off/ Thank you, and stay safe, Ava and Mat x

[ 2020-08-13 14:02:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey there! We hope you've been keeping safe, well, and happy in a year that becomes more demanding and unusual with each and every passing day. While we can't do much to help, we hope that our new puzzle / tower defence game Rip Them Off will provide some fun, lighthearted relief to you and your friends. Speaking of lighthearted relief, what are your thoughts on that there CAPITALISM?! Of course, Rip Them Off features a healthy dose of satire on the subject, with the overbearing "Board" demanding that you rip off the keen shoppers (or "Dupes") as much as you possibly can. Now, we've had a few questions from the community in the last few days wondering where the idea for the capitalism satire theme in Rip Them Off came from so we thought we'd answer a few of them here today! *For full disclosure, this Q&A was answered by Ava and Mat of Lozange Lab only - there was categorically no input from any "Board" or "Board"-like entity that would call into question the validity of the following answers. *Ahem* Right then...

Did Rip Them Off always feature the capitalism satire angle?

We didn't start development by saying "hey, let's make a capitalist satire game". The starting point was these little Lemmings-like characters moving forwards on every street, then finally invading the whole city in a very chaotic way. Then came the idea of having them enter and leave different shops in their path, and after many different ideas and iteration, the satirical angle surfaced. We decided to accentuate this angle, and Rik, who worked on the texts, seemed to have a lot of fun writing the tongue-in-cheek sentences when we approached him with this idea.

What was the primary inspiration for the satirical theme?

As our prototype was evolving, we had to take a step back to the basic concept of a flow of people walking in the streets, and the idea of "people selling useless items for other people to happily buy them" naturally came about. We found that it was giving an interesting angle to the game, and brings a lot of funny elements to the game. We think it's quite fun to have business-oriented vocabulary in the game, with these notions of profits, expectations and milestones, all treated with a tongue-in-cheek tone of course!

Whose side should we be on, The Board or the Dupes?

We're going to let everyone have their own opinion on that once they play the game in September! ;) Rip Them Off raises a few questions, though. Do you really need to always win more money? Do you really need to defend these big corporations? Do you really need to buy all these items? Why do people follow a trend? We don't want to make the player think too much, or feel uneasy about it, it's all suggested with a humorous and light tone. Also, as its a game with a lot of trials and errors, we decided that losing should be treated in a light and funny manner too. Thats why, in addition to the miffed message from The Board when you dont meet the profit objectives, we added cute minimalist scenes saying "on the bright side The Dupes seems happy and free from their shopping obsessionfor now!". Don't tell The Board, but from the very start we were emotionally attached to the little characters, we were on their side and didnt want them to be seen as the waves of enemies in more traditional tower defense games.

If there was a message that you wanted to send with the satirical nature of Rip Them Off, what would it be?

Isn't having fun more important than having more and more money? Rip Them Off is not intended to have a strong ethical message, our goals with the capitalism satire elements is mostly just to make the player smile! We do love the contrasting, but always very serious messages from The Board when you win or lose in the game though. Losing money is catastrophic for them, but they couldn't care less about the Dupes. Perhaps we can encourage players to think about the way economics work, and hopefully by presenting this different perspective, make them feel empathy for the Dupes. -- So there you have it. Asked and answered and The Board still have no idea we were talking to you... In all seriousness, thank you for your interest in Rip Them Off, and if you haven't already, please do add the game to your Wishlist on this very page - just there on the top right! Wishlisting our game is so helpful to us, and will allow our hard work to be seen by so many more people, which in turn means we'll be able to keep making games that we know you'll fall in love with. Thank you, and stay safe. Ava and Mat x Be sure to follow us on your favourite social media platforms to stay up-to-date on everything Rip Them Off as we approach the exciting launch on September 24th: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lozange_Lab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LozangeLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozange.lab/ Imgur: https://imgur.com/user/LozangeLab

[ 2020-08-06 14:17:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey friends, Ava and Mat of Lozange Lab here. In case you missed it, last weekend we debuted 5 WHOLE MINUTES of never-before-seen Rip Them Off gameplay exclusively at Pocket Gamer's LaunchPad event. We are delighted by the reception, and so proud to show off our new puzzle game on such a large stage. Check out Pocket Gamer's awesome coverage here: https://www.pocketgamer.com/RipThemOff Following our gameplay reveal, we thought today would be a good day to give you a deep-dive on how playing Rip Them Off actually works, so you have a better idea of the Board's capitalist shenanigans youll be enacting on our September 24th launch day. Now, let's be clear, the following deep-dive is a text blow-out, so if you'd rather watch our aforementioned, lovingly crafted 5 MINUTE (!) commented gameplay video, here it is for you: [previewyoutube=aRqsrU19QGI;full][/previewyoutube] So, lets dive in, shall we?

What is Rip Them Off?

Rip Them Off is a satirical puzzle / tower defence / micro-management hybrid game. Your job is to place shops on busy city streets and make as much money from the shoppers as possible before The Board decides that your time is up.

How do I play Rip Them Off?

[olist]

Rip Them Off's levels take the form of different, beautifully stylised fictional cities. Each level has multiple day-based milestones which the player must hit before the next milestone unlocks. To complete each challenge, you must make enough money to fill 100% of the gauge in the corner of your screen before the final day of each challenge ends.

To make money in Rip Them Off, you must use your strategy and management skills to place multiple shops that the shoppers (or Dupes) won't be able to resist spending all their money in. Placing the right shops in the right places at the right moments is the key to your success.

There are 9 shops to choose from, each coming at a different cost and with different stats; how long shoppers stay shopping, how much they spend, and how many can shop at once. Youll need to keep an eye on how much money you have too, as that will directly impact your ability to buy new shops and open up new profit opportunities.

Every day, shoppers are released into the city streets, from different entry points and often heading in different directions. Your job is to place shops for them to spend their money in, and make enough money from them to reach the 100% target.

Shoppers will not enter the same shop twice, or enter a shop that is full when they arrive; they'll just walk right on by! Youll need to keep timing, placement, shop type, and your cash (or lack thereof) in mind if you want to maximise profits and appease the Board. Remember, once the shoppers leave the street, theyre gone for good, so make the most of them while theyre around!

At the end of each challenge's final day, the Board will arrive to judge your efforts, fail to reach 100% and you'll promptly be (pretty harshly) told to get back to work and try again. Beat the first milestone of each level however, and you'll unlock the next milestone of that level if you fancy a challenge, and the next city if you just feel like moving on and seeing more of our stylised world. [/olist] So, there you have it! You now know how to play Rip Them Off, courtesy of a detailed bullet-point list the Board would be proud of. We hope you enjoyed this extensive look at Rip Them Off. Before we go, we do need to emphasise that as an indie team of two, we need your Wishlists and your support in sharing Rip Them Off far and wide. So, if you like the look of our game, please do Wishlist it on this very page (!). You won't regret it, and you'll be making this husband-and-wife dev team very, very happy. Thank you, and stay safe out there! Ava and Mat.

[ 2020-07-30 14:51:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello there, We are Mat and Ava, the two grumpy developers behind "Rip them Off, that we just announced after many months of work. Were a small husband-and-wife team making this game with love and care. Several months of intensive economic simulation made us a bit wicked and there's still lots of work to do, so may you have any comments or questions... even answers... here is the place, we want them all! And don't forget to Rip them Offfff... Oh, you'll have to wait until the 24th of September to invoke your own inner schmuck so until then, don't forget to "Wishlist them all! You wont have to wait for news & updates, though. Well keep you posted here and on our socials, always eager for your feedback to help us shape this fun little challenge. Consider following the game on Steam to get the game's news in your feed! Stay safe, Lozange Lab Twitter Instagram Facebook [previewyoutube=ZOobeixykYs;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2020-07-09 16:06:48 CET ] [ Original post ]