ROW
ROW is a narrative RPG about responding to a natural disaster that affects both you and your enemies, made for everyone to play. We submitted ROW to the IndieCade Climate Jam, where we won the grand jury award! This version of the game was made in collaboration with students from USC's School of Cinematic Arts, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, University of Waterloo, and University of Toronto. You can play this version of the game on itch.io with a desktop computer.
Winning the climate jam earned us a spot to showcase the game at IndieCade 2022 in the fall—the “video game industry’s Sundance.” In preparation for this opportunity, we’re currently working on a new version of ROW that is a much fuller realization of our vision for the game—which we can’t wait for you to play!
About Us
We’re named Beagle Studios after the HMS Beagle, the ship that brought Charles Darwin on the voyage that inspired his theories of evolution. We decided to name ourselves after the ship because the making of a game is a journey—plus, our game is about rowing.
The name also evolved out of the fact that one of us owns a dog named Darwin, after Charles Darwin. As well, a couple of us know a friend named Darwyn. His story challenges the ideas of survival of the fittest that are so ingrained in the way we think and relate to each other—a theme that we explore in our game.
We thought the name “beagle” was a good way to bring together these layers of meanings.