riprip: Artful Engines and Witty Episodic Content

Restrictions breed creativity. In the case of riprip, a four person indie studio from Kassel in Hesse, that is doubly true. Not only are their game and engine made for and with a specific kind of smallness in mind; more on that later. But riprip itself in its current state is a product of the restrictions of the current German gaming market. “After founding our studio in 2023, our original goal was to create a classic, large-scale indie game. We even had prototypes and fairly detailed pitch decks ready to go. But as we progressed, it became increasingly clear that hoping to be among the lucky few who manage to fund a team of four with a painstakingly crafted indie title was little more than cruel optimism. More and more German studios were shutting down”, says Robin Vehrs, co-founder of the studio. The regular modular just wasn’t viable, so riprip had to improvise, and they improvised their way to success. The team is an effort of Vehrs, Hannes Drescher, Chris Schnerr and N.B. Spiders, who met studying at art school. When the current desolation of the funding sphere became apparent, riprip took a new approach. “We pivoted to a new publishing model: short narrative games designed to be played directly in a mobile browser—each one (in theory) taking no more than a week to produce: Doggoworld.”

In episodic format, a little dog tries to get rid of his huge pile of debt in small worlds full of humour and silliness. Doggoworld was entirely made in wareware (riprip)

Doggoworld is just that, intentionally modelled after the release schedule and consumption method of webcomics. “Each installment is intentionally brief—designed to be played in the time it takes to wait for a bus—without resorting to the manipulative dark patterns common in many free-to-play games,” explains Vehrs. The graphic style is both intentionally retro, reminiscent of MS Paint and Flash games but in 3D, and also a nod to riprip’s engine history and indie game obsessions. Originally intended to be made in the small engine Bitsy, riprip did not like to work with its limitations, and set out to make their own game engine. “Something less complex and more playful than Godot, but also more feature-rich and extensible than Bitsy. The 3D aspect just came into it because Spiders and Hannes both played too much magicwand (a blocky exploration game made by indie avantgarde artist thecatamites, editor’s note).” Product of this effort is wareware, the engine doggoworld has been made in, and itself a project that riprip is giving back to the dev community. “Having been part of the Bitsy community, we also felt that a lot of people would be into this.” The engine, specifically made to easily produce small 3D games, has its own release page on Steam now, and riprip offers it free of charge to everyone, with the intent of having making games be as easy as possible, almost like a toy. “Our intention was actually to evoke a ‘toy-like’ feel—something approachable and playful. Still, all four of us move fluidly between applied and contemporary fine arts, which probably lends our visual identity a certain depth—or abyss—that others might not have (though it’s admittedly harder to market)”, Vehrs laughs. Marketability was not the main aspect of the game or engine after all, since all four founders are deeply rooted in the arts. “It’s important to each of us to keep exploring other creative paths beyond riprip: Spiders curates a sound festival, Robin draws comics, Chris is writing a novel, and Hannes paints.”

„As we progressed, it became increasingly clear that hoping to be among the lucky few who manage to fund a team of four with a painstakingly crafted indie title was little more than cruel optimism.“ Robin Vehrs

The game was also showcased at A Maze. Festival in Berlin this year as well. And art sphere or not, doggoworld lends itself to mainstream appeal quite good with its short episodic format, mobile approach and spitting humour. And the simple-use openness of wareware might not flush money into riprip’s coffers, but could end up making it a go-to entry engine for new game devs. Financially, riprip is leaning more onto funding programs at the moment, including three Hesse funding programs (the Ideen Stipendium, Hessen Serious Game and one from Film- & Medienförderung) as well as the EXIST founders stipendiate.
For the future, riprip is looking to get back to more episodic content for doggoworld, as well as a monthly update cycle for wareware, which is planned to come out early 2026.