Novak Studios

A little sneak peek of The Energy Case trailer! Oop, something went wrong-- 🐜
#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec #skyrim

A 3D model of a robot ant wearing a trenchcoat and a fedora. He’s shown from the waist-up, hand raised and looking down at it.

Be careful who you call ugly in high school 😤
A first look at Dec, now in 3D!
#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec

Image of a board game and its box lying on a table. The board game’s name is displayed with the text “Sei Leiferser”. Text on the image says “The Development of Sei Leiferser!“.

Our previous game for a client is out! Learn about how we made it and more on our website. There you can join us on many more topics!
www.novakstudios.nl/post/the-dev...
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#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #blogpost

Two 3D models of robot ants stand in front of a doorframe. Each one points a gun towards the camera. One is crouched slightly lower than the other.

Open up! The Energy Case trailer is on its way!
#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec

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We'll miss them all so much😔
Until we see them again in September :P
#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec

An ant in a trench coat and fedora, drawn like a character from Hollow Knight

Have you guys seen Dec? He left our Steam page and walked off to another bug-based game and came back looking like this :0
#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec #hollowknight #silksong

Making games and videos is a lot of fun, but not without mistakes. Enjoy the best bloopers from our archive!
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#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec #bloopers

Two people stand on either side of a tall table with a black table cloth. On the table are two laptops, each displaying different videos, while behind the two is a black board with pictures and posters plastered on it.

About time that events started happening in the Northern Netherlands! Last Friday we attended LevelUp, the first game dev industry networking event in the north. Needless to say, we hope it’s back next year!
levelupgroningen.framer.website

#indiedev #gamedev #gameevent #indiegames #appliedgames

Happy Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈
Dec is indeed bisexual!

Audio: Sonic Riders | Real-Time Fandub Games by SnapCube on YouTube

#pridemonth #indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec

Working on this game has been a pleasure for us and a huge learning opportunity!

A board for a game.

A photo of a newspaper page written in Italian in the newspaper called Laives.

It’s now out! Last year, we collaborated with Logos Dolomiti to develop Sei Leiferser!, a board game that focuses on fostering awareness towards and teaching children about local stores in the town of Laives in South Tyrol, Italy.
#gamedesign #boardgamedesign #appliedgames #seileferser #southtyrol

Working on this game has been a pleasure for us and a huge learning opportunity!

Tech team: Hey, here's some funny errors and tests you can make a video out of.
The marketing lead:

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec #bloopers

Dec, a robot ant wearing a trenchcoat and a fedora, floats in the air with his eyes closed, head tilted back, and arms raised slightly. He appears to be floating towards a cloud that casts a spotlight on him.

Can you believe it? It's Ascension Day today! Perfect time to bring up this old drawing of Dec, now edited to feature his redesign!
#ascensionday #indiedec #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec

Sometimes all you need is a drink at the bar, you know?
#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec

An image depicting an brown-ish background with a shadowed figure of a robotic ant with a fedora standing on the right side, face in profile. Behind him is a yellow circle, like the light from a projector. The ant emmits smoke, which drifts to the left and makes the image darker. On the left side, on top of the smoke, is a logo. The logo depicts a yellow case folder with grey smoke behind it. Inside the folder is the text “The Energy Case“.

This image depicts the meme with two panels. In the first one, someone holds up two pictures, edited to show one of them as the previous image on this post, and the second one as a meme visual depiction of the character Edwin from Five Nights at Freddy’s. The caption underneath says “Corporate needs you to find the differences between this picture and this picture.“ The second image continues the meme normally, with a woman looking into the camera and saying “They’re the same picture“.

Psst! Soon we’ll have our Steam page up, so here’s a sneak peek of some of our new capsule art!
#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec

Meet Herman Abano! He's the supervisor for Hemiaqua, a shipping company that doesn't particularly care about green energy, and is suspected to be involved with the Energy Case
#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec

Haha! Thankfully we managed to escort her out with no casualties 🐝

Comment: Sidenote: ignore the blurryness, I was nervous approaching her 😖

A blurry image of a wasp/hornet walking around on a grey carpet.

A blurry image of a wasp/hornet walking around on a grey carpet. A few chair legs are also seen.

Excuse me, ma’am, we are not currently holding auditions 😒
#indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec

He doesn't really comprehend the idea of food. Why eat a sticky grain disc when there's perfectly good oil? ⛽⛽⛽

Having witnessed her friend’s murder, Phila comes to Dec for help. We talked about her on our TikTok and Instagram accounts!
www.tiktok.com/@novak.studi...

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec

A picture of a wall, zoomed in on a piece of paper stuck to it with tape. The paper shows a picture of an ant with a fedora edited on its head. The ant originally had a hand holding a gun towards the viewer edited in front of it, but now there’s a piece of yellow paper with a hand holding a bouquet instead. Next to the paper there’s a yellow sticky note. In blue pen it says “NO PICTURES OF GUNS IN THE OFFICE“ followed by an angry face. Underneath, in black pencil, it’s written “fixed!“ with a smiley face and an arrow pointing to the paper.

Just another day in the office.
#gamedevelopment #gamedev #tec #theenergycase

A GIF of Dec, a robot ant, sitting in a swivel chair with his legs resting atop a desk. He appears to be sleeping, with his hat covering his eyes, his hands folded atop his abdomen, and a cable coming out of him plugged in the wall behind. One of his secondary limbs occasionally twitches.

No updates on development! The Detective is napping.
#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec

All members of our team have now signed ✍️

Everything on the Internet is always at high risk of getting lost and forgotten. We must protect our archives to not lose our history!

A compilation of different images, all closeups of robot bugs, showing off how they use their secondary set of limbs. At the top the caption reads “The Many Functionalities of Secondary Limbs!“ The first image is a closeup of an ant’s back. She’s holding green papers under her secondary limb. A line points at it with the caption “carrying flyers“. The second image is a closeup of two ants, facing each other. One holds up a wooden sign with his limb, and the other is holding spools in hers. Lines point to both of them, reading “keeping a sign upright“ and “holding spools“. The third image is of a group of bugs. An ant stands tall with his head cut out of the image, and a ladybug is crouching beside him, passing a can of oil to someone else. The ant uses one of his limb to gesture for the ladybug to hide, and the ladybug uses one of his limbs to balance while crouching. Lines point to their limbs, reading “gesturing/pushing“ and “keeping balance“. The forth image is a closeup of a barman ant cleaning a glass in his hands. His secondary limb holds up what looks like an alcohol bottle. A line points to it, reading “holding bottle“. The fifth image is a closeup of two ants, each on opposites sides of a bar. The barman’s head is cut out of the image as he leans on the bar, pouring a drink while holding the bottle with his secondary limb. The other ant is reading the newspaper, holding it with both his secondary limbs. Lines point to their limbs, reading “pouring drink“ and “holding newspaper“.

“My favourite thing in recent concept art has been exploring the bugs’ secondary set of limbs and what they can be used for. I imagine their society is very good at multi-tasking” - Kris, our Visual Lead

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #conceptart #characterdesign #theenergycase #tec

Happy Earth Day, everyone! Lots of thanks to all the members of the Novak team who participated in this video! And for you moths, check out the renewable energy petition on earthday.org/our-power-our-... TikTok video by Novak Studios

Yesterday was Earth Day! A tradition started in 1970, 47 years after The Energy Case takes place. For the occasion, we made a video about renewable energy and other fun stuff!
#earthday #earthactionday #indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec

A picture of Dec, the robotic ant detective, sitting on the ground and looking annoyed with one chicken sitting on his head, and another, joined by a rabbit, sitting in his lap.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Remember, when handling animals, do not perform strenuous activities, as your engine smoke is not good for organic life and might stress them out!

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec #easter

Concept art of a robotic ant showing a 3/4s angle and a side view. Large puffs of smoke come out of the robot's back.

Concept art of robot insects, each showing a side and a 3/4s angle. The bugs are an ant, a bee and a wasp.

Concept art of a robot ant. Shown are two variations of the beak, two variations of limbs, and two variations of arms, as well as the back of the ant. The bottom part of the picture shows three characters, two ants and one bee, each wearing outfits with pictures of ant and bee species and other pictures that inspired them around them.

Comparing a project's concept art throughout the years can really show us where we've grown as designers. Working on The Energy Case has taught us so much!
The first image was made in 2023, the second in 2024, and the third in 2025

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec

Concept art of Messo, a red robot ant, wearing a green vest. He's cleaning a glass with a towel in his hands, while a secondary pair of hands hold up a brown glass bottle, similar to a whiskey bottle.

Concept art of Dec and Messo, two robot ants, sit at the bar. Dec reads the newspaper, held between his secondary arms, as one of his upper hands holds a pencil, and the other is cupped around his glass on the bar. Messo stands over him on the other side of the bar. He looks at a piece of paper in his hand as one of his secondary arms pours a drink inside Dec's glass. The two are in darkness, only a warm light shining above their heads.

Concept art of Messo, a brown ant, wearing bright lime green clothing. He sits on the ground, holding onto a counter. His shirt is open, revealing some sort of wound, making him "bleed" oil on the ground.

Did you know Dec has friends? Meet Messo Barber, a bartender in Deeprun, the city of TEC! Here’s some concept art from our most recent video and the oldest art of Messo we could find.
vm.tiktok.com/ZNdNGJGC9/

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegames #appliedgames #theenergycase #tec