The real-time tactics game Desperados 3 released earlier this year, serving as a prequel to 2001's Desperados: Dead or Alive. The game was largely successful, being counted as one of the highest-rated games of 2020 in June, and a number of DLC expansions have released since. That success has afforded development studio Mimimi Games the opportunity to move onto a new project, which it announced today is tentatively called Codename Sußkartoffel - German for "sweet potato."
This upcoming project will be self-published by the developer, which said it will be the team's third real-time tactics game after 2016's Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and Desperados 3. In today's announcement post, Mimimi Games Communications Lead Matthias Kraut said the current codename is an evolution of Desperados 3 being called Kartoffel, German for "potato," during development.
No details are provided about what the game will look like, as "it's going to take a few years" for the currently 30-member team, which also advertises open job positions with the intent to expand closer to 40 in 2021. Mimimi Games intends to take the self-publishing route so it can own 100 percent of its end product, with previous titles published by Daedalic Entertainment and THQ Nordic, but it is receiving the bulk of its funding via a grant from the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI).
Having government funding for cultural products like Codename Sußkartoffel coming out of smaller developers is not entirely uncommon, with titles such as two-person indie developer Behemutt's Mana Spark receiving funding from Spcine - an extension of Sao Paulo, Brazil's Department of Culture. The German government has been pushing for representation in the video game industry as of late, seen by Germany introducing a dedicated esports visa last December.
World governments have also become more interested in the video game industry for the purposes of regulation, especially with the expansion of loot boxes and other potentially unhealthy practices which may circumvent gambling restrictions. In September, the UK government began crowdsourcing research on loot boxes, looking to gather feedback from both players and researchers covering the industry at large.
That being said, Mimimi Games is appreciative of the opportunities afforded by German government funding in its post, and says it is one of the first studios to receive anything as part of an official games industry grant program. It makes sense for funding to be put toward an established developer, as Mimimi Games has seen success with Desperados 3 and its DLC, but the studio also says this is "great news...for all other German developers that have been granted funding."
Codename Sußkartoffel is currently in development.
Source: Mimimi Games, BMVI, Behemutt, Sao Paulo Department of Culture