6 Years of HoverGrease: The Development Journey

As the new year started and our launch date draws near, we find ourselves reflecting on the long and winding road that brought us here. It’s been six years since HoverGrease began as a spark of inspiration, a wild idea born from an image, and what a journey it has been! From humble beginnings, through heartbreak, to an incredible rebirth, this is the development story of HoverGrease 2 (so far).

2018: From a Quirky "Sexy Frog Lady" Concept to a Passion Project and Beyond

It all began in 2018, with a single render titled "Sexy Frog Lady".

HoverGrease didn’t start as a game, it started as a weekend fooling around, working on a new 3D character — an unconventional character design, inspired by cartoons and films from the 80s and 90s, such as Biker Mice, TMNT, Space Ghost, Planet of the Apes, Street Sharks, etc.

There was no game plan, no big vision. Just a desire to create something fun and visually distinct!

Looking back, that single image became the seed for everything that followed. It was the start of a concept for a world we couldn’t help but want to explore.

The Wonky Beginnings: Early Prototypes

The first prototype of HoverGrease was a top-down arena shooter that ran in a web browser. It was simple and scrappy. Players would pick up weapons, blast enemies, and try to survive as long as possible.

It wasn’t much, but it was the foundation. In a way, that first prototype was like a reimagination of Quake, mirroring those rocket launcher deathmatches, but in a top-down format.

Some of the code for the in-browser logic was used later on 2 of our special events builds: the Reindeer Squabble (Chirsmass Special version of HoverGrease where you play with reindeer shooting snowballs) and the Cyber Lounge web-space (that won an FWA Award).

It was around this time that Alexandra started working on the project too, leaving me more time to focus on the code.

Alexandra didn’t just bring talent, she brought vision. Kimmy got her iconic orange pants, and we added custom animations, which made everything feel alive for the first time.

She also came up with the name: "HOVER", inspired by a backstory of Dr. Hover, the scientist responsible for the first animal-human mutations, and "GREASE", the Global Regulatory Entity Against Species Entanglement.

The two words, and the sound of them together, felt like it perfectly captured the identity of our project: a mix of futuristing elements with a cheesy-glossy art direction — HoverGrease.

December 2018: The First Playthrough

Just before Christmas, on December 17th 2018, we released the first-ever open build of HoverGrease. It was rough around the edges, but full of potential, gathering thousands of downloads in a few days.

• Back then, it was a simple 5v5 top-down arena brawler.

• 5 mutants were available: Kimmy Frog, Johnny Cockhead, Foxy, Labrat Perry, and Piggy.

• Weapons weren’t tied to heroes — you picked them up from the ground.

• And there was just 1 map: Skyrise.

The industrial-cyberpunk aesthetic began to shine through. Red and blue neon, greasy metal — HoverGrease was starting to find its identity.

2019: Alpha 6 Brings Major Gameplay Changes

Alpha 6 (HoverGrease 0.6) marked a turning point in development. It introduced key gameplay mechanics that made HoverGrease stand out:

• Mutants were no longer just picking up weapons.

• Round-based system with credits to buy weapons, allowing players to "build" their mutants.

• Hero-specific arsenals — Kimmy became the rocket queen, Johnny the shield-tank, Foxy the sniper, Labrat the healer, and Piggy the melee specialist.

• The first iteration of the "new" Skyrise map, in the Spotlight Control game mode, which defined the art style and tone of the HoverGrease universe.

Summer 2020: The Bull-too-Stronk Beta

In the summer of 2020, we launched our most ambitious closed beta yet. It introduced two new mutants, among many other key elements:

• Sophie Bonfire, a fire-loving pyromaniac, with mid-range attacks.

• Madeye Bull, a melee-only powerhouse.

• Huge improvements on networking and bullet rollback logic.

• Expanded the online multiplayer to 4 maps.

Madeye Bull changed everything. His melee-only playstyle added a new layer of strategy to Spotlight Control, forcing teams to rethink their compositions. To this day, Madeye remains a 100% melee-only character in a game filled with flying bullets.

HoverGrease Beta ran in 3 cycles.

Special shoutout to ML7support and Kephrii for joining the beta and providing invaluable feedback!

2020/2021: The Quiet Farewell to HoverGrease (1)

Ugh… this is the hardest part to talk about.

In the peak of 2020 lockdown, during Gamescom, HoverGrease’s Kickstarter campaign was supposed to help us boost our morale a bit as we wrapped things up and launched as an online-only game.

When it failed, it wasn’t just disappointing — it was heartbreaking. We felt like we let down everyone who supported us, from our small but dedicated community to the friends who believed in us.

We’ll never know if it was just bad timing, but in the midst of the COVID pandemic, it felt like the world was against us. We tried to keep working on it, and for about 6 months post KS we introduced a handful of big updates.

HoverGrease (1) servers went offline on a very un-eventful day in the Summer of 2021. There were no big announcements, no farewell event, just silence. :(

We’re eternally grateful to everyone who played HG1. While we never had the analytics to accurately measure the player count, we know it was experienced by thousands. We hope it left a small but lasting memory for those who got to play it in its original form.

2022: A New Hope

After that Kickstarter failure, we tried to stop thinking about HoverGrease. For the next 18 months after, we worked on various work-for-hire projects, brainstorming new games and ideas. But no matter what we started, there was always that lingering "what if?" What if we gave HoverGrease one more chance?

By September 2022, we couldn’t ignore it anymore. The passion never truly went away, and the thought of reviving HoverGrease kept pulling us back.

With GDC 2023 on the horizon, we decided to dive back in. We were five months away — just enough time to pull the project back together. We rebuilt the network, polished the mutants, and created a roadmap for what could be a revamped version of the game.

At GDC, we showcased a development-presentation version of HoverGrease (1.0) to publishers. It wasn’t perfect, but it reignited the hope and energy we thought we’d lost.

2023-2024: HoverGrease 2 Is Born

Revisiting HoverGrease at the end of 2022 was like opening a time capsule. The mutants, the chaos, the neon-drenched world—it all still held the spark that had inspired us in the first place. There was a raw energy in HoverGrease 1, something we couldn’t let go. We realised we didn’t need to rebuild from scratch; we needed to honour what made it special and take it to the next level.

HoverGrease 2 is everything we dreamed the first game could be — and more. Built on the solid foundation of its predecessor, HG2 introduces:

1. Remodeled mutants with fresh designs.

2. Expanded multiplayer: More maps, more weapons, and 10 playable mutants.

3. A single-player story mode that allows every mutant’s playstyle to shine.

The single-player campaign is our proudest achievement. Every playthrough feels unique, letting you experience HoverGrease’s world through the eyes of your favourite mutant.

HoverGrease 2 Reveal Trailer - December 10, 2024

Since mid 2023, we have been joined by Serban who is working full time on HoverGrease 2 with us, bringing the total dev-team size to the whopping size of 3.

If you've read all the way to the end of this post, we appreciate you! And we hope you will enjoy playing HoverGrease 2 as much as we enjoyed making it!

Kind regards, Livu & Alexandra