Digital Continue
| Digital Continue | |
 | |
| Founded | 2016 |
| Current State | Active |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, U.S. 🇺🇸 |
| Type | Developer Self-Publisher |
| Worked On | 
|
| Website | Current Site |
Digital Continue is an American video game developer and self-publisher, known for producing just five games in their lifetime. Their most notable game, as well as their most recent, was Drawn to Life: Two Realms, the third and, to date, last canonical entry in the series. The company is made up of former 5th Cell developers, with co-founder Joseph M. Tringali and composer David J. Franco - both of whom had major involvement with previous games - being the most notable.
History[edit]
Before Digital Continue[edit]
5th Cell faced significant development issues during the mid-2010s, mainly as a result of game cancellations. One of these was Anchors in the Drift, a mobile RPG that failed it's fundraising goal and had to be reworked twice before releasing as a PC game titled Castlehold. The other was Scribblenauts: Fighting Words, a mobile RPG spin-off that was unceremoniously cancelled in 2016 by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment after two years of development following a shift in Warner Bros. management. These cancellations took a toll on 5th Cell, leading to 45 employees being laid off. Joseph M. Tringali, a co-founder of the studio, decided to follow suit that same year, forming Digital Continue with fellow development veterans and ex-5th Cell employees Bobby Pavlock and Nitin Venugopal, with David J. Franco also leaving to join as their composer. Joe had originally pitched a concept for a third Drawn to Life entry while still at 5th Cell, only for it to be rejected in 2015. Nothing is known about what this concept could have been like or why it was rejected, as no other information has been revealed.
Development of Lock's Quest & Second Rejected Drawn to Life Pitch[edit]
Digital Continue's first game was a remaster of Lock's Quest, 5th Cell's second Nintendo DS game, which would see release in 2017. Production on this remaster had not been smooth; a few reasons had been cited by Tringali, notably the short development time given by THQ Nordic and being the first game in a new studio. This resulted in the remaster being released in an unfinished, buggy state, with Tringali expressing disappointment over how it turned out. HandyGames, a subsidiary of THQ Nordic, would release a mobile port of that same remaster in 2019. This version would receive updates for the next few years, and is considered by many to be better refined and more polished than the flagship release.
During that same year, a second Drawn to Life pitch was made to 505 Games. A concept screenshot was shared by Tringali, depicting a more realistic Mike and two characters only known by their names, Alana and Nolan. This pitch reportedly depicted a different interpretation of the series, and would be the inspiration behind SuperMash.[1] This pitch would also be rejected, leading to Tringali thinking up another pitch during development of the studio's other games.
Development and Reception of Their Other Games[edit]
The next two Digital Continue titles released in 2018. The first of these, which took roughly 17 months to develop including time spent in Early Access on Steam, was Next Up Hero, an online roguelike action game published by Aspyr where the player can respawn "Echoes" of any fallen player to fight by their side as an NPC companion and have their audience participate on Twitch and Mixer streams. Next Up Hero was negatively received, citing the imprecise controls, unfair difficulty, the storyline and dialogue vignettes not lending themselves to the gameplay and online-only elements. Prior to the game's release, a two-issue comic series titled Spoken World would come out, written by Tringali and lettered by Justine Raymond. This comic detailed the backstory of the game's protagonists and the world they explore within the game, which has any creation influenced by song. The trademark for both the game and the Spoken World comic would be declared "Abandoned" by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office[2][3] - despite this, Next Up Hero's servers remain active as of November 2025.
JumpStream was the second Digital Continue game released in 2018, developed in only four months. This was a competitive platformer that utilized streaming interactivity, allowing for the audience to co-operate or mess up the player's progress within a level. Unlike Next Up Hero, which had Twitch integration, this was solely utilized with Mixer. According to archives within the Wayback Machine, no playthroughs of JumpStream were featured on Mixer, and the game was nowhere to be found on the site. The game had very little critical reception, with the Steam score of 65% Positive Reviews coming from just 20 players. With Mixer itself closing it's doors in June 2020, the game's interactive elements were discontinued, rendering it unplayable. The game is still available for download on Steam, however, and is able to load menus and let players explore the level select area, but very little of it can actually be completed.
After two and-a-half years of development, the genre-blending title SuperMash released in 2019 on the Epic Games Store, with console releases coming in January 2020 and a Steam version coming the following year. Although the rejected Drawn to Life pitch would inspire SuperMash, the idea of a game that can make games came to light back in 2016, and was developed in three phases.[4] The game's format allowed for six genres to be blended together - Platformer, JRPG, Stealth, Metroidvania (titled "Metrovania" in-game), Shoot-Em-Up and Action-Adventure - resulting in every Mash being different from the last.
Although critics were initially impressed by the concept prior to release, the game released to middling-to-negative reviews. Reasons cited include imprecise controls, technical issues, an underdeveloped story, some of the Mashes being considered either too bland or too random, and a generally lackluster execution. Digital Continue promised more genres would arrive as DLC, however no new genres were added following the game's release; two genres can be found within the game files - Rhythm and Beat-Em-Up (titled "Brawler" internally) - suggesting that Digital Continue did in fact have further plans for the game at one point.
Development on Drawn to Life: Two Realms[edit]
The game's development was a lengthy one, and Tringali was prepared for anything it took to get it greenlit. According to Tringali in an interview with Nintendo Everything:
–Joseph M. Tringali
Tringali stated the game's development lasted 18 months, and the launch build of the game was confirmed to be from November 6th, 2020, meaning the game's production possibly started in May 2019. Throughout that time, Digital Continue wanted as many past developers back as possible for Two Realms; as well as 5th Cell developers who migrated to the team when it opened - such as David J. Franco, who reprised his role as the composer once more for Two Realms - the team also brought in sprite artist Chern Fai and character artist Edison Yan back for this game. Tringali also wrote the story himself, taking inspiration from the previous installments while also attempting to bring a new direction for the series going forward.
The game's development suffered from a range of development issues, including crunch, assets being replaced, a large number of unused content, controller issues leading to the game's introduction of Stickers and ideas being changed constantly throughout development. While not confirmed, the COVID-19 pandemic is also believed to be a contributing factor to the faulty development. The game was classified by a vast range of regional ratings boards, with the public discovering the game via the rating from Taiwan's Game Software Rating Regulations being leaked on October 22nd.[5] This was followed by a trailer being uploaded by accident by the 505 Games French YouTube channel on November 3rd, leading to it being unlisted and removed; the game would later be revealed three days later.
Drawn to Life: Two Realms would release on December 7th, 2020 to middling-to-negative reviews, particularly for the Nintendo Switch release, which lacked touch-based drawing despite the system having a touch screen. Other reasons across all platforms cited the inconsistent art direction, the storyline and gameplay not being properly refined, plot holes and contradictions from the previous games, the absence of user-drawn assets like in previous titles and a large number of bugs and glitches. Digital Continue acted quickly, releasing patches that attempted to fix these issues, though a number of them remain. These patches would release via DLC in two waves titled the Creative Pack, each bringing new levels, Hero templates and Stickers.
Aftermath of Two Realms[edit]
In November 2020, Tringali joined the Drawn to Life: For All Discord server to interact with the community and share details about the series. This included revealing cut content from previous games, as well as information on Two Realms. Many of the game's issues would be addressed by him on there as well; he would go on to explain why some content was cut and promising certain features missing from the game would be added via the Creative Pack. He wouldn't be on the server for long, however; he would only remain active for one month following the game's release.
Tringali has expressed interest in Nintendo Switch remakes of the two games he helped develop at 5th Cell, along with an expansive sequel to Two Realms. These projects were dependent on the critical and commercial reception of the game, so their development remains uncertain. 505 Games would end up removing Two Realms' page from their website, and the game would be wiped from their list of games entirely in December 2024 with no explanation.
Following SuperMash's Steam release in 2021, the company has not made any new releases and remains dormant, with a sole update for Lock's Quest's Google Play port releasing since. Tringali and Venugopal are confirmed to remain at Digital Continue, though Pavlock had left the studio to join Epic Games as a product designer.
All Games[edit]
- Lock's Quest (Remastered) (2017)
- Next Up Hero (2018)
- Spoken World (2018)
- Issue #1: Wenly*
- Issue #2: Ovalia*
- Spoken World (2018)
- JumpStream (2018)**
- SuperMash (2019)***
- Drawn to Life: Two Realms (2020)
*The comics had no subtitle between them, so they are going by the protagonist of each issue for simplicity.
**The game has since been rendered unplayable following Mixer's closure, but is still accessible and available for download.
***This game was released on the Epic Games store in 2019, but was released on Steam in 2021.
Trivia[edit]
- According to the Wayback Machine, Two Realms was missing from their website's list of games as late as mid-2023, before the site's most recent update.
- No official reason has been given for this.
- The company's website has the PlayStation 5 logo in their "About" section, despite none of their games releasing on the platform.
Media[edit]
The front page of their website.
The website's "Games" page showing off Next Up Hero, SuperMash and Drawn to Life: Two Realms.
The website's "About" page, with portraits of Bobby Pavlock, Nitin Venugopal, Joseph Tringali and David J. Franco.
References[edit]
| Nintendo DS | 5th Cell • THQ • Agatsuma Entertainment |
|---|---|
| iOS | 505 Games • WayForward |
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| Altron • Nickelodeon • THQ | |
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| Planet Moon Studios • THQ | |
| 5th Cell • THQ | |
| Most Regions | 505 Games • Digital Continue |
| South Korean Release | H2 Interactive |
Directory: Drawn to Life: Two Realms → Digital Continue | |
