Dodge Roll is the developer behind Fork Parkers Holiday Profit Hike and Enter the Gungeon. They are also the developers of Exit the Gungeon in conjunction with Singlecore Games, and worked with Griffin Aerotech to release Enter the Gungeon: House of the Gundead.
Members
Dodge Roll is a small team comprised of four core members, as well as two close associates who are frequently described as 'unofficial' members for their contributions to the studio.[1]
Dave Crooks, Brent Sodman, David Rubel, and Joe Harty met while working for triple-A game development studio Mythic Entertainment, forming a team under the name The Brave Companions.[2] Under this name, they would develop a small indie game called Spin Cycle[2] for the Indie Speedrun Game Jam in 2012[3] while still employed at Mythic.
Following the shuttering of Mythic by Electronic Arts in May 2014, the four struck out on their own as an independent development team, taking on the name Dodge Roll.
Aliases:
DodgeRollDave, DecoyOctorok
Dave Crooks is the lead designer at Dodge Roll Games. As designer, he is responsible for the majority of major game-play decisions and mechanics. He has also created key art for the Advanced Gungeons & Draguns Update.
Notes
- Daves favourite gun is the
Unicorn Horn.[5][6]
- Dave is a self proclaimed lover of mimics, and is likely the driving force behind the number of mimic enemies in Enter the Gungeon.[7][8][9]
- Dave has stated that Metal Gear Solid is largely responsible for him becoming a game developer.[10][11][12]
- In June of 2012 Dave Crooks developed his first game- a small unreleased sidescrolling runner.[13] For this game, he developed his own 'speculative collision' system in order to create object collisions that felt more like they were taking place in two dimensions.[14]
- This 'speculative collision' system may be the ancestor of Enter the Gungeons bespoke
SpeculativeRigidBody based collision system.
- Dave Crooks and Joe Harty have been friends since high-school.[15]
Gallery
Key art for the
AG&D Update, illustrated by Crooks.
Aliases:
DodgeRollBrent, Haruspexile
Brent Sodman is one of the two leading programmers at Dodge Roll Games, along with David Rubel. He is responsible for Enter the Gungeons lighting, shaders, rendering, dungeon generation, and procedural generated decoration.[15][17] He is also the creator of the goop system.[18]
Notes
- In September of 2016, Brent listed the
Alien Engine as his favourite gun in Enter the Gungeon, and 
Shotgrub as his least favourite.[19] However by the time of the release of A Farewell To Arms in 2019, his favourite gun had changed to the 
Wood Beam.[6]
- In Brent's opinion, the easiest first floor boss in Enter the Gungeon is the Bullet King.[20]
- Brent's profile picture on Twitter is the Steam Trading Card art for the Red Shotgun Kin.
- Brent has named Cave Story as the game that convinced him that he could pursue game development.[21]
- Brent is supposedly 'Terrified of guns'.[22]
- According to Brent, another of his accolades was supposedly being #2 on the leaderboards for the game Super Hexagon at an unspecified point in time.[23]
- Before working at Mythic, Brent worked creating effects on Hollywood superhero films.[15] While the exact films are unknown, Brent has stated; "if you saw any superhero movies that came out in 2011 and 2012, you probably saw some of my work!"[24]
- According to Brent's own account, he had no formal education in programming until university, spending his time at high school teaching himself how to program games on a TI-83 calculator through trial and error.[24]
Aliases:
Rubel, DodgeRollRubel
David Rubel (usually referred to by his surname only) is one of the two leading programmers at Dodge Roll Games, along with Brent Sodman. He is responsible for Enter the Gungeons enemy behaviours, bullet patterns, physics, controls, and pixel-perfect collision system.[15][17]
Notes
- Rubels favourite gun is the
Fossilized Gun.[6]
- The test language Rubelish (used to test Enter the Gungeons localisation settings) is named after David Rubel, and changes all text in the game to "RUBEL".
- Rubel briefly worked at Google, then Lockheed Martin, before being convinced by Dave Crooks to work at Mythic.[15]
- Between his work at Lockheed Martin and Mythic, Rubel briefly attempted to create an automated foreign exchange trading algorithm as a personal project, inspired by a machine learning class he had taken in university.[25]
Aliases:
DodgeRollJoe, pokemandias
Joe Harty is the lead artist at Dodge Roll Games. He is personally responsible for drawing almost all of the hundreds of thousands of sprites used in Enter the Gungeon, as well as defining the games art direction. He designed the Bullet Kin.[15]
Notes
- Dave Crooks has implied that Joe is responsible for the design of the
Magic Lamp, as well as a number of the funnier or wackier gun designs in Enter the Gungeon.[26] The Magic Lamp is also Joes favourite gun.[6]
- According to Joe, one of the first pieces of pixelart he ever created was a severed unicorn head.[27]
- Before working on Enter the Gungeon, Joe was a freelance illustrator.[15]
- Joe Harty and Dave Crooks have been friends since high-school.[15]
Aliases:
Erica H, arikabesu
Erica Hampson is the sound designer at Dodge Roll Games, responsible for most of the sound effects of guns, enemies, and environments. She is also responsible for some small musical compositions, such as Unicorn Power! and Shots Fired!.
Notes
- Erica is credited for voice acting work on Enter the Gungeon and Exit the Gungeon.
- Erica is also an ex-employee of Mythic Entertainment.
Adam Drucker, better known by his stage name Doseone, is an American rapper and composer of the Enter the Gungeon and Exit the Gungeon soundtracks. While not technically an employee of Dodge Roll, Doseone is considered part of the 'family' by other members at Dodge Roll, and is a considerable contributor.
Notes
Other Contributors
These contributors may not necessarily be part of Dodge Roll Games, but have made significant contributions to the development or promotion of one or more Gungeonverse games.
Miroslav Marinov, better known as Miroko is an artist with Devolver Digital owned development studio Doinksoft. They contributed significantly to Exit the Gungeon, creating among other things the new Gungeoneer portraits, and a series of as-of-yet unimplemented Steam trading cards.
Role(s):
Freelance Promotional Artist
Max Grecke is a freelance digital artist who has been repeatedly hired by Dodge Roll Games to produce key artwork for Enter the Gungeon and Exit the Gungeon, as well as for updates to these games. Max Grecke is also responsible for the artwork used to decorate the Enter the Gungeon: House of the Gundead arcade cabinet.
Work
"I'm one of the first Gungeonmasters and I approve this tweet." - Lekonish[29]
Lekonish is one of the earliest beta and alpha testers of Enter the Gungeon. After discovering the game at PlayStation Experience 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Lekonish was brought onboard as a game tester after being the first person to beat the game's demo.[30]
Notes
- According to Lekonish, the
Barrel was instrumental to their victory at PSX in 2014, meaning that the gun may be partially responsible for Lekonish's role as a tester.[31]
Role(s):
Promotional Artist
John Cipriani is a digital artist who has worked with Dodge Roll on numerous occasions to create promotional and key art for Enter the Gungeon. He is the illustrator responsible for Enter the Gungeons Steam Trading Cards.
Work
- For Cipriani's work on ETGs Steam Trading Cards, see; Steam Inventory Items
Key art used to promote Enter the Gungeon
A design of a
Gunreaper, used in a glow in the dark t-shirt.
Notes
- Early twitter posts from Dodge Roll describe some of Ciprianis work as 'fan art', suggesting that Cipriani was either hired after impressing the development team with fan work, or made fan work for Enter the Gungeon outside the scope of his official contributions.[32]
- Cipriani describes his work with Enter the Gungeon on LinkedIn as "Providing art direction and collaborating with external team in creating various art needs for multiple projects. Creating marketing materials and various art needs for Enter the Gungeon"[34]
Maximo V. Lorenzo is a Venezuelan-born American comic book artist who has worked with Dodge Roll to produce key art for Enter the Gungeon early on in the games development and promotion.
Work
Minor Contributors
Games
Notes
- While Dodge Roll have considered expanding their core team of four developers, the time investment required to bring new people up to speed on Enter the Gungeons code base made that prohibitively inconvenient during Enter the Gungeons active development.[38]
Gallery
Dodge Roll, under the name
The Brave Companions, doing whiteboard geometry calculations for
Spin Cycle in January of 2013
[39]
Dave Crooks and Brent Sodman riding a tank at PAX West 2016
[42]
Dodge Roll business card circa 2017
[43]
Doseone performing the song
Enter the Gungeon live in 2016
[44]
Dodge Roll taking a group photo with a
Cultist cosplayer at PAX East 2019
[45]
See Also
References
- ↑ "Awesome music by @doseonetweets and our ridiculous variety of sounds by @arikabesu!" - David Rubel in a Twitter Post, responding to "6? You, Dave, Brent, Joe and who else?"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Companions working on polished super version of our @indiespeedrun game #spincycle" - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "@IndieSpeedRun turned in game yesterday! our first gamejam :) was a blast." - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ https://x.com/dave_crooks/status/633328212362268672
- ↑ "There are 190 guns in the game. My favorite is the Unicorn Horn." - Dave Crooks in Q&A: The guns and dungeons of Enter the Gungeon (Game Developer) (19/04/2016)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Hypertext - Exit the Gungeon: A post Farewell to Arms interview with Dodge Roll (19/04/2019)
- ↑ "Just quadrupled the health of mimics in Gungeon because I am rooting for the mimic." - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "I won't stop until everything in gungeon is a fuckin' mimic. Tables, the shopkeep, no where will be safe." - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "There's a mimic hat in dark souls 3... I don't know how to get it and my life is incomplete until I do" - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "@GameOverGreggy MGS is why i now make games, so this is the review for me." - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "@GameOverGreggy first game that made me realize I had to make games. Which is why there are MGS refs all over Gungeon" - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN I just found out I got tickets to your talk on saturday! I can't wait, MGS is why I got into the games industry!" - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "@MarkedOne Its a runner- My first game so trying to keep it simple :) Have you made anything before Mjolnir?" - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "@MarkedOne I like unity but a big struggle was getting the collision to feel 2d- ended up writing my own tile based speculative collision" - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 Gameranx - Enter the Gungeon Interview With Dodge Roll’s Dave Crooks: The Past, Present and Future (15/04/2016)
- ↑ https://x.com/DodgeRollBrent/status/818566682620862465
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Rubel and I are the two programmers, actually! We have two others: Dave, a designer, and Joe, the artist. We both do most things, but Rubel handles things like AI and physics while I handle stuff like rendering/shaders and dungeon generation." - Brent Sodman in a Reddit Comment
- ↑ "Hey, Gungeon dev here--specifically, I'm the guy who wrote the goop system!" - Brent Sodman in a Reddit Comment
- ↑ "fav: alien engine least fav: shotgrub though honestly it changes from day to day" - Brent Sodman in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "@antonkudin @theharribokid I think that the Bullet King is the easiest of the first floor bosses, but a BUNCH of players disagree" - Brent Sodman in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "all of these lists were tongue in cheek to some degree BUT cave story gets eternal props for being 1) super good and 2) the game that convinced me i could make games" - Brent Sodman in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "its very ironic that someone as terrified of guns as me made gun game but hey i guess that's life" - Brent Sodman in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "dude my proudest achievement is that at one point i was #2 global on the super hexagon leaderboard" - Brent Sodman in a Twitter Post
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 https://www.reddit.com/r/EnterTheGungeon/comments/4sed7a/comment/d59difq
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/EnterTheGungeon/comments/4sed7a/comment/d59c7u6
- ↑ "We honestly just messed around over the course of two years. Many of the funnier or wacky guns came came from our artist. I would get into work one day and he would just say “ Hey you should check out this Lamp gun I made.”" - Dave Crooks in Q&A: The guns and dungeons of Enter the Gungeon (Game Developer) (19/04/2016)
- ↑ "One of the first pixel things I drew was a severed unicorn head!" (Gif attached) - Joe Harty in a Twitter Post
- ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/maxgrecke/art/Enter-the-Gungeon-655392757
- ↑ https://x.com/Lekonish/status/717122944862793728
- ↑ "@jq_pub If you mean Gungeon, it was right place right time. I was one of the only people to beat it at PSX, so they made me a tester!"- Lekonish in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "@DodgeRollGames @devolverdigital That was me! Gungeon is amazing, and if it wasn't for the barrel shooting fish, I would not have made it." - Lekonish in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "Thanks John Cipriani for this awesome Enter the Gungeon fanart! We now see our Pilot looks like a scheming Luigi." - Dodge Roll in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "More amazing Gungeon fanart from John Cipriani!" - Dodge Roll in a Twitter Post
- ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncipriani/
- ↑ https://x.com/DodgeRollGames/status/1671458049096024064
- ↑ https://x.com/DodgeRollGames/status/982024918480146432
- ↑
- David Rubel
- ↑ "no worries, it's not years away :) we briefly considered it, but honestly it would take months to get someone up to speed on gungeon" - Brent Sodman in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "Concave shapes are hard, the companions cross shields to figure it out" (With picture attached) - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN thank you for the photo Kojima-san!" (With picture attached) - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "GUNGEON team out for release dinner! Missing you @doseonetweets !!!" - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "Making games can be hard... but sometimes you get to ride a tank" - Dave Crooks in a Twitter Post
- ↑ "business card get" - Brent Sodman in a Twitter Post
- ↑ https://x.com/devolverdigital/status/733101119887577089
- ↑ "Dodge Roll + Cultist" - Dodge Roll in a Twitter Post
Key art for the AG&D Update, illustrated by Crooks.
Crooks in the 2025 Nintendo Direct, announcing Enter the Gungeon 2.
![Dodge Roll, under the name The Brave Companions, doing whiteboard geometry calculations for Spin Cycle in January of 2013[39]](/wiki/File:Brave_Companions_Doing_Mathematics.png)
![Dave Crooks photographed with Hideo Kojima[40]](/wiki/File:Dave_Crooks_Hideo_Kojima.png)
![Dodge Roll and associates attending a celebratory dinner on the eve of Enter the Gungeons release.[41]](/wiki/File:Dodge_Roll_ETG_Release_Dinner.png)
![Dave Crooks and Brent Sodman riding a tank at PAX West 2016[42]](/wiki/File:Dodge_Roll_Riding_A_Tank.png)
![Dodge Roll business card circa 2017[43]](/wiki/File:Dodge_Roll_Business_Card.png)
![Doseone performing the song Enter the Gungeon live in 2016[44]](/wiki/File:Doseone_Live.png)
![Dodge Roll taking a group photo with a Cultist cosplayer at PAX East 2019[45]](/wiki/File:Dodge_Roll_Group_Photo_Cultist.png)
