2024-08-21 08:30:00
Gamescom, the world’s largest video game trade show, opens this Wednesday in Cologne. These large exhibitions can serve as a springboard for small developers, especially Belgian ones. Discover this world with 800 employees in our country.
Koira is a 100% Belgian video game. In a few months it will be on your computers and consoles. ”This is a 2D narrative adventure game in which we meet a puppy who is lost in a snowy forest. Together they try to get back to the protagonist’s home.” says Guillaume Bouckaert, co-founder of games.brussels, a co-working space for development studios.
To achieve success, it took nearly 4 years of development, going through the two main stages of making a video game. First, pre-production: starting with an idea and working out the rules of the game.
“We’ll answer questions about how the game will work, how it will come together in terms of mechanics and design. We’ll also answer questions about “what will the game look like in terms of art direction, etc.” At the same time, we start developing a demo that serves as a sample of the game, usually used to meet with publishers to ask for funding.” explains Thomas Madarasz, co-founder of the development studio.
Second step: production. Thanks to funding from publishers, creators can meet at events such as “Gamescom”, the largest world trade fair for video games. It has just opened its doors to welcome the largest Belgian delegation to date, 49 companies.
“We also used these events as deadlines. We prepared a version of the game that we could show off and put headsets in backpacks so people could test the game. These were really milestones and we used them to speed up the development of the game.”, Bastien Gorissen, Creative Director at video game development studio
In Belgium, there are 150 development studios. This number is increasing, with Flanders being the lead. Although some are world-renowned, most have less than ten developers. ”We are an independent nation. These small organizations can produce creative and original games that stand out from the crowd. This is the difference from the AAA (Triple A) industry that we see in marketing campaigns.”, points out Guillaume Bouchart.
The industry generates 80 million euros per year for our country and employs more than 800 people.
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