I’ve always hated networking events, partly because I’m an introvert but also because they always find a way to steer away from sharing knowledge and focus on selling products instead. Everyone is hell-bent on selling their project to someone and no one is ever open to collaboration. This time it felt different because the focus of the conference was to educate game developers and help them be more effective marketers out there in the real world instead of the event space itself.

I can’t prove it with scientific research but I’m sure the digital aspect of this event had a part to play in this improvement. People attending conferences while still wearing their pyjamas seems to make them less likely to act like used-car salesmen around others and helps them listen more. It helped attendees like myself start meaningful conversations on what we all gathered from the talks and how we’d all go on to use that knowledge to improve ourselves.

I’ve uploaded a portion of my experience on YouTube so I can give readers the chance to form an opinion themselves, but this also gives me the freedom to touch on my favourite parts without covering every single mundane detail.

This HackerNoon article by Pantelis Kassotis was published on July 29th, 2022.

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Wednesday Addiction: Why Less Is More In Games

I remember wanting to create entire worlds when making my first steps in game development. I had a real God Complex while brainstorming ideas. Then actual development came and smacked me back into reality. Making games is hard, especially triple A ones.

It takes entire teams of experienced professionals to make them, ranging from software engineers to level designers, and even then studios are working on them for years before releasing them. Why even bother competing with them? It makes no sense.

What you really want during those early stages is to learn as much as you can and showcase your skills. This is why I love experiencing indie games on platforms like Itch.io because I get to see what people are truly capable of on their own.

I’ve played many games that try to be too many things at once and they always fail. My favorite ones are those that take a simple concept and play around with it. Games that rely on a maze or some other kind of puzzle to get from point A to point B but they all do it in their own unique ways.

One of the best experiences I’ve had in a while came from a new horror game called ROMUT. According to its developer this game was made in a single day which really sounds impressive at first considering how atmospheric it seemed from the screenshots but at the same time it could also be rushed and unpolished.

I wasn’t about to give up though. The screenshots looked great so it had to be a good game. I gave it a try and what I found made me want to write about it as soon as possible. Here you can see me playing the game for the first time. It genuinely terrified me:

ROMUT is the perfect example of “less is more” in video games. Even though it’s a short and straightforward experience, it manages to leave an unforgettable sense of danger and disorientation long after you play it.

The game lets you jump from level to level where you have to find and destroy some skull-like entities. It makes a great use of faint light and film grain to immerse you while also using creepy sounds to guide you through its mazes. A simple yet solid concept.

So if anything could be taught by playing this game as a developer is that you don’t need much to deliver a great title. All you need to do is focus on your strengths and throw in a little magic.