When we started this adventure called indie studio, we spent several months (5 to be exact) working on our first game in total isolation from the community. It was just us and the project. We knew one day we'll have to face the social anxiety of showing our game to the world. But for now we were so comfortable of the fact that there is still a lot of time till that moment. Untill the day we got invited to participate in the annual Sofia Game Jam as part of the indie expo. Our first reaction was NO WAY, but then the kind organizers managed to give us confidence and make us wait for the date with excitement...and a bit terror ;)
The say of the expo started with a broken car, then reaching to the event place somehow with all the equipment in our hands to find that the game installation file is broken as well. We had to go back to our home and fix it then terurn again. On our way back and forth we talked a lot, we didn’t have any idea if there is a gaming environment in our country, nor if there is any community at all.
You know, a community as a group of people who help each other, who appreciate what others do and want to elevate each other. Now we can definitely say there is a gaming community in our small country. So many people came on the 20th of April to our booth, hardcore gamers, developers, 3D artists, sound designers, etc. All of them giving valuable feedback, wanting to help, wanting to add to what we do, each with their own skills and lessons learned.
Photo: Sofia Game Jam
The other indie developers at the event felt like long term friends, every one of them so dedicated to what they do and again helpful, insightful, priceless. All this made us feel accepted, valued, gave us hope, made our dreams even bigger, gave us stamina (and health ;) to continue develop our game with even more passion.
The lesson we took form that experience is that people always surprise you when you least expect it. So don't hold back when you get invited to whatever journey. There is always a lesson for you there.
Big love to the Sofia Game Jam team and to each individual from the community.
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