Last weekend I spent two days full of inspiration on the biggest Slovak game developers conference Game Days which is part of international festival of animated films called Fest Anča which took place in magical place old jewish synagogue in Žilina, Slovakia. Game Days program included 12 talks, 2 movies and game quiz. This year there were many foreign studios from Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary & Austria (quite big progress compared to previous year when there were only studios from Slovakia and Czech republic).

For me the best talks were from Polish studios (11BitsStudios, 1MGN.PRO) and Austrian studio Kunabi Brother. These talks were very inspirational for me. Pawel Miechowski from 11BitsStudios talked about key gamedesign pillars which they used for their successful war game This War of Mine and also about psychological aspect of player thinking in games. As he said games are very complex art genre (opposite to films, paintings etc.) in games player can be in position of narrator, he can be part of story and affect it based on his emotions with interactions and his decisions. All good games should evoke some emotions and keep player in tension.

Guys from 1MGN.PRO studio talked about their recently published game Kholat based on horrific mystery behind the Dyatlov Pass Incident. I’m not big fan of exploration games but this game got me for her strong story and really awesome visuals and sounds (this game has very strong atmosphere).

Denis Mikan (by my opinion the best prepared speaker on this conference) from Kunabi Brother talked about how they succeed with their game BLEK on the mobile app stores. This talk was very interesting and full of valuable tips how to do marketing things, what worked or not worked for them etc.

And I shouldn’t forget to remind game Dark Train from Czech studio Paperash. This is very artistic game where all scenes, models, sounds are made from paper. This game has really big potential for their unique art style.

I’m looking forward to Fest Anča 2016:)

And finally I want to show you collector’s edition of postcards for our upcoming game The Legend of the Spirit Bird designed by our very talented graphic designer and animator Eva. Do you like it? So please follow our studio RAT GAMES on Facebook and Twitter.