Recreate Games

As a lead in a small company, you might find yourself needing to wear many hats. This is a common experience for the founders of many small companies as well.

I am the boss at the company and need to design products, marketing strategies, as well as manage HR and finances...

We founded our company in 2016. Initially, we were a VR software development company. If you have an Oculus VR headset, you might have heard of SKYBOX VR PLAYER - that's our product. Even today, SKYBOX is still one of the best-selling VR software on the Oculus platform. In 2018, we decided to start creating our first game, which is now known as Party Animals.

My definition of all outstanding products is similar: they meet the needs of specific people in certain situations or with particular requirements. In those specific circumstances, this product is the best among many. That's what makes a product outstanding.

We excel in community games like Party Animals. One characteristic of such games is that playing with people you know can make it even more enjoyable.

At the beginning, this project was aimed at solving the dilemma my wife and I faced when choosing games to play together. We tried many games, each with its own set of issues, making it difficult for us to find a game that we could agree on and enjoy together. So, I listed the characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of these games one by one, and then set out to address these issues.

For a team creating their first game, we are thrilled to receive the recognition and awards.

The pressure can be immense because we released a demo in 2020, which was just an early prototype. It took us three years to refine this prototype and add a substantial amount of content. However, for some players, they might not want to wait that long, and dealing with this pressure, along with the expectations of players, can be quite challenging.

In recent years, we've seen a growing trend on platforms like Steam where games developed by small or even individual teams sometimes achieve better sales than those produced by large AAA game companies.

I am extremely fond of CD Projekt Red. I enjoyed The Witcher 3 and appreciated everything about it. Although CDPR faced some issues with the release of Cyberpunk 2077, they didn't give up on the project. Instead, they faced the problems head-on and made incremental improvements. Now, with the release of 2077's DLC, it's clear to see how they've managed to salvage the game! Next is Kerbal Space Program. I've played the first installment of this game for possibly over 1000 hours, becoming engrossed in it. I also have a deep appreciation for the entrepreneurial story of the development team behind Kerbal Space Program, the Mexican company Squad. Lastly, there's Paradox Interactive. I've spent over 300 hours on each of their games. This is a team with deep expertise in their field and a keen sense of social observation. If I were to have children, these are the games I'd make sure they play as part of their historical education. I'd like to express my deep respect.

I've watched a lot of videos, such as GDC or GMTK, but what has had the most significant impact on me is still watching a vast number of movies, playing games, and reading books. Just like writing skills, everyone's writing ability is essentially directly related to the amount of reading they do.

Gameplay is becoming increasingly complex. It's challenging to define a specific gameplay unique to one game; instead, a single game may incorporate gameplay elements from multiple previous games. Additionally, due to the maturity of development tools like Unreal and Unity, creators can focus more on game development rather than building game engines. It's like not having to invent paper, create ink, and craft a pen from scratch when you want to write a book.

Colleagues, family, dogs, movies, games, life... I really like the first part of Steve Jobs' June 2005 speech at Stanford University: "The first story is about connecting the dots." The experiences in my life, whether intentional or not, have shaped who I am today, and it's this "me" that has created my current work. It's a collection of all my experiences.

Hard work, self-reflection, and, most importantly, luck.

CDPR, Larian Studios, Paradox Interactive