Gaming has slowly but surely took the place as a proper profession and people are playing different genres professionally. For the young and emerging developers, Etna Comics festival provides the perfect platform to showcase their talent and introduce new and interesting games in the market. For the first time in the history of comic festivals, Etna Comics have stepped up and created an area for indie games lovers. Etna Comics is one of the biggest comic festivals to host international cultures and festivals. The event took place in Catania (Sicily- Italy) from 6 to 9 June with the expected visitors of more than 85,000. Indie games introduction has intrigued our interest to take part in the event. We have been working day and night to develop the perfect game and our team, KaleJump, decided to take part in Etna Comics with Drake’s Odds.
We presented Drake’s Odds in the festival and our excitement was over the moon when we came to know the judges. We had the golden opportunity to display our skills in front of Keiichiro Toyama (creator of Silent Hill); Rachele Doimo (art director of SQUARE ENIX); Charles Cecil ( game designer of Broken Sword) and Hidetaka Suheiro (author of “D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die”).
There were other developers as well with their games and we know that we had to face tough competition. The judges were impressed with our game. We had worked relentlessly to develop a Pre-Alpha to show at Etna Comics and the positive response from the initial players elevated our happiness and we were thrilled. The excitement reached its climax when the victory of our game was announced. We enjoyed each second of our stay and we got to know other talented indie game developers.
The competitive environment made the game more fun and interesting. Iconic judges, positive feedback, winners of the UZ Awards as best indie game, there is not a better ending for KaleJump at the Etna Comics 2019.
