I went to this event in São Paulo, Brasil. In three days I played many videogames and had nice conversations. Thanks to Endless Access for sending me! Muito obrigado. Also obrigado to my colleague Joana for being a great company. We used the time to brainstorm a lot about our work. She also did the arrangements for the trip, and was my tourist guide for dinner in a very paulista place.

Needless to say, the list below is very subjective to my own taste and interests. Most of these games were at the booth as finalists of the BIG festival.

slay clones

In the 90’s DOOM was so influential that many similar games appeared. They were called the doom clones (I recommend listening to episode #89 of Modo Historia - is in Spanish). It looks like today we are having a lot of slay the spire clones. Although it’s a bit unfair to say it, because each one tries hard to stand out with a unique twist. Here are the ones I played, and their twists:

Duo Quest, from Malasia. I enjoy couch-coop games, I enjoy slay the spire… so this one is a perfect fit for me! The duo of players shares the health bar, and each have their own cards based on the role they picked (mage, warrior, etc). And one more twist: at one point the normal gameplay turns into a question-and-answer show: both players have to pick an answer for the same question, without knowing what the other player is picking. For instance “what is your best excuse when you are cooking and spoil the food?”. If they pick the same answer they have a powerup card to play. I was lucky to play together with Rizal, the game designer! He and her partner were very kind and we talked a bit about designing card-based games, their complexity (they talked about managing multiple excel spreadsheets and constantly balancing the game after playtesting), and how they work around interrupting gameplay with text on screen (the questions can be long, the answers are short). They also have a board game version. Good luck with your games, Rizal!

Shroom and Gloom, from… ? Is a first-person dungeon. The thing that attracted me to the booth was the hand-drawn visuals for a 3D game, which is a problem I use to think about (sorry, I am this). The trick for them is: many many layers and a very controlled camera: you can move forward or backward, like on rails, but not turn. And you can slightly glance around with the mouse a little, enough to perceive depth without breaking the illusion.

And finally Keepers of Vyrellia or just “the keepers”, from Córdoba, Argentina. This one is being made in Godot and I know it well from the local Godot Meetup community. I hanged out at the event with Fran, game developer and with Ire, the game producer. And I also said hi to Nico, the game director and also developer. I have already played the demo some weeks ago (they have a web build on itch.io) and gave them my feedback. The twist in this one is that cards have 2 sides, and that duality is present in all the game: attack/defend, edge/dull, violet/magenta. It was great to see their booth always busy. Nico gave a talk but unfortunately for me, it was at the business side, so I couldn’t attend. I wish the best for this game. Oh and thanks for the Godot pin, Fran! I had to wear something Godot-related.

top-downs

Because I work doing Threadbare, when I see a top-down view I get immediately attracted. Either to see how they do the pixel art, how controls work, how they solve dialogue and HUD, etc. Even more if the game has some sort of action-puzzle or narrative.

That was the case when I saw Master Lemon: The quest for Iceland, a narrative game from Brasil nominated for its social impact. The game is a tribute to a real person, André Lima, who it seems was a Brazilian polyglot and adventurer who tragically passed away in Iceland. The background story is so similar to the one in Threadbare: language is in danger, a plague is spreading, devouring the memories of the world.

Also Magical Blush, which has a slip-on-ice puzzle mechanic that I saw implemented by learners in a fork of Threadbare.

On the top-down combat side I played Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault (totally unrelated with Endless Access), from Spain. And Candellum, from France. The latter was made by students! And it has an interesting combat mechanic: You are a wax candle, and when you enter combat the flame consumes you. You can throw the flame to your enemies (also candles) to save some time and defeat them. But then enemies with armor appear, and the only way to break their armor is by having the flame on you. So it has a clever risk/reward compromise.

And another one I liked very much: Dungeon Concierge is an action-puzzle from Argentina, also made by students! I had the chance to talk to one of them, Federico, who was at the booth lurking how the people played and to reset the game. The theme here is really interesting. You are not the hero: you are the precarious person in charge of the cleaning at the dungeon. Luckly you also have magic powers to do it! Fede told me about the importance of putting the workers as protagonists, and making a game about social justice these days. And now I realize that the day after we talked was May 1, workers day. Idea for them: add an easter egg, each May 1 the player character refuses to work. With students like these there is future! I played only a little but I was able to see the action-puzzle mechanics and talk with Fede about how they designed them.

and a popurrí

Colorbound from Chile reminded me of BgColor 2025, the puzzle platformer that my team mate Will did. But this one is so hard! I couldn’t pass the third level at the event, I should try the demo at home. The andean music was lovely, also the pixel art, including the sicus as cursor or pointer. It took me some time to realize that it was a pointer that I could move with the right stick, not just a sprite on the screen. The game would really welcome some control hints.

Spooky Express from UK was there. Which has Phoenix as technical artist in the credits, the person who did the sokoban puzzles for Threadbare. I had played a demo before in my android phone. Playing in a big screen feels much better. This game is so cute.

Go Slimey Go from Argentina was there too. I already played it in another event. Love it.

Tingus Goose, from… Australia? (the game designer was at the stand and was brazilian). This was a stand with several games of the same publisher, Playsaurus. They are dedicated to idlers: clickers, incremental games, auto battlers. These kinds of genres are somewhat news to me, although I like games without an aparent goal, like sandboxes. Tingus Goose is a bit like it: so bizarre, has crazy drawings and animations by artist Master Tingus.

Is this seat taken?, from Spain, is a nice cozy puzzle. I played it with Joana. Side note, we also had dinner in a traditional place with very tasty food. Thanks Joana!

Tenebris Somnia, from Argentina. It was funny (and scary) when, after being stuck for a while, I received a hint “you have to bring the candle to…” from the actress herself, who was next to me, dressed as the character of the game.

besides games

Cosplayers with the brazilian carnaval touch. So many cosplayers!

Long lines of youngers in the meet & greet with influencers, which are idols in Brasil much more than in other countries.

Long lines of people at the big booths (Nintendo, Riot/LoL, etc) making challenges to win souvenirs.

Talks. I attended some, although I didn’t have a business pass and it looks like the talks oriented to developers, the ones I would attend, were on the restricted side. And this wasn’t marked in the schedule at the website. The talks at the general area were sponsored and more for gamers or fans than for developers, with some good exceptions. Hopefully next year the organizers are more careful, I already sent them this feedback.

Workshops. It was great to see one on pixel art with Piskel (the same app used in Endless workshops) and game dev in general. It was a showcase of the one-year program that they do at Prefeitura de São Paulo. Which in Argentina would be ministry of social development (which as of this writing it doesn’t exist… pff, but it did, and it will, when the madness ends, I hope).

Since we are considering a demo build of Threadbare that can be put in a booth without our presence, I watched closely what these games do. The answer in almost all the cases is: nothing at all. They rely on the people using the game menu to start a new game, sometimes figuring out themselves which button to press (usually Start in a joypad, or Escape key in a keyboard). Sometimes the person from the event staff at the area learned how to reset the game and helps. Other times, the game creators themselves were around to do it. Only one game I saw which had a especial build, and it ended with a “thanks for playing the demo” credits screen, then restarted itself.

Excluding GDC in 2019, this was the biggest event I’ve ever been! I’m more used to smaller events, so maybe I wasn’t so well prepared. I think I have more tools now for taking more advantage of the next big one.