A Tale From Monaco, and Xenophever’s Future
Hello Earthlings ! We're back from Monaco !
After a day of rehearsal for our presentation, we all embarked into Flo's personal red car, found a radio that broadcast some really convenient eighties tunes and flew away in the night between tall buildings, palm trees and the Mediterranean sea.
We arrived late, desperately sought for somewhere to park, had some survival horror-ish encounters with people walking their dogs around, and met Monaco's Dreaded Stairs. Also found a suspicious looking door on the parking's way out...
Going to Monaco was first and foremost a very nice opportunity for a trip with Maxim and Valentine, the two original members of Xenocorp that left the team to do their own experiments. The entire Xenocorp team was reunited for that last occasion, and we spend some time visiting both the MAGIC convention center, the Japanese gardens around, and an arcade center before the actual presentations and contest.
There was several artistic organization blurs, but in the end all of the 5 groups could present their concepts to each other. Skybolt Zack was the first one -a fast-paced platformer/rhythm game with a shiny and professional finish that captured the heart of the youngest players in the public. Then came Crazy DreamZ : Magicats Edition and its economical model based on user content and a will to learn young players how to code. Unmaze followed -an amazing mobile narrative experience focused on light/darkness detection in the player's environment, two young boys lost in a maze, and how guiding one of them will push the other one to get lost inside himself.
We had the privilege of presenting Xenophever in front of Jordan Mechner, game designer of the first Prince of Persia, Philippe Moreau, game director of Vampyr, and Maxence Devoghelaere, winner from the MAGIC Game Contest in 2016 with Epic Loon.
The presentation encountered some problems, mostly due to miscommunication. While we're a little disappointed at how it played out, we still really enjoyed talking about Xenophever to a reactive public, and meeting all the other contestants.
At last, Ymenok Reborn was presented -a FPS about a species of sci-fi monkeys victims of a genocide, seeking revenge for their lost people.
In the end the winner was Crazy DreamZ : Magicats Edition ! We cheered, and then split ways for a last meal in Monaco with the team of Unmaze and Douglas Alves, specialist in videogame history.
The next day we gave back our Airbnb keys to our adorable host, and left Monaco for good.
(it was very rainy and we were very tired)
The experience was very interesting, and we met great minds along the way.
Now, we need to talk about Xenophever's future.
First off, the decision was basically taken before knowing what the results would be with Monaco, and we knew that there was very little chances for an outcome with the MAGIC that would allow us to reconsider it.
Here's the thing ; independent game development is very demanding financially, and there are few ways to make it happen without sacrificing essential parts of the game -if you're lucky enough to be offered an opportunity to do so. During six months we pushed the game as far as we could -we got pre-incubated in a startup center, we met an editor, many professionals- but right now we don't have any money left. So we need to put Xenophever in cryostase, and wait for better days.
We're going to split, do our own things, find a sense of stability. Then, maybe, we would be able to come back to Xhawei.
During the next weeks we will post some of the things you never got to see. The blog will slowly, but certainly, go to sleep.
Thanks to all of you for following us, and we hope we could find you around if we happen to reach better shores, new uncharted worlds and a second chance.
Xenophever and its stories will remain into our hearts whatever happens.
In any case, we hope we'll meet on Xhawei someday.
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