WoodRunner Games CoFounders Rob and I (Max) had this amazing opportunity to attend to our first Gamescom thanks to La Guilde des jeux vidéos du Québec and their partners. We were really proud to be one the 5 studio's to win La Caravane 2022 which would lead us to 3 international events. The first stop was Gamescom 2022 at Köln in Germany.
About Gamescom
We were so happy to finally meet people that we talked with for almost 2 years in video meetings. It was also impressive to see how ''small'' the community is. A lot of people that we met at GDC were also at Gamescom and it felt like we were having drinks together 2 days ago. We were also very impressed by the scale of the event. There was around 256 000 people gathering in 11 different rooms. It was nice for us to participate as a ''customer'' since we were'nt ready yet for Quack!'s reveal. We took notes on the some of the best booths and we can't wait to showcase our game at the next edition of Gamescom!
About the city
It took us a couple of days to fully enjoy and understand the special vibes that running around Köln. First of all, their public transport system is brillant and really cheap. In shape of a sun, it's super easy to travel anywhere from downtown to unknown corner of the city. If you like blonde draft beer and fast service you will enjoy Germany. Most of the restaurant are serving an unlimited amount of a local beer called Kölsch until you put your under glass on top of your glass. You can also buy your favorite Kölsch in any Kiosk (open 24h) and enjoy it while you're visiting the area. There's also a bunch of small coffee shop's with terrasse to enjoy the nice mornin' sunshine. Our favorite one was Echt kölsche Kaffeebud. Who doesn't love unlimited refill of coffee right?
About the people
We would like to thanks everyone that we had the chance to meet at the Gamescom 2022. We were specially proud to see how talented Québec's delegation are. We really enjoyed to play demos of our (how we like to call it for other Indie Québec studio) ''Coopetitor''. Shout out to Ragecure Games who just signed with Firestroke for Goons: Legends of the Hockeyverse and Fika Productions who signed earlier with Team17 for Ship of Fools. We also can't wait to play Worship, the upcoming game of ChasingRats Games.While we'll continue to learn and practice German at home, please stay a young and vibing city.
Danke schön Köln!
WoodRunner Games