Studio feature video

They really did it! The crazy folks over at Epic Games actually sent a camera crew from the US all the way to Germany to shoot a spotlight feature on me. When they reached out via email, I thought they were kidding. I explained that I'm just a one-man company operating from a small village in Germany where everyone knows each other, with cobblestone streets, where you can still hear witches at night.

Despite that, they still wanted to come. I thought they were here for Gamescom, which was happening around the same time. But nope, they flew in for 2 days, came out to the countryside to my place and showed up at my office with huge suitcases, lights, drones and lenses. Crazy!

The film crew has been incredibly nice and they helped me quickly forget my nerves and awe, and we had a really fun day. I still can't believe this all happened.

Here's the end result (I can’t watch it in one go - cringe alert!).

This is the full article at UnrealEngine.com

Gamescom '22, Cologne

Gamescom ‘22! Wow, what a ride. My feet hurt like crazy, my voice is gone and I have many hours of sleep to catch up. It was SO AWESOME to meet tons of friends I made over the last years (image: the lovely dudes from NRW funding), shake hands with people I have never seen in real life and see so many cool (indie) games coming up. I had way fewer appointments than in 2019 (where I was heavily promoting Omno) but it was still a crazy time.
The weirdest thing to me was that many people recognized me (because of my shirt mostly), and approached me to tell me how much they loved Omno. I had some legit fan moments! I would have never expected that, but it’s the warmest feeling you can get as a developer, I guess.
Moments like these make all the work sooooo worth it. No money in the world could give you this satisfaction and pride.
Thank you, random strangers. I love you!

German Game Award: Best Family-Game

OMNO was honored with the highest award in the german games industry: The German Game Award (category best family game; 40.000 Euros).
OMNO was (the only game being) nominated in 3 categories, which is a HUGE deal for me:
Best family game, Best game world and aesthetics, Best game design.
Needless to say, I was blown away by the amount of attention my little game received before the event.
When Omno’s name dropped during the show for an actual win, I couldn’t believe it!

Developer Award: Best Indiegame

The German Dev Awards! Holy cow, OMNO won the award for … the . best . indiegame 2021. … WHAAAAT?! It was nominated in several categories (yeah, crazy!), but it actually won the price that I secretly hoped for the most. That’s absolutely insane. I still can’t believe how far this journey went. I really hope that the fact that some random dude from next door believed in himself for once in his life and gets this far, receiving awards, making a living out of his hobby, is inspiring for so many great talented people out there who deserve it at least just as much.

Developer Interview for EPIC GAMES

Over the years I have done the one or the other written interview, but EPIC once again challenged my imposter syndrome by asking me to do it on camera. Here’s the result. *cringe

EPIC Megagrant

I can proudly announce that I was selected to be one of the first MegaGrants Recipients!
When I heard about it, I didn’t think I would have a chance as a small, unknown solo-developer to even get EPIC’s attention. When I saw them retweeting some posts on twitter, that gave me some confidence and I gave it a shot and applied for their generous program of helping small developers reach for their dreams.

Having received a MegaGrant blew me away! I was happy-dancing for quite some time. It not only helps a TON with funding the game, it is a motivational boost that couldn’t come at a better time. It really means a world to me.
THANK YOU, EPIC!!! … Just WOW!!!

Kickstarter! The crazy ride began.

(nostalgia post)
OMNO’s Kickstarter succeeded with 300%. Today I see the kickstarter as the turning point of my career. Previously, I had used up all my savings to work full-time on a playable demo. My goal was to either go back into my career as freelance character animator (mostly film and tv) or pursue this new path as game developer. For the latter I would need the funding and decided to risk it all and ask ‘the people’ if I am on to something or not - who can judge better than hundreds of players?!
I ran that campaign which started an avalanche that never really didn’t stop ever since. Suddenly, I got the attention by market leading publishers and platform holders. The campaign opened so many doors that I literally needed 5 months to figure out the path I want to take. I decided to stay small, stick to the vision, and do as much on my own as possible to remain in control of what ultimately counts: The game itself. For that I decided to do a sightly experimental co-publishing approach with FutureFriendsGames who I met before the campaign and who believed in me from early on.
To this day I owe all the backers so much more than the rewards (which I was finally able to deliver after so long haha). If you are one of the backers from 2018 - thank you again for your support. It really changed my life.
PS: I wrote an article for all those people who are interested to learn more about the numbers of the campaign