The first thing that comes to mind when reflecting on the past year or two is chaos, perhaps some sort of positive chaos. I don’t know, but I would definitely dedicate the next few paragraphs to those who don’t know exactly where to start, aren’t sure of their skills, are scared, yet truly have their own creative drive or idea to communicate and share with the world.
About three years ago the official shooting of a major domestic series on which I worked as the first Assistant Director ended. The pay was okay, the job was with well-known actors and other excellent professionals from the film industry. It was my biggest job and something I had been striving for since I was 15 when I shot my first short films. Although it seemed like my career was taking off, I felt that my creativity was stifled, not directly because of that series, but more due to the realization of the inertia of those large systems and the loss of individuality and creativity that happens within them. What I loved and fell in love with about film were those small motivated groups of people who, despite everything, managed to make a film and show it to the world. Unfortunately, that world is often made up of friends of friends or close and extended family, and at best, the film can make it to festivals. All in all, there is a small chance that this small motivated group can be self-sustaining. This has been bothering me since the early days of shooting indie films.
As a kid, I started playing video games. I used to go to arcades with my brother and spend hours in front of buzzing cathode-ray tube screens; I thought games were the craziest thing that ever happened to humanity and some kind of magic. As I grew up, there was a stigma among older folks that video games were very bad and dangerous, so any form of gaming consumption or ideas about making them were harshly condemned. Persistent in staying creative, from large Lego-created worlds to making rip-offs of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, to the first frames shot with a mobile phone, at the age of 15, I found myself in film and clearly chose my calling. I, Nikola, will definitely be a filmmaker.
Obviously, that didn’t work out for me. I, Nikola, was in my third year of college for media and communications, learning to be a film director and struggling for years to do so, and, on the contrary, more than ever, I played games and felt primarily like a gamer. When the opportunity arose to take a course at college where we made a game in Blender 2.79, I happily took that course and almost didn’t attend any lectures. A realistic place for a sad emoji. I didn’t attend because that year I was busy shooting and working as much as I could, so there was no room for new passions. When it was time to take the course mentioned above, I was lucky because the brilliant professor precisely documented every step and everything that needed to be done to make that game. Since, like all people, I left the last few days to prepare for the whole exam, I had five days to learn everything and make the game. It could be said that it was my first unofficial game jam. During those five days, I managed to finish everything for the exam and much more. The feeling of creative freedom and endless possibilities during the making of that game shook my previous ideas about what I could do. For the first time in seven years, I thought, maybe I don’t want to be in film after all.
Let’s go back to that period three years ago. The shooting ended, the coronavirus started, everyone was stuck at home. Instead of staying in the loop and just going to the next shooting, suddenly I had too much time. At that moment, the thought came back to me:,: let’s make games. Is that possible? It sounds too difficult; I’m just creative, I don’t have any programming or mathematical background. I think I was also lucky to be able to start something new at that moment, but since I didn’t know when I would have to go back to the set again, I had to learn as quickly as possible. After watching many YouTube videos, I estimated that Unreal Engine would be a good starting point if I wanted to make games.
I wanted to make that game from the exam better and expand the story. That’s how the idea for Pile Adventures was born. For the next four to six months, I don’t remember well. I know I watched many tutorials for game development, I sat in front of the computer for six to twelve hours a day trying to make my own game. For the first time, I encountered programming concepts, and for the first time, I created more detailed content in Blender. I entered and exited phases of motivation; sometimes everything made sense, and at other times, nothing did. I stopped watching tutorials and started them again, I was sure I was gaining knowledge and at the same time, it seemed to me that I hadn’t really learned anything, that I was just constantly googling. The imposter syndrome seriously started to shake me, but I realized that I definitely wanted to make games. Around that time, I began exploring local gaming studios and the community in general, thinking that maybe I could work somewhere. That’s when I first came across the SGA’s website. I was thrilled that there were many studios and their job listings in one place.
I applied for several positions, did the tasks, but didn’t get hired. To explore further, I returned to the SGA’s website and instead of scrolling through job listings, I started reading articles and blogs to find out what it takes to work in the industry. While all this was happening in the background, I continued to work constantly on the game and learn every day. The learning principle was as follows: I imagined what would be best to add to the game next, for example, a mechanic or a new animated character, and then focused on learning and assumptions on how it could be done and learned. I think that type of focused learning with a goal in mind is best for anyone learning independently.
Since I didn’t have unlimited amounts of money, and officially I refused all calls to work in film, I decided to start working in a startup as an Animator and Content Creator. I worked in that company for about four months, and my days boiled down to working until 4 p.m. at the company and then eating and working until 1 a.m. on the game and learning at home. It was very important for me to make progress from week to week, even if it was microscopic. This crazy pace reminded me of the first shootings of my films, of that small, very motivated team and that floaty feeling it gives. Due to the nature of gaming production and the very easy global digital distribution of games, the thought of that small motivated team doing something together was no longer a thought of unsustainability. For the first time, I felt that there was a chance, no matter how tiny, that a small team could do big things.
At this point, I have been learning and actively making my own game for over a year. I finally gathered enough confidence to stop working and set a goal that my next job would be in the gaming industry, and in my small motivated team.
Since I already had some logic for achieving goals, I knew I had to identify the steps that would help me get to that goal. I wanted to develop several small games in the meantime, for which I already had ideas, to improve my knowledge and skill.
But how to gain more experience with the time I have? The answer I quickly found online – game jams. At the beginning of 2021, I signed up solo for Global Game Jam, as a one-man band. I realized that if I wanted to lead a team, I had to be proficient in all parts of production myself, so I saw the game jam as an excellent place that would force me to independently create a game in just three days. I was insecure at the moment I signed up because it would officially be the first test of everything I had learned.
At that game jam, Water Me was created in response to the theme of duality. Although I didn’t expect it at all, Water Me won first place. It was a sort of initial validation that what I’m doing might actually make sense. I think that gave me a lot of energy to keep going. I decided to refine Water Me a bit more and publish it in a few months. Obviously, it didn’t go as planned since Water Me hasn’t been published yet. Another place for a sad emoji. However, because of the idea of publishing, I came up with the name of a fictional company, or rather a studio, which is how Shosha Games was born. I had initial conversations and plans for pushing Shosha Games forward with close friends who, by sheer luck, had decided to transition into the gaming industry at that time.
Another important element in achieving my goal was having a realistic understanding of the industry. At the moment when my friend and I started to explore the industry in more detail, we found out that the first For The Win conference in Serbia was happening in just a few days. We realized it was invite-only and that we couldn’t register anymore. We decided to just sneak in and act like we belonged. When we arrived at the registration and gave our names, they looked at us a bit strangely and wondered what this fictional Shosha Games was. Luckily for us, the SGA’s team welcomed us with open arms, and for the first time, Shosha Games was written somewhere on official documentation. It was our first conference of this kind, and we definitely got some important information from the industry.
Around that same time, I found out about the Playing Narratives program. I applied, not expecting to be chosen, but I was selected. Right from the start of the program, I met phenomenal people who were in similar situations as me and eager to pursue creative work. It felt like a place where I would find people I would stay in touch with for a long time, and once again, that feeling of a small motivated group emerged. Over eight months, the “Playing Narratives” program provided me with key knowledge about the gaming industry from all sectors. Studios like Ubisoft Belgrade shared information about their production and were available for any questions. Additionally, during the program, I grew closer to some people who organically started working with me on the Water Me game, without whom I couldn’t imagine Shosha Games now. One of them is my childhood friend with whom I lost contact when we were kids, and then we randomly found each other here, but that’s a story for another time. Besides industry knowledge, SGA’s made sure that we truly connected with the people who make up that community, which is perhaps the most important aspect. Overall, I consider the Playing Narratives program as one of the key points for the further continuation of my work.
When the Shosha Games team first gathered in one place, we started working together, but there was still a lack of that real spirit of unity. I saw the solution in a game jam. We were fortunate that the Ubisoft Belgrade Game Jam applications were open at that time. We applied hoping to test ourselves as a team, create something cool in 24 hours, and hang out with people from Ubisoft. Our success was just making it through the selection for the game jam, so winning afterward was madness. That moment truly gave the team the strength to continue working and a genuine sense of mutual trust. Shortly after that, I also received a message from SGA that we would officially be attending Reboot Develop, the international gaming conference in Dubrovnik, through them. Such big news sparked euphoria within the team. The things that were happening that summer, and the fact that I felt like an integral part of the gaming community in Serbia in just a few months, were surreal to me.
Reboot set a great goal for the team. Since we made it to the pitching competition, I immediately got the chance to test my knowledge from the Playing Narratives. The preparation of the game and the presentation itself were a chaotic and exhausting period where we really gave it our all. The day of Reboot arrived. I was afraid that no one would even want to try the game, but in the end, about eighty people tried it and gave us objective feedback, which was more than necessary for us. As for the competition, we did well, and I was satisfied with the presentation. The thing that seriously threw me off was the size of the screen I presented on; I simply wasn’t prepared for that yet. We met many new people and for the first time made contact and started talking to a publisher, which was a very important experience for us.
After Reboot, we entered a period of pure work and final preparations for the publishers. In this process, Two Desperados got involved by selecting us to present our game at the Belgrade Gamescon. Once again, we kicked into high gear to ensure that the game version was as ideal as possible for that fair. The fair had a decent turnout, and more than a hundred and twenty people tried the game. From our perspective: a hundred and twenty people who (most likely) had a good time and helped us further refine our game design. The most significant thing that happened at that conference was that we first made contact with our current partner and received an award for the best game design.
As the New Year approached, we rushed to send the build to the interested publisher and about thirty others we identified as suitable for us. I think that’s when the now-famous night shift at Shosha officially began, a shift where after a full day, we started working again from 11 p.m. to 4/5 a.m. Truly incredible things came out of that night shift. We sent the build to the publishers and hoped for a positive response. Weeks passed before we received the first replies, which were: nice art, nice story and mechanics but we’re not ready to sell it, and is it possible to make it multiplayer? Perhaps for the first time, the team felt some discomfort and a significant drop in motivation. We gave ourselves a chance to rest a bit and for the first time, created a realistic strategy for the next year, what to do, what backup options there are, etc. It was also the first time we started working on developing the business, not just the game.
Additionally, we were lifted from the low energy by the WN conference, which we attended again thanks to SGA. At this conference, I achieved one of my important personal checkpoints and participated in a panel for promising indie game studios. Once again, we met many new people and further strengthened our connections with SGA and several indie studios from the region.
Over the next few months, we focused not only on the game but also on team organization, communication, idea development, and business growth. Because of that focus, we applied for startup team funds, where we made it to the shortlist, underwent training, and created budgets, roadmaps and pitches. I believe our previous experiences and contacts in the gaming industry through SGA greatly helped us be considered for those funds. For the first time, it seemed like Shosha Games LLC was going to become a reality. In our goal to be agile, we also decided to turn Water Me into a multiplayer experience, which led us into another unknown territory: online multiplayer.
In May of this year, thanks to connections in the local community, we received our first grant, struck a deal with a partner to develop another unannounced mobile game, I held a training session for industry professionals on creating cinematics within Unreal at 3Lateral, SGA took us to another conference in Poland where we made serious contacts with desired publishers, we set up the first systems and levels for multiplayer Water Me, and Shosha Games LLC was officially established—a small, motivated team creating big adventures.
I believe many people are responsible for our success so far, and I truly hope that if someone reads this in 2024, Shosha Games will still be around. Everything is uncertain, but what is truly certain is the support of the community that we have received and that I believe anyone who decides to embark on this crazy world of game development will receive.
