The next edition of the Indie Camp is right around the corner so it’s time to light up the fire pitch again! Oh, you’re curious about our last trip? Worry not, our last participants are happy to share some insights!

1. The first Indie Camp – What a ride! How did you enjoy your trip with Ubisoft?

It was an emotional ride indeed! Since the Indie Camp application and award took place before the early access release, we were in active contact with Ubisoft during a very exciting and sometimes tense period of Dorfromantiks development. We were of course not sure that our launch would go well and were working hard to hopefully gain enough attention for our project. We are very thankful for the help and the opportunity to learn from experienced professionals and enjoyed it a lot!

2. What did you expect when you first applied?

To be honest, we didn’t expect to win but instead thought that applying would be a fantastic way to hone our pitching skills and really engage with how to showcase and describe our game, and which aspects to focus on. We also thought that taking part would allow us to network in the indie and game development scene here in Germany which we deemed a valuable opportunity. Of course the winning prizes / rewards were a great motivation too

Zwi Zausch – Co-Founder, Tech-Artist, Game Designer

3. What did winning mean for your game and company?

Winning the Ubisoft Indie Camp definitely had a big impact on Dorfromantik and our company. As mentioned above, we were able to improve our approach on pitching and presentation. Ubisoft supported us in form of business development mentoring, marketing shoutouts on social media and streaming platforms. We also got a booth in the Indie Arena at Gamescom 2021, which, although fully digital due to the pandemic, was a fantastic experience. Another service we might be able to use later towards our full release is a professional QA testing facility, which is an exciting new experience waiting for us.

4. How did things change for you in the meantime? Anything you’re looking forward to?

Well we’ve gained a very active community which keeps us busy with many requested features! So for now we’re lazer focused on improving the game

and the new the creative mode and bringing the promised content updates to Dorfromantik to get everything ready for the upcoming full release in the beginning of 2022. Also we’re looking forward to hopefully bringing the game to more platforms…

5. And lastly: Do you have any advice for indies who’d like to apply to the next Indie Camp edition?

Yes of course! What worked really well for us is to ask for feedback early on in the development, optimally directly when you’re putting together the first mechanics and prototypes. Evaluating this feedback helped us to choose a feasible project/prototype to continue with. Additionally we tried to think about marketing as an engrained part of development, which then dictates how you go about your daily tasks. We tried to have a presentable build of the game ready all the time to be able to create shareable content early on. This also improves your skills in presenting and describing the game. This helped us a lot when we Dorfromantik started to get more attention and then later towards the Early Access release.

Learn more about Toukana Interactive here.