Matthias-Zarzecki
Latest
Competing in the indie world is fun and games for IGF entrant Zarzecki
Matthias Zarzecki was waiting anxiously for the IGF Student Showcase finalists to be announced on Sunday, Jan. 15, where his game, Unstoppaball, was an entrant. He had steeled himself to endure the five days between finalist announcements for the main competition and the student one by programming new games relentlessly; indie-developer therapy, he described it. And then the Student Showcase finalists were announced on Friday, Jan. 13. Unstoppaball wasn't on the list, and Zarzecki could have let that pent-up anxiety and excitement explode in a livid email to the IGF for reporting incorrect announcement dates, or in a furious YouTube video calling on all developers to boycott the IGF -- but Zarzecki chose a different response. "My reaction was something of a 'huh, those games are really good,'" Zarzecki told Joystiq. He was a one-man team and had absolutely no budget, so Zarzecki could see how, out of the 300 games submitted to the IGF student competition, he may have been out-performed. "In that way it is a little disappointing to see that I was probably beaten through factors that were outside my influence," he said.
