Gamescom Latam has just happened (or actually it's still happening today) and it was a massive event! Hundreds of games being showcased from developers of all sizes.

Over the years I have managed to attend a few events, I have been to half a dozen Unites and two GDCs, but I had never attended just a normal non-game-dev event, until now! It was definitely a more casual event, lots more people in cosplay and fewer people in suits.

Over 150 games were at the event, with lots of booths to play them. For me this was fun since normally I'm so busy that I don't have time to play games, here I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

I played a game from a dev that recognized me, Apogea, awesome super complex MMO made by a 4 person indie team! Another one where the dev came up to me was Bloodfang, also super well polished, nice action game with meaty combat and powerful animations. Played Islets Defense which is a very unique take on tower defense. Tellyport is a complex puzzle game, and Retail Hell was unique and interesting.

There is a page on Steam with the games shown there, lost of awesome stuff!

All in all it was a very interesting event, obviously focused on playing games instead of developing them. Players all over the place trying out the latest games and what's coming in the future.

On the game dev side I would say these events are probably great for getting playtesters and feedback. There are tons of players walking around that mostly only play AAA games, they likely only try indie games in these events where they are right next to the AAA games, so if you want exposure to playtesters from that specific audience then these events can be good.

However in terms of indie game marketing, these events are usually not worth it. It's unlikely you will get a massive amount of wishlists or press coverage, so if the event requires payment (which at least it usually requires you pay for your own flight and hotel) then usually you have other better places to spend your marketing dollars.

The Unity Asset Store is currently running their Spring Sale!

As always you can get most of the top assets at 50% OFF, and along with Flash Deals up to 95% OFF!

My own Code Monkey Toolkit is on sale! And I just recently updated it adding a bunch more tools, now it’s over 50!

Are you a fan of the original 1996 classic Tomb Raider? I am! I loved dueling pistols, doing all kinds of acrobatic maneuvers, and shooting dinosaurs!

Well some fans are reimagining the classic game as a 2D side-scroller! That's pretty fun!

They have converted the mechanics really well, it's not just a lazy port but it actually looks like it has the vibe of the original game. All the levels with the same assets, the starting level, the traps with lava, the underwater level. Plus all the sliding on platforms, the traps coming from behind, the lava, and more!

Now of course the question when it comes to these projects is what about the original IP owner? Will they come after the developers and kill this project? Or will they leave them be? I hope they leave them be, I don't think this is killing sales of the original game at all. The goal is to release in May 2026 so pretty soon!

Chess is a game that has existed for millennia, and in all that time it hasn't really had "updates"

But now one developer tried to update it, instead of the usual 2D grid, now it works in just 1 dimension!

There are only 3 pieces on the board. I don't know much about chess, and it seems this makes the game way too simplistic with only a few possible moves, but still this is a fun experiment!