Gamescom 2017 is part of our glorious past now and we survived to tell the story.

First things first: not sure if this is just me, but Indie Arena was even more fun and better organized than last year (get the pics and vibe here). I mentioned in an events dedicated article before that, when it comes to Gamescom, Indie Arena Booth is the best place to showcase at and I stand my ground. There is a good mix of professional commitment and indie rules bending, that simply gets sugar done.

A big thank you goes to Florian, who included Black The Fall in the game tour that he gave to the prominent German politicians that visited the Indie Arena Booth, like Cem Özdemir, who was really impressed by the story of the game and noticed how this concern goes way beyond our country. Haven't figured out up until that moment how much pressure to be sharp and shiny is on a political figure with the tens of photographers, bodyguards and reporters all around.

Speaking of fame, congrats to Rite of Ilk, the winner of the Indie Arena Booth awards, for their amazing game and booth.

Besides laughing and drinking with our old friends (mentioned here ) we were happy to befriend the guys at Chasing Carrots who have  recently launched the fun Pressure Overdrive and the guys at Goodwolf Studio who even more recently launched the award winning game Code 7. Keep on shining guys!

As a bonus, let me share with you what happens behind the stage, here is a synchronous table arrangement powered by Cristi and Adi.

The best part of the event is meeting our players as well as seeing how more 1600+ people get so hooked on solving puzzles. Some bring their friends over the next they and others need their dads' help to get by, but that's okay. We've seen more than once how Black The Fall brings families, couples and friends working together to escape oppression.

And then there are the old friends, the new ones, the collaborators... each time it feels like a family reunion and the fun memories are stripped off of any fatigue, leaving us with a let's-do-this-again aftertaste.

So, have you ever been at Gamescom? How was it? Really curious to hear out the different experiences.

There is more than two years since we’ve met you and we couldn’t be more grateful. On July 2014 we have enthusiastically shared our project and vision and you’ve supported us fully.

Since then, the scope of the project grew and our vision enlarged. We now have a Beta version of Black The Fall, with a compelling story, an original game mechanic,thrilling visuals and unique sound. We think it is much better than our initial prototype and we are confident we did the right choice in deciding to improve our original idea. But this came with a price, which eventually everyone had to pay: time. We needed more time to rise to the level of our ambitions. And for your patience of bearing with us, we want to thank you.

As our journey might look confusing from the outside, here is a timeline we’d like to share with you.

YOU are part of our story and this will always be of great value to us. Thank you for your support and especially for your patience in the past two years!

PS: As there might be questions left unanswered, here is our FAQ section.

Last week we shared with you our favourite games of 2016 , still melancholic by the passing of such a crazy year. Then we figured it's a new year, hence it's the time to get excited for new amazing titles.  We turned to each other and started throwing names. This is how where our high hopes for 2017 go to:

..Schlicht - Visually relaxing and somehow challenging at the same time. A really nice treat.

Below - Indie, mysterious and dark. Or course, we're intrigued!

Black The Fall - Now, I swear to God, we are all really-really excited for this one to come out. Can't wait to create a new, more representative trailer.

 Far: Lone Sails - Is a lovely adventure game, where you have to manage a vehicle's resources, while driving into the unknown. Such a nice mechanic and graphic, you can't help falling for it.

For Honor - Well, let's drink to that!

 Little Nightmares - For the right amount of cute and creepy.

Mass Effect: Andromeda - I'm gonna be this person!

Niche - Someone got enchanted while playing this cute & brilliant survival at Indie Arena (Gamescom 2016). Now I can't wait to play it myself.

Night in The Woods - We have another someone in the team who loves cats and creepy. But hey, seeing the trailer was "I wanna play that!" at first sight.

Oddworld: Soulstorm - anything that Oddworld has in mind for 2017, gets us excited. Now seeing bits of Soulstorm had us intrigued. Can't wait to see more of it!

Oh My God Heads! - if you're looking for a fun couch game, this is the one right here. Laughter and friends guaranteed. If you want to befriend a stranger, just ask them to join you for this multi-player and boom!

Old Man's Journey - Eye candy and emotional? Yes, please!

Vampyr - 'Cursed be the choice!"

We Happy Few - An intriguing, disturbing and addictive survival horror. Gimme!

Last year it was a gaming feast and, boy, we fed our minds and souls! From saucy shooters to fizzy puzzlers, we tried it all. Today during lunch, we got a bit melancholic and a never ending discussion started on what made us tick last year. Actually, here is an open window to our studio. You’ll find indies, AAAs and some insight into who we are.

Head of the list is Cristi, who usually has the energy of an entrepreneur, an athlete and a comedian, all in one. An awesome one. This is not a commercial,  but a mere context.

1. Uncharted 4

2. The Witness

3. Battlefield 1

Next in line is Nico. She loves to question everything, has a keen eye on details, she's a perfectionist and a survivor. I mean, you can tell just by looking at this list.

1. Don't Starve: Shipwrecked

2. The Flame in the Flood

3. Firewatch

Razvan knows his stuff and more often than not, he knows something about anyone's stuff. his thing is being witty and playful.

1. Overwatch

3. Black Dessert Online

3. Everspace

With Adi, you get a nice deal: a very kind, smart and sweet guy who can say, in the cutest way: "No, thanks, that tastes awful". He's the artsy programmer.

1. GoNNER

2. Candle

3. NIVA

Licu is this beautifully strange person that can be so expressive, fun and flexible, but also insightful, blunt, detached and creative. I'm telling you, he's quite one of a kind programmer.

1. No Man's Sky

2. F1 2016

3.  Land's End

If it's dark, Andreea will love it. She's the curious, witty and brave artist so sometimes morphs into cats and then back into human, and then back into cats. Lovely dance, trust me.

1. Darkest Dungeon

2. Inside

3. Dishonored 2

Marius has a secret crush on details. He just tenderly loves those little monsters. Understandably, he must be the most patient and easy going person I've ever met.

1. Doom III

1. Dirt Rally

3. Event 0  

Andrei doesn't say much but when he does, it shall be witty, short and make us laugh. Regular stuff are utterly boring , so he's the go to person for the unexpected, the absurd or the beauty of the actual reality. Most definitely, a huggable philosopher-artist.

1. Genital Jousting 

2. Clock Simulator

3. Crap! I'm Broke: Out of Pocket

And I'm me, Biba. The connector :)

1. Samorost 3

3. Never Alone

2.  Mekazoo

After the amazing adventures at BICFest and TGS (where we first met the lovely Tokyo Dark devs from Cherrymotchi and we got reunited with Sushee, the French devs behind Goetia), we barely caught our breath and flew to EGX 2016. And it pretty much felt like coming back home. Our Square Enix Collective family was there and we also got to meet the new members: Throughline Games, who just announced Forgotton Anne as a future indie title to be published by Square Enix. We reunited with our Spanish brothers at Titutitech and had some fun playing Oh My God Heads! (the game that brings people together & makes them happy).

We also got the chance to meet some of our amazing backers, some of the puzzle solvers at Rezzed and so many more brilliant minds for whom time stopped, the moment they were hooked in escaping the oppressive system. It warms our hearts to see people feeling so proud of themselves for sorting out the tricky puzzles.  Or hearing things from "These puzzles are really smart" to "Is this it?  I just want to play more" or "He loves games he tried most of them here, but this is the one he played the longest".

We love you guys (not a lot, though, just the right amount of love The Party allows us to offer)!

As with most events, we give away some Steam keys. So the 10 winners at EGX 2016 are listed here and they'll receive an email today with their codes. So, congrats for being lucky :)

Cheers guys & gals!