 welcome back folks freedom games is our next developer coming up and you know when you have games that are like called cat cafe manager or dog shelter I think we can assume that things are gonna be pretty fun so folks here's freedom games I decided you know I've dabbled in indie games I'm gonna give this one last shot let's just make a yes it felt like jumping to the defense I realized that making games is like a real thing that you can do it's just so that's the word is liberating we owned this project we just want to make a fun game you have an idea of what the vision of it looks like but then it actually coming out the other side looking like that it's pretty rare I cope out of the studio with two my friends we had all worked at a company that did not end up turning out like you know any of us had hoped so coming out of that experience the three of us we wanted to do something that felt a little bit more authentic to who we were and what we liked going into it we knew that we had complementary skill sets having the the kind of the core pillars of game design already there and having experience we were able to cover a lot of bases this is really the first time we've been able to pour so much of ourselves into the development of a game I think I'm most proud of us being able to look at this game and know that we're hitting our own quality bar especially for our first game you think you know everything well I guess we got to figure it out the four of us who started the studio worked in AAA I left to go start making indie games so we took that opportunity to kind of use our old friend group and our old expertise to start up the wandering band it was the first time that all of us felt complete creative control that was fun it was a challenge it was also scary at the beginning on a AAA team you have technical artists and a dozen animators I think the biggest challenge for us was trying to learn new skills and new parts of the game development process without ever doing it before but I wouldn't trade it away I think it's the creativity and creative freedom is totally worth it. These were our favorites and we tried to combine a lot of different elements from different games and give it a unique touch and shout out to our community they helped us translate the demo they helped us get out the words the demo has been played over a million times it's just great to get a community like that they helped us make common what it is. I had lived in Kyoto for a while but I had gone to a cat cafe and it was such a surreal experience for me at the time so we sat down we prototyped cat cafe manager when you're petting a cat I don't know what it is like endorphins that are being released like the good feeling that you get from that we kind of wanted to put in the game we live in the time it's like pretty stressful and out of control in a lot of ways so for us it's very important that you sort of get a cozy feeling when you get introduced to the game just making the cat cafe of your dreams. So as Tanner the other lead developer on the game we've been together for since middle school I guess there's no companies right there's no video game companies in Little Rock or the state of Arkansas so we decided to just be the first to rescue is where you play as somebody working in a dog shelter and taking on all the responsibilities that entails. People love dogs so much but this is also about raising awareness right it's both of those things. There's diseases that can appear in the shelter it's dirty and adopters only want the cutest puppies and they don't want the old dogs. Essentially I just want people to walk away with more knowledge about the things we're representing. We've gotten a lot of people that work in real shelters that are like I'm glad that you're doing this because a lot of people don't realize how hard the work is and how thankless it is so 20% of every dollar that Little Rock Games makes from this game is going to be going to the Pet Finder Foundation. The game is about being hopeful that you can improve your community in some small way. I first started getting into games probably about seven or eight years old tinkering around with game engines I started putting games on the web flash games and things like that. I always liked the idea of really silly deaths. Characters getting blown to bits in like a cartoony way. It's usually an area of frustration but when you can see your character's head just flying off and blood's going everywhere it's like you just got nothing but fumidate. I come up with the idea of having like a Ninja Warrior slash Total White Power death competition. I was actually working two jobs at the same time as developing the game. I have all these fantastic ideas while I was there. You know I'll be on the checkout just thinking about slowly and about time I get home I'm just like we ended up deciding that it would be best if I work full time on the game. This game it sounds corny but it's changed my life in that way whereas no other game had before. It's just flipped my life to where I want it to be so to finally be able to do this as a job is just insane. I love it. This is definitely like a good just relaxed chill to even play fun slapping stupid stuff kind of game. I did just fine but I worked on dark deity I didn't work on my own work. None of us have ever worked on games that also for the majority of development have worked on it in the dorm. Yeah we would sort of just sit in the dorm room just like you know type of working away. I learned how to code for like a whole week I just didn't leave my room didn't eat didn't do anything. You know where we're at we're all 23. Two of us haven't graduated college yet to be at E3 is pretty exciting. Maybe I should raise my race. This has consequences. This would make for a fine table. I've always thought that I would be good at making video games. My mom just sent me a picture of a drawing I did when I was like eight titled my own game. I was diagnosed with Asperger's autism as a child and I basically kind of just told myself now there's no way I could be in management but through therapy as a child and then continuing my own efforts I overcame it. Now I'm doing my dream doing something I thought I couldn't do. Through this process I've really learned how valuable people are. There's 20 people on the team. I'm just one of them and I'm hoping to convey some of that through the games narrative. You have to have growth and you have to have progress. So for us with one lonely outpost loneliness helps highlight the value of connection. That took us a long time to get here. We put a lot of hard work into it. Chipping games brings tough times but we've also seen like success together. Success for us is defined as being able to continue to do this because we really love it. We want to be what we know and be the best at that. Making something that people enjoy. Thank you Freedom Games for that showcase. Passionate. Diverse. Different. Unexpected David. That's what I would call it. If you weren't paying attention Freedom Games is providing 20% of the profits of to the rescue to the Pet Finder Foundation and now gentlemen it's time to react. I will start with I don't know maybe I would speak for everybody. For Greg Miller I wasn't that familiar with Freedom Games before. I'll give you this 2021. I am now a Freedom Games fan. Like I liked what I saw there. I know you're a freedom fighter. You know I'm a lover not a fighter. I'm a freedom lover. All right. Is that better? Coramon. Cat Cafe manager to the rescue and then Slaughter League all jump out at me but you guys are the experts. Dan what did you like? Well first I have to give it up for to the rescue not only is it great way to support the Pet Finder Foundation but I really like that kind of simulation game you saw a great pairing there whether you're a cat fan or a dog fan you can come together to celebrate these awesome pets with a fun like sort of management sim it looks really at my alley but I dropped my notes so I'm just gonna stick with those for the time. Oh thank you so much. You dropped this King. Oh thank you. Thank you. The one I really want to talk about because Michael and I were geeking out about it was Dark Deity. Yes. Strategy RPG that looks like very up the alley of anyone who likes Fire Emblem or things like that. Sure. I also like they have an XCOM-esque wound system which I appreciate adds another layer to it so looks pretty pretty exciting. I thought it was cool there's it was cool pixel art also but also anime style hand drawn art. Take that away from me Damon listen if you all want to get my attention with your video game if you have anime style artwork for your characters I'll at least give you my time of day. I'll say that I'll say that much. That was the one I mean for Dark Deity you went oh I wrote my only note on Dark Deity is Mikey likes. You liked it. Yeah and like and Cat Cafe Manager you know freedom games really hit me with my brand. Yeah because I love cats it's so cute. Cat Cafe Manager I've been to a Cat Cafe before you know you get a little coffee you go pet the cats if not if you're allergic RIP but yeah that's that was really cute obviously like a tycoon simulator thing and cute cats say less. Say less. Damon you love cats did Cat Cafe Manager work for you. For sure I've been to many a Cat Cafe. Okay I have some ideas about how they might be run better. Well here we go see if you can put proof in the pudding and you get out there you manage your own cat. This fool's lying. No no no it's true. Oh it's true. Yeah yeah yeah anything else stand out to you. I mean the games are coming so quickly. Yeah you see like well this game looks interesting and then they're on to the next one. There was a I think it's fair to say it's a Pokemon like in there. Mon's even in the title. Koromon is in the title. Koromon. I think there's more to it than that. There's definitely like animal battling. Well when it started I was watching and he started like moving puzzles like oh I wrote very Zelda like and then it became Pokemon. I was like oh very Pokemon like actually I'm sorry I got this one wrong. As you can see ladies and gentlemen right now you can get out there and vote no matter which platform you're watching E3 2021 on you can vote right now. Cat Cafe Manager is winning nearly with 32% right behind it Koromon with 26% and then Dreamscaper with 19%. Remember no matter where you are watching you can put it in your chat of choice and if you want to just roll down your window and yell somebody else will we'll figure out how to tally it up there right? Yes sir. One also another thing that extend extension from the indie showcase that we saw like a lot of experimentation. Exactly. Yeah even though we saw some things that are kind of like oh that reminds me of this that reminds me of Fire Emblem that reminds me of Pokemon they're still putting their spin on it and like I like to see those kinds of things in those games. Everyone has an inspiration so it's like I want to make the game like make something similar to the game that I love so. It's all this evolution I mean like think about one lonely outpost for example yeah we were joking around like oh Space Dew Valley because it does look Stardew Valley inspired which in turn is inspired by Harvest Moon so there's a lot more that you can do with this kind of genre this type of game no one really gets to be sort of the be all end all of that category or genre and I'm excited to see what they can offer here so it's nice to see a lot of these indie developers wearing their influences on their sleeve. I was really excited about Slaughter League for example. Yes it looks like that kind of competitive madcap fun of a game like Fall Guys for example but with the kind of murdery chaos you'd expect from like a Smash TV or like a oh god like I'm blanking on the name right now Meat Boy. It's funny you mentioned Meat Boy right in the panel before right in the panel panel before where they were doing the indie games conversation. Ed McMillan talked about the fact that the power of Indies is that you don't have to appeal to the mainstream and I think that's why this one stands out in terms of a conference so far and we can all find something else to hone in on right where it's like yeah I don't know if to the rescue a realistic you know sim about running a rescue operation for dogs and cats would stand out in or make sense for a big publisher who has to get a big return on their investment but for this team here that wants to do a dog shelter and wants to have this stuff and wants to you know get profits out there there to people and help yeah that's great. It's smart of freedom games too in addition to showing trailers or gameplays for for the games to actually put the creators in front of the camera as well yeah indie games can be so much more personal it's it's so much more one person's vision or a very small team's vision. Totally yeah one of the things I loved about it when you're watching there to the to the rescues they showed them at PAX right and if you've never had the chance to go to a PAX I urge you to do it and then go to the indie mega booth when we know when you can go to things again because yeah getting to sit there and get a demo from somebody like oh what do you do in the game like I make the game it's the most personal way and the best way to get it. Ladies and gentlemen when we return our friends at ven will give us a special edition of their series origin stories featuring 100 thieves founder and CEO nade shot that and more after this.