September 15th, 2021, AK'INTERVIEW BY FORBES FRANCE!

The article is in French because it is Forbes, certainly, but Forbes France!

Good enough, I will translate it myself!

For those who want to find out what it says ... but in English, read on

​Can you present your business?

Akedo is an independent game studio, commonly known as Indie, created in Montreal by Nicolas Juspin, 3D programmer in the triple AAA who notably worked on video hits games, and myself, Zoé Toussaint, in charge of marketing , communication and business development.

Who are your clients ?
Our Studio is aimed above all at Gamers, we work mainly in BtoC. We thought we would reach gamers who started playing video games in the 90s. Finally, our studio also attracts an audience interested in retro.

To our great surprise, we are in contact with an entertainment company dedicated to airlines who wish to provide their passengers with games on small screens.

​Akedo was born because Nicolas wanted to become a craftsman again and challenge himself and rediscover the pleasure of playing and creating. For this, we have made the choice to self-finance the company since 2016, and we use our own technology to develop our video games.​ Indeed, we do not use video game creation software dedicated to Indies, we have chosen to develop our own technology in order to better control our creation tools and to control our production costs. Being completely independent is essential for Akedo.

​Can you describe your different services?
We currently offer games for Windows PCs, which we would also like to develop on other platforms such as Linux, and Nintendo Switch. Our studio offers video games in an unrealistic world where the imagination takes over thanks to the magic of 2D, pixel art and neo retro gameplays.

In our first game, Nick Reckless in The Curse of the Lost Cause, the character is a sort of anti Indiana Jones, touched by a curse that never ceases to haunt him. Our hero evolves through levels generated randomly, which allows Gamers an almost infinite replayability. Despite the challenges before him, his goal is to get rid of the cause of his curse.

We also have an online store with derivative objects, called the Loot Zone, in reference to a video game principle known to all gamers. The funds collected are used to finance our studio and are reinvested in the creation of new video games. It's sort of a participatory campaign in which we offer items in exchange for the support provided by our community.

Developing our technology was our first challenge. Then, in 2019, after participating in five events in Montreal, I created a web series of ten episodes called Once Upon a Time which covers all the stages in the creation of the studio. It is part of the Ak'Mag, a process of transparency on the life of our Indie. We will also be launching the “Dev Diary” which traces all the often overlooked steps in the creation of a video game.

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What has been the impact of the health crisis on your business? During this period, we were able to move faster in the programming and development of our projects. However, it cut us off from the gaming community and we were unable to participate in one of the oldest French video game festivals, the Stunfest, in Rennes. In the past, this type of event has been very positive because we were able to give our game a live try. This allowed for constructive feedback from gamers; these exchanges have enriched our development. Indeed, after only 3 months of development, 298 people tried our game, during iconic Montreal events such as DreamHack and MEGAMIGS, in 2019. And to our greatest happiness, our demo was greeted with enthusiasm and benevolence. It is this connection to the community that has been missed the most during this crisis.

In order to remain completely independent in the creation of our products, we wish to remain a self-financed company. So our current challenge is to seduce the public with our gameplays and our goodies so that we can make dozens of other neo-retro games, in an Indie spirit, without imposed specifications.

Since 2016, we have been making a risky bet in this extremely competitive industry, but it is an adventure that we are living to the full, together

Obviously, we have plans to make other games. Our next concept is already bubbling with ideas. But we also want to improve our technology, because in the long term we want it to be participatory, so that other Indies and projects see the light of day. In this age of individualism, we want to put people back at the heart of our discussions. This is why we would like to develop a “mentoring” program that would be a collaborative exchange link to discuss and share our experiences.

​Do you have a news on which you would like to communicate? All products in our online store are on presale until September 27 inclusive. The sales from this space will aim to finance our second video game. As for our first video game, it will also be available in September on itch.io and on Steam. Today, we also invite your readers to follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram and to subscribe to our Newsletter so as not to miss our next news.