Gossamer Games showcases ‘Sole’ at Maryland gaming festival

Gossamer Games director Thomas Sharpe brought back a flu from gaming festival MAGFest. But despite the ailment, he’s ecstatic about the experience.

Why? That’s where his company’s flagship video game was showcased before some 4,000 people throughout the four-day stretch, as part of its Indie Video Game Showcase. The company nabbed third place for best booth and second place for best music.

“It was by far the biggest event we’ve ever showcased at,” Sharpe told Technical.ly. “To call it overwhelming would be a bit of understatement, but we couldn’t have had a better time.”

Some 250 folks actually played the ‘Sole’ demo, a strange post-apocalyptic adventure game where you control the only source of light in a darkened world.

“That’s pretty incredible, since the demo took about 20-30 minutes to play and was almost always in use,” said Sharpe. “And because the event ran 24 hours starting Thursday, ending Sunday, it was amazing waking up to see tweets like this from people enjoying the game at 3 a.m.”

There were at least a couple of tweets with praises:

https://twitter.com/Batman12338/status/949023897738973184

One LAST @MAGFest tweet:

Special shoutout to the anonymous visitor who left this super lovely message for us overnight.

If we had a fridge, we’d pin it up there forever ❤️❤️❤️#MIVS #magfest2018 #indiedev pic.twitter.com/M5B3KlIQqb

— Gossamer Games (@GossamerGames) January 8, 2018

Just finished the demo for Sole by @GossamerGames at MAGFest and I'm in tears with how beautiful it is. I literally lost track of time I was so absorbed.

— Little Prince Vaporwave (@PrinceProtea) January 6, 2018

Gossamer, a core team of three based out of Drexel University’s Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship, recently partnered with the Chemical Heritage Foundation (now known as Science History Institute, btw) and Drexel’s Entrepreneurial Game Studio to build a game about alchemy.

“The selection of games included in this year’s MAGFest Indie Video Game Showcase was staggering and we were shocked to receive 3rd place for best booth and 2nd place for best music amidst so many great games,” Sharpe said. “We’ll definitely be looking forward to participating in the years to come.”