In the small town of Mons, in Hainaut, video game enthusiasts created an independent studio: Fishing Cactus.
That was in 2009, and since then, they’ve come a long way. The small studio has grown and now collaborates with around thirty artists, developers, game designers, and more. But it has retained its fundamental philosophy: to create video game projects on a human scale, as opposed to the big productions and giants of the industry. When the studio was launched, Belgium was not really a hotbed of video game creation, so it was quite a challenge - especially when it came to finding investors!
Bruno Urbain, the founder and director, and his team don’t just create simple games. They design smart games, i.e. games with an educational or informative purpose... In other words, at Fishing Cactus, they make games with soul. And they’re proud of this artisanal approach.
The list of their productions is impressive: Epistory, Nanotale, Corsairs, Algobot, Ary, Gloomy Eyes, Shift Quantum... The poetic Epistory has enjoyed international success and received numerous awards: the Innovation Award at the Belgian Game Awards (2015), Creative Play at the Paris Play Awards (2015), an honourable mention at the Independent Game Festival in 2016, and the title of ‘Best Game’ at the Momocon Festival in Atlanta in 2016. Its narrative, atmosphere and origami 3D visual style certainly helped to win over the juries.
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Les Belges Histoires
The production of « Les Belges Histoires, les talents de Wallonie-Bruxelles » is an initiative of Wallonie-Bruxelles International.
