Heavy Key Studios

This was our first MAGFest. While we've been hearing about it for years, we've always struggled to manage the deadlines for signup for the MAGFest Indie Videogames Showcase. However, with Blind Blades released on Steam, we were more than ready for the signup process this year. For those who are familiar, MAGFest is unique in its combination of passion for Indie games and scale of audience. This year more than 9000 people attended, and it felt like most of them hit our booth!

While seeing so many people play Blind Blades was exciting, there were many other highlights to MAGFest. Getting a moment with Aku and Samurai Jack was an unexpected delight. Having other Indies stop by and compliment us on Adam and Josh's art was a treasured encouragement. But one personal highlight was a group of four guys that came and stood at our booth late in the festival. They wanted to ask us questions about our design decisions and volunteer some suggestions (which are always welcome). The best part of meeting them was hearing that they had actually played Blind Blades the previous day. They had so much fun that they bought it and played it for two hours that night. We can't emphasize enough what a big deal that is since they had an entire festival's worth of stuff they could have been doing instead. Their enthusiasm touched our hearts deeply.

In such warmly regarded company, we were doubly honored knowing Blind Blades had been nominated for the DIW Game of the Year award. We were competing with games that have won our respect, and to us it’s an honor to be numbered among them. So when we won Game of the Year, we felt a responsibility to voice our admiration for the numerous overlooked developers in our area.