1 Simple Game announces partnerships with two international companies
From Mexico to the global stage
Representatives from the three companies
The Mexican developer studio 1 Simple Game has received an important investment from two international companies: By Aliens, and Global Top Round. Its value has increased by several million dollars.
The video game industry is thriving globally. A market with a lot of growth potential is Latin America, and both new partners have seen this.
Cayan Appel, CFO of By Aliens comments: “We want to be the biggest incubator for LATAM and being in Mexico is our first step outside Brazil”. With 2 yet-to-be-announced titles already in the works from this partnership, their bid is serious.
And Pontus Mähler, VP of Global Top Round says: “We’ve been aware for quite some time that Latin America is an upcoming region. Our current largest studio is based in Brazil. We are just getting started in this region”.
Both share the same enthusiasm for 1 Simple Game’s visual style, and commitment to delivering projects with their expected quality.
About the creative freedom of the studio, Appel assured “the games we will create will definitely be decided by both companies together but nowadays we are focusing on a board casual game, and looking for time management with cars”.
As for the association with GTR, “our goal with this collaboration is to scale slowly and smartly. We want to find the best possible partners for publishing & distribution across the company’s multiple titles to grow the studio’s branding, expertise, and ultimately success.”
With the combined expertise of these partners, not only the development process will have a boost, but also the capacity to reach more players worldwide.
Both partners are happy with the professional relationship that has been established since the first contact in 2021 and settled in 2022.
Meeting again at this year’s GDC and at the BIG Festival in Brazil, 1 Simple Game, By Aliens and Global Top Round made their alliance public and strategize their future endeavors.
About 1 Simple Game
1 Simple Game is a game development studio from Mexico, established in 2013. With experience in mobile games, and now entering the PC/console market. More information is available at 1simplegame.com
About By Aliens
By Aliens is a mobile game publisher for independent third-party developers based in Portugal with a branch in Hong Kong. More information is available at byaliens.com/
About Global Top Round
Global Top Round is an interactive accelerator program dedicated to supporting studios all around the world. More information is available at globaltopround.com
The Rogue Jam Experience
When we started developing I’m Not Jelly, it was hard to imagine where it could get to. Even if it still needs more work before it’s done, the reception that the test we launched has had makes us very happy.
A very good example of this was Rogue Jam, an event we were in this year.
Rogue Jam is an initiative from Rogue Inc, an indie game publisher, and IGN, one of the most important specialized media outlets. They summoned indie game developers from all around the world to present their projects and have a chance to get a deal with them, getting professional feedback from experts in the gaming industry in the process.
Maybe you already know the result, but we didn’t want to lose the opportunity to tell you what it meant to us. For it, I’m Not Jelly’s Producer, Kary Lomelí reflects on the experience.
“I arrived nervously, but everyone was super kind and professional. We made technical tests and they started chatting while giving us instructions and prepared us for the show”.
The format of Rogue Jam was similar to “Shark Tank”, with the three games chosen as the best of each category getting comments from the judges. At the end of the episode, they deliberated and chose the winner.
“The judges’ comments made me trust the game even more”. For example, it got a smile out of Reggie Fils-Aimé, ex-Director of Nintendo of America, while also entertaining him a lot, and Kimberly Pointer Corbett, SVP Digital Publishing at Warner Bros. really liked the game’s aesthetic.
“Their comments were very positive, they helped us think of mechanics or elements that we didn’t have in mind, but can make a better project. We hope that everyone else likes it as much as they did”. And from those comments, we’re working on adjustments for a new trial version of I’m Not Jelly. Even the game’s pitch had improvements from the opportunities we found at this event.
“I didn’t think it would reach these levels, but I’m Not Jelly did, and it was very gratifying to see where the studio is now. I hope that you can check out other Rogue Jam games, play I’m Not Jelly, and leave us comments and feedback. If you stream it, tag us and we will try to see it”.
And one last piece of advice from Kary, this time for developers: “Don’t be afraid to pitch your game if you know your project. The more you apply to events, the more visibility your game will get, and all feedback will help you make a better game. All attempts are good, even if it’s just for improving what you have, but you won’t know it until you put it out there and get real feedback”.
And in case you didn’t get to see it, here’s Rogue Jam’s episode:
It was a great experience and we’re grateful for it. Besides, we got into that episode thanks to the audience votes, which makes us feel like we’re on the right track. We will keep working to give you a fun game.
I’m Not Jelly brings 3 other Awards to the Mothership!
Last week was a victorious one for the Nojellians. We got selected to participate in two pitching events, and the judges liked our project.
Conexión by LatinxInGaming had 8 games from different countries of Latin America. The potential of this region is showing more and more. I’m Not Jelly won the 3rd Place Award!
Gamesweekberlin Dev Booster also had 8 Finalists, but from all around the world. On this event we got not one, but two awards! The 3rd Place on the judges’ round, and the Audience Choice thanks to the public vote during the livestreamed event.
It’s always very gratifying for the team to know that the game we’re making catches people’s attention and gets support! We’re very thankful for all these opportunities.
You can add I’m Not Jelly tag to your Twitch stream
Some months ago, when we announced I’m Not Jelly, we uploaded a Playtest version of it to Steam. Even though it’s a very early combat test, the comments that we have received are quite positive, and have helped us to improve several aspects from the game.
We’ve been lucky and some streamers have played our game on their channels, even though at the beginning they had to use tags such as “roguelike”, so now we have our official I’m Not Jelly tag for Twitch.
If you or someone you know want to stream I’m Not Jelly, feel free to do it, and to reach out to us through your favorite social media page so we can try to see your stream and answer questions you might have.
We will keep working hard developing the game, the trial version currently online will change a lot for the final release.
I’m Not Jelly is part of the 3 Finalists for the Audience Choice Award at Rogue Jam!
It’s been a few months since we announced our incoming project, I’m Not Jelly, and the reaction to it has been incredible. We have received support and great feedback from people all around the world!
While we continue its development journey, we entered a very special contest: Rogue Jam. There will be many categories for this, but there is one that has already been announced, the Audience Choice Award. Over 50 games were nominated, and each team had to convince fans to vote for them. After a few weeks of voting, this was the Top 3 that made it to the finals:
Yep, I’m Not Jelly is there! Thanks to the help of our community, and people that liked our game enough to vote for it, we have a chance to win! Now the decision will be in the hands of the judges, and we will know what happens when Rogue Jam gets broadcasted through IGN in a show between April and May of this year.
We’ll keep you posted about the results.
I’m Not Jelly won an award at Ventana Sur!
Audiovisual entertainment is a fundamental part of our daily lives. Some events celebrate both cinema and video games. Such is the case with Ventana Sur, organized in Buenos Aires, Argentina by the country’s Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA) and the Marché du Film of Cannes Festival. At the end of 2021, we participated in their videogame section named Las Maquinitas. We were nominated among other incredible Latin American titles.
We won the Zvook award! This means that I’m Not Jelly will get voice acting.
When this game comes out, it will come with the talent of this studio, and we’re sure that it will add depth and personality to our game.
We want to publicly thank Zvook and the organizers of Ventana Sur – Las Maquinitas for their trust in our project.
Several months will pass before we can show you the results of this award, but the wait will be worth it.
I’m Not Jelly is on G. Round!
We’re participating in the platform G. Round, from the same organizer team as Global Top Round. From November 10th to December 7th, I’m Not Jelly is available toplay and comment here.
G. Round “is an exclusive community-driven platform where we carefully select a limited amount of games every week for our community to play and test. In turn, we are also dedicated to helping game developers gather feedback from the players to improve and polish their games”.
We’ve had the fortune to have people from all over the world playing I’m Not Jelly and giving us their opinions. Some content creators have uploaded videos from our game, even in languages such as Romanian. We’re flattered that so many people have enjoyed the gameplay and visual style of our project, and the points to improve that they have given us are things that we’re already working on.
We’re super grateful to G. Round for the space, and with its awesome community for accepting I’m Not Jelly. Remember that you can also join its Playtest from their platform, or directly at Steam.
1 Simple Game is one of the 10 chosen studios at Global Top Round 2021
We already wanted to share this amazing news: we participated in the Global Top Round 2021 program, and with our game I’m Not Jelly became one of the 10 chosen studios for their indie games acceleration.
Here’s the full roster:
According to their page “GTR is an interactive accelerator program dedicated to supporting small studios from all over the world with the development, publishing, and fundraising expertise they need to take their content global and make their businesses sustainable”.
Among other things, this means access to a network of experts in all these themes, workshops, and meetings for several months. This announcement of being part of the 2021 GTR generation is only the beginning of what will happen because of this event.
As you can imagine, all this is still in process, but when we can share something about I’m Not Jelly’s new allies we’ll make sure to let you know through here. At 1 Simple Game, we’re going to focus on developing the game in the best possible way, on a global scale. That a team of connoisseurs from around the world has given it recognition like that motivates us to make it reach its maximum potential.
The Lullaby of Life won an award at IndieCade 2021!
We’re super excited to tell you that…
The Lullaby of Life won the Game Developer Choice Award at IndieCade 2021!
This honor was bestowed upon us by a jury of gaming industry professionals, and our fellow nominees.
IndieCade Anywhere and Everywhere was an online festival once again, from October 22 to 24, on their Twitch channel, and also rehosted by us.
The organizers of the event are, in their own words: “an expansive team of dedicated individuals who truly believe that we can make an impact on the industry and ultimately the way the world plays, understands, and is impacted by games”.
Before the pandemic, it was held in Culver City, United States. It was known as the “Sundance of videogames” for its independent and innovative spirit, with auteur’s games that take bigger creative risks than others.
Besides being happy for our nomination, we think that The Lullaby of Life is ad-hoc to the festival, given its concept is open to interpretation. Remember that you can play it on Apple Arcade.
The category that The Lullaby of Life was particularly nominated on was Audio Design, so we want to give a shout-out to our partners at Soundscape!
Introducing I’m Not Jelly!
We were dying to finally share our next project with you: I’m Not Jelly. Now that we’re finally showing things about it and presenting it at events, we couldn’t waste the opportunity to write about it on our blog.
We’re aware that as a player, you expect that a game convinces you before investing in it, so we will be posting more information, images and gameplay, through our social media channels constantly during development, and we would love to have your support or that you share it if you like what you see. We’re mostly onFacebook, Instagram, Twitter& Discord.
The official game description goes like this:
“Conquer different planets at war by hacking and slashing through plant foes in roguelike style missions. Watch over your mothership to unlock, upgrade and customize Jelly characters for accomplishing objectives and defeat powerful bosses!”
But we can tell you a couple of other details, direct from some members of 1 Simple Game involved with the game’s development. For example, that this isn’t the first iteration, but it has had changes in visual style and even in the genre.
With I’m Not Jelly we will make an action game for big platforms, with a strong pillar of humor that you will see little by little.
Some references we had for this game are Hades (and other titles from Supergiant Games) or Hob, and visually TV shows such as Rick & Morty and Invader Zim.
If you want to play I’m Not Jelly, you can register free of charge for the Playtest directly at Steam, and add it to your Wishlist. This very early test version is for you to have a better grasp of what the gameplay is going to be like.
