Pretty good year

For Hemisphere Games – and for me – 2009 was a whirlwind year. New Years’ day found me skiing and relaxing with good friends in Revelstoke, British Columbia. Osmos still lay in the hands of the IGF judges, quietly unknown to the world beyond a few friends and some very thorough IGF followers. I had put together a website for Hemisphere Games just before my trip to BC, along with an early Osmos demo which I made available. During my trip I logged in from time to time to see how it was faring: “One download of the Osmos demo today.” “Two downloads.” “Three downloads today!” I was excited to get it out there and get some initial feedback, though the website certainly wasn’t in danger of being overloaded.

I flew back to Montreal on January 8th, and before hitting the sack, checked my email: “Congrats!” “congratz!” “Holy Crap!” I read the emails. “What?!” I thought. “It can’t be.” Osmos had received three IGF nominations, including the Grand Prize. Articles on the finalists were already starting to appear online. I checked our website: over 500 downloads so far today! Excitedly, I shared the news with Dave, Andy, and Kun, as well as friends and Osmos contributors. The whirlwind began…

Here we are, a year later. Osmos was released in August and has been doing very well: sales have been good (for an indie PC title), and it’s received great reviews and feedback. It also won a few awards along the way, including “Best in Show” and “Fun/Compelling” at (the wonderful) IndieCade, D2D’s Vision Award (the prize money went a *long* way towards funding final production of the game), and it had been selected as one of the PAX 10. It was also nominated for Spike TV’s “best indie game” award, and a number of other best-of-year lists. Needless to say we’ve been pleased and amazed throughout! In recent weeks, we released the Mac port as well as the Games for Windows Live versions, which have kept us busy. Next steps: iPhone and Linux; and hopefully prototyping some fun ideas we’ve been discussing.

On the personal side of things, my girlfriend Angela and I moved across the country in the late Spring, from cosmopolitan Montreal to small-town-in-the-mountains Nelson, BC. Along the way I quit my job to go “full-time indie”, and Angela became pregnant!

The whirlwind never let up.

I went for a x-country ski today. The trees were filled with snow, and the sky was sprinkling big, beautiful flakes on everything; peaceful and quiet. I didn’t go too far, or for too long however, as Angela is due to give birth in two days…

So yeah, 2009 was a “pretty good year” for us. I can only imagine what 2010 will bring.

Thanks and best wishes to you all,
– Eddy, on behalf of the Hemi-team.

ps. The 2010 IGF Finalists will be announced tomorrow! Good luck to all the entrants… it can be quite the ride! ;-)