The Road to Summerfall - Part 6 Picture it: it's early 2018 and I'm returning to Melbourne again. As I walk out of the airport, it's a blistering 40C outside - it was -25C in Edmonton when I left. I'm jet-lagged, delirious, packed for a long stay, and wondering "how the f is this going to work?" - ThreadSky

davidgaider.bsky.social • 34 days ago

The Road to Summerfall - Part 6

Picture it: it's early 2018 and I'm returning to Melbourne again. As I walk out of the airport, it's a blistering 40C outside - it was -25C in Edmonton when I left. I'm jet-lagged, delirious, packed for a long stay, and wondering "how the f is this going to work?"

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raventhewitch.bsky.social•34 days ago

as someone trying to get into the industry sometime in the near future, i just wanna go ahead and thank you for sharing these stories

knight1029.bsky.social•32 days ago

I want to say thank you so much for sharing. Its terrible that its so hard to make a studio and get funding but you did it. And the results of it show.

davidgaider.bsky.social•34 days ago

Liam and I have a plan: the Victoria government does funding for games studios through Film Victoria (now VicScreen), and our plan is to do a pitch for a grant that would give us the start-up money that we need.

Only catch? We need to create that pitch. For that, we need a game. No problem, right?

davidgaider.bsky.social•34 days ago

It's at this point Elie comes into the picture more strongly - not as co-founder (yet), but as someone who wants to help. We've become friends, and they offered me an apartment to live in - which was great, because if Liam and I lived & worked together for so long we would have killed each other.

davidgaider.bsky.social•34 days ago

Oh, and then there was the studio name.

I think Liam and I spent all of 2018 going back and forth on it. Naming things is the WORST. Everything sounded either too twee or too pretentious. At one point it was Wayward Court, which sounded like the name of an apartment building. It was never-ending. 😭

blazypika2.bsky.social•33 days ago

please tell me wayward court was the worst one cause if you got worse than that, that's just impressive!

but hey, you landed a good name in the end.

davidgaider.bsky.social•34 days ago

Finally, we decide to keep it simple. Something about us. I bring up the difference in our ages and Liam jokes that the name should be Winterspring.

Me: "I am NOT yet in the winter of my life, and you are no spring chicken anymore either. It's more like Fall-Summer!"

And that was it. Summerfall. 🙄

davidgaider.bsky.social•34 days ago

I'm back and forth all year working with Liam to get things underway, but I come again in 2019 prepared for a much longer stay. This requires several trips with Elie to New Zealand and Bali (for "tentpole" purposes), and honestly? Those are amazing. This entire part of the world is so great.

davidgaider.bsky.social•34 days ago

On the work front, the game idea was coming along. We had a plan for a story involving Greek gods - initially called "Idols" and then later "Chorus". Film Victoria was delighted by our pitch and they eventually agreed to give us a grant. Honestly, without them? Summerfall would never have happened.

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