The Journey of Overseer Games, Told by Co-Founder Mario Mihokovic

Primarily love for games and technology. Most of my dearest memories came from amazing gaming experiences, and I was always drawn to creativity of making games. Everything can be achieved, limitations are non-existent, it's the best environment you can imagine!

My current role is CEO and head of marketing/community. In my experience, success in this industry comes from passion and love of games. Games are a very specific product that brings most value in hardly explainable, emotional experience level.

That can't be quantified or expressed logically, and development is often long and gruesome. Going through all that without high level of personal investment and passion is very hard. You need to love games, understand games and connect to players.

Overseer Games is the second studio under our company. It has 10 members, half of them are industry veterans with 15-20 years of experience. Our main focus is design and creation of city building and strategy games. We are located in Zagreb, Croatia.

A game that provides incredible enjoyment, allows for exploration of impossible scenarios, and consumes my entire free time. In my view, the experiences that games offer are like movies taken to the next level, and I love immersing myself in such exhilarating sensations

We specialize in city building and strategy games. Our first game, Patron, was a medieval classic city builder with emphasis on social tensions and society creation.

Second game, Aquatico, was a sci-fi underwater builder set in apocalyptic world, and latest project, Kaiserpunk is most ambitious of all and combines city builder with grand strategy and is set in alternative history of first half of 20th century. We love making games that have causality in players choices and long lasting meaning behind every move.

Main idea of a new game usually appears long before any specific production step is made. Then it is detailed in design document, explained and re-explained many times over. Once we're all happy how it sounds, pre-production phase begins where we iterate technical aspects and all features needed to setup a desired experience.

Project undergoes many changes during that period because the closer you are to playable version, the closer you are to realize how far you are from original vision. And then you adjust and readjust until you're happy with the result.

All that time you have a feeling in your head of what game must feel like, and you iterate until you get there. Only when you reach that point, can you start the actual full production.

In final stages of development, it means a lot. It means that a jury of our peers also noticed something worthy and unique in our game. And that means we're on the right path. It is an amazing morale boost to cross the final steps

Since game isn't out yet in its final form, winning this award sends an affirmative sign to both our future players and ourselves that work we're doing is heading in the right direction and value of our game will be recognized.

Our ultimate goal is to release a game that will make players happy. Receiving this award makes us feel a step closer to that desired goal.

Biggest challenge was how to merge two different and complex genres – city builder and grand strategy. It took us an entire year and multiple iterations of concept to finally get one that achieved the exact feeling we were aiming for.

But we're quite happy with the result. No one ever tried to combine two such demanding genres, so we had no clear point of reference, but it is possible!

In our case, unfortunate past events helped. Croatia went through a war in the 90's, and our veteran members all remember it. In a way, it kinda helped to recreate the dire feeling you need when making a game set in a war period.

For me personally – VR and AR. I always hoped for more immersive experience in games. It's more important to me then any visuals. In a way, I hoped to live to see a version of Holodeck one day, so I hope these technologies are the first step of something incredible.

These are some of my favorite things about the industry:

1. Work that allows you to create amazing worlds from the thin air. So many options, so few limitations. Creativity at its best!

2. Close ties to technology development which is my second great passion.

3. Games offer ways to connect with like-minded people around the globe. Perfection!

In today's world, there are so many videos, tutorials or guides made by experienced game developers. Getting knowledge from them allows you to learn fast, learn very specific things and also avoid mistakes that experienced devs already did, all of them.

Hopefully, we are heading toward much higher levels of immersion, stimulation of all the senses, and the bravery to test out new concepts and ideas. Technical limits are evaporating, and it would be a missed opportunity not to use this potential to the fullest.

Games have already achieved incredible things, but I am certain we have only scratched the surface of what is possible.

In the gaming world, my biggest inspirations were Warren Spector and Sid Meier. The experiences their games provided me are what made me want to pursue my current path.

In terms of everyday life, my parents have been a significant influence because they imparted the life lessons of perseverance and hard work.

Two simple things: First, define what success means for you, and once you do, never compare it to anyone else's definition of success. If you do, it becomes a moving target that you'll never reach. Second, do whatever you can to achieve it, and remember that every failure is a step toward success.

When you miss the exit on a highway, do you turn back and go home, or do you simply return to the crossroads and take a different exit? I have no other special words of wisdom—I'm a game developer, not a wizard.

I’d like to extend an invitation to young people: join the world of game development! You are young and different from us veterans, but you have so many great ideas. The gaming industry needs such variety and bravery to explore new directions.

Yes, it is hard, and yes, it is demanding—but you’ll never regret it once you discover the limitless choices available to you!