Perttu (Borb) Tuovinen: EMUUROM – Using a Fantasy Console for Serious Gamedev

Borb is an Oulu-based Savonian programming educator and a jack-of-all-trades hobbyist indie game developer with a quest for a sustainable future in creating his dreamy little virtual worlds full-time. Probably even right now, Borb is working on EMUUROM – a nonviolent exploration game set in an ancient 8-bit land heavily inspired by the culture, nature and dialect of Savo, set to release in early 2023. You can help Borb in his quest by wishlisting EMUUROM on Steam!

Creating your first commercial game is no small feat! To make it easier, it would be a good idea to 1) avoid taking any unnecessary creative risks, 2) not make everything by yourself, and 3) keep using tried and true technologies. Borb’s first commercial game, EMUUROM, checks none of those boxes. It’s a nonviolent creature-scanning video game – Borb’s first open world puzzle platformer, a solo project from start to finish, and the first game on Steam made with the tiny virtual computer TIC-80. As daunting as it might sound, this isn’t a cautionary tale. During his talk, Borb will show you what he achieved by choosing to fight these battles!