Belgium may be one of the smallest countries in the world, but it’s growing past the point where beer, chocolate and diamonds are its only meaningful exports. Videogames are joining those ranks faster than ever and 2017 has been a great year for the Industry!
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Let’s start with the most well-known recent achievement: Larian Studios’ Epic RPG. It released on the 14th of September and took the world by storm. It’s getting perfect scores from a lot of reviewers and even ranks in the Top 3 of games released this year. (OpenCritic Hall of Fame 2017)
It’s not only a critical success but a commercial one as well; it sold half a million copies in its opening weekend alone and was one of the most played games on Steam after PUBG.
Click here to view Divinity: Original Sin 2 in the Steam store
DAE Voted Best Game School In The World
The Rookies, a worldwide award program for games and other media has voted Howest University, Digital Arts & Entertainment as the best school in the world for learning about game development. All the schools who entered were rated on their student’s performance in categories such as: Employment potential, creative and technical skills and presentation. The number of students attending is increasing every year and students are even flocking to the program from other countries.
Ary And The Secret Of Seasons Reaping Awards At Multiple Events
Exiin’s upcoming game has been nominated for many awards since it’s been introduced and even rand away with the gold at GamesCom 2017 for Best Unity Game. Their Zelda-like adventure looks stunning and has a very unique mechanic that is used for both combat and puzzle solving: Ary, the titular character can instantly summon a sphere that contains a certain season. The winter one for example can be used to create icy platforms or to freeze an enemy in its tracks.
While the game isn’t set to release anytime soon (Q1-Q2 2019) it will certainly be one to keep an eye on.
Read Our Exclusive Interview With Exiin Here
VAF Game Fund Increased By 1 Million Euro
The Belgian government has increased their investment in the Belgian Games industry by a significant amount and starting 2018, the VAF Game Fund will have an additional €1.000.000 to invest in different Flemish projects.
Every developer working on game in the Flemish or Brussels Region can request to be supported by the fund. Usually this investment is around €60.000 and it can really make the difference helping a new game studio succeed where it would have otherwise failed for a lack of funding.
Lots Of Interesting Upcoming Games
The next few months and years will see a lot of new Belgian releases, here’s a brief showing of a few games that are close to releasing:
Out of these I’m mostly excited about getting to play Antigraviator, an awesome looking futuristic racing game in which you can trigger traps to ambush your opponents (think F-Zero or WipEout meets Split/Second). They recently announced that they will launch the game on PS4 as well as the already known Xbox One and PC platforms.
You Can Read Our Exclusive Interview With Cybernetic Walrus Here
