Thriller, oriental style, and 90s retro compete for the SAGA award

In Missing Picture, you play as a detective in Sweden during the 80’s. Your mission is to venture into the woods to investigate the supernatural disappearance of three teenagers. Explore the environment, take photos of clues and solve the mystery.

The game was created in just 10 weeks during the Game Project 2 course in the spring of 2024.

The group behind the game is called Frukostklubben (the Breakfast Club).

“The name comes from a joke with the group that sat on the opposite side of the corridor from our group room during the project. We used to take their lunch post-it note and one day we came back from lunch and our whole door was covered with post-it notes with 'breakfast' written on them, so we just accepted the name and became Frukostklubben. That it happened to fit well with the game's 80’s theme as it directly translates to Breakfast Club was something we realised later.”

How does it feel to be nominated for SAGA?

“We have noticed during the development of the game that detective games are a niche genre and it is therefore very fun to receive such positive feedback on our game. Everyone in the group is extremely happy about the nomination and is looking forward to showing the game at the Sweden Game Conference.”

What would it mean to you if you won?

“It would be an honor for all our hard work to be recognised and a very good motivation to continue working on the game.”

What is happening with Missing Picture right now?

“Right now we are mainly working on polishing the game as much as possible. But there are parts of the game that didn't make it into this version so it's still a bit unclear what the future of the game looks like.”

Watch trailer for Missing Picture on YouTube.

Download Missing Picture from itch.io.

Project: AMICA is a love letter to the 90’s, a combination of Doom, Quake, Mega Man Legends and Sonic. In AMICA you take control of “SID”, an android who is on the hunt for the dictator General Genant Kekaha. The player explores large open levels and battles various robot enemies in a first-person perspective. In the levels there are a lot of power-ups that the player can collect and use to his advantage, such as "double jump", "block", "punch".

The aesthetic tone of AMICA is colorful and hopeful, like Sonic and Mega Man, while gameplay takes inspiration from old-school shooters like Quake and Metroid Prime.

The group behind the game is called dofhouse and started developing the game during the course Spelprojekt 3, in spring 2024.

“But we had already started planning the game before the start of the course.”

How does it feel to be nominated for SAGA?

“Absolutely fantastic! This has been a bit of a dream for us so it's really great to see our game getting this kind of attention. It's an incredible feeling to see so many people appreciate the idea of ​​the game.”

What would it mean to you if you won?

“It would mean a lot to us if we won! Since 2022, we have been in contact with the startup programme at Science Park Skövde and wanted to start a company. If we won, it would really help us on our journey to get start-up capital to form a company and be able to continue working on AMICA.”

What is happening with Project: AMICA right now?

“The game is still in development, but a demo version is available on itch.io. We published the first prototype online in connection to the Game Expo at Commerce mall in June, and received very good response from those who played, both on site and online! Therefore, we have continued with the development during the summer. Ahead of SAGA, we've built a new demo that we hope can better demonstrate our vision for the game and how it will work in the end.”

“The plan is to continue working on Project: AMICA so that it eventually becomes a full game with up to ten levels and much more content, including a more integrated story, hub world, enemies, allies and more power-ups!”

Watch trailer for Project: AMICA on YouTube.

Download Project: AMICA from itch.io.

Be My Guest is a 2D role-play strategy game where you play as Zhuo, a girl from an ancient hunting tribe, on a turn-based hunting adventure. The materials gained from hunting monsters are used as weapons in combat and as ingredients to cook dishes that enhance Zhuo's abilities. As the game progresses, Zhuo will also use the ingredients to entertain friends, discovering their diets, lives, and stories through dinner conversations.

“Our game is inspired by the aesthetics and traditions of China's hunting minority, the Oroqen, hoping to bring something oriental but unique to players’ experience.”

The team behind the game are students at the Game Development Master’s programme. It consists of only two people.

“We did receive a lot of helping hands so special thanks to Xiaoqi for the music, and Mathias for the text-modifying.”

The duo calls themselves Cross Over.

“We all crossed a long road from home to express our passion for the game. Sadly we’re not in the same academic year, so it started as a hobby project for us. We met last year as roommates and found that we shared a similar passion for doing a long-term game project. So we started envisioning the game last November and kept developing it since this January. Still, it’s the University that brought us to meet, we’re very grateful for that.”

How does it feel to be nominated for SAGA?

“We are happy and a little surprised. We worried that the aesthetic and concept were too oriental style to understand and enjoy but we’re glad that people here enjoy it as we do!”

What would it mean to you if you won?

“We’ll be very honored and thankful. No matter what, we’ll keep developing the game and we believe this nomination already gave us a good opportunity to share the game and gain feedback. We’ll put all this to good use.”

What is happening with Be my Guest right now?

“The game now has around 25 min of playtime, including a full battle process and scenes at home. We will continue development and hope to have it on Steam next year.”

Watch trailer for Be my Guest on Youtube.

Download Be my Guest from itch.io.