This isn't a super design crunchy topic but more of a personal topic. 

Up until this point in my life at the fresh age of 21, I never had my designs showcased in front of such a large audience before. At most, I've been to game jams or posted my games online to be seen by a couple dozen people. The Evolution Championship Series means a lot to me. If it isn't obvious by now I'm a huge fighting game player and fan. A lot of what I do in game development/design wouldn't be happening if I wasn't a fan of fighting games.

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I originally got into fighting games in the 2020 Coronavirus Lockdown. It was my little escape from the world at the time. Since then, I've learned so much and made so many awesome friends. I've met people I might as well call family. I even make enough money from playing in tournaments to buy video games!

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The Evolution Championship Series (EVO) is the yearly mecca for fighting games. Players, fans, and developers from all over the world attend EVO. To have one of the games I helped design featured at EVO, the grandest fighting game event of the year, next to other high-quality indie titles, in the same hall as industry titans like Capcom, and shown on the main stage was a true honor and at the same time nerve-wracking. It's strange seeing people react to your game live, in person. Some didn't even speak the language but enthusiastically wanted to play. It even makes me tear up a little thinking back on it!

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As a player/attendee in previous years, I've known that at the indie showcase section at EVO, attendees can be quite dismissive. Especially if your game isn't already out or if it's not exactly a normal fighting game. Months leading up to the event, I stressed about getting the build and design in a space where people wouldn't be disappointed. I'm quite integrated in the fighting game community - if my friends in the space hated what I worked on I would have been devastated. That all being said - this experience really opened my eyes to what my designs can accomplish and what it means for people to play the designs I've touched on. 

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For a long time now, I've more or less designed games for the small community around me or stuff I would have liked to play. My experience designing on Auto Fighter was the first time I got to see the tangible effects of designing for the world around me. From the guy who flew to Las Vegas, USA from São Paulo, Brazil to my fighting game friends from Seattle, USA - it's an unexplainable, positive feeling seeing others enjoy the games you've poured your heart and soul into designing. 

You can check out the trailer I made for the EVO 2023 main-stage feature here
You can also check out our feature on the EVO 2023 indie showcase blog post here