In today’s ‘Meet the Members’ blogpost we talk to Gloria and Frank from Degoma.
Are you a member, and would you also like to be featured? Great! Send an email to marlies@dutchgamesassociation.nl and we’ll send you our questions.
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Please tell us a little bit about yourself, your company and your position in the company
We are Gloria (CEO) and Frank (Game Director), two siblings originally from Spain who, due to life’s circumstances, founded a Dutch indie company. As children and teenagers, we started making games for fun in our family’s dusty attic with the limited resources of the time. Many years later, after we went our separate ways to study (Gloria became a software engineer and Frank a professional composer), we decided it was time to pursue our childhood dream once again. Frank moved to Amsterdam to join Gloria, who had a job there… and since then, we have been living crowded and arguing in Gloria’s one-person apartment (plus two cats who, by another twist of fate, became part of our lives).
Our beginnings were humble: no formal game development studies, no industry contacts—just hard work and a deep love for games. To this day, we still live and support Degoma with Gloria’s salary to afford the luxury of being 100% independent. We are in this business out of passion, so we need total creative freedom to make our games exactly as we envision them. We started working alone, but over the years, we have slowly reunited a fantastic team. Our turning point came when we sold a serious game to a company, which provided the extra budget to start hiring our former interns—who have now become our stable and beloved Degoma team.
We’re proud to say that we consider ourselves a neurodivergent-friendly company. Being neurodivergent ourselves (though diagnosed very late in life), we understand the importance of providing the right work environment, space, and schedule to meet each employee’s needs—so everyone feels comfortable and can give their best. Strict rules aren’t for us, so we don’t impose them on our team either. Luckily, we also have a couple of neurotypicals with us who help bring some sense of order and make us feel like a real company!
We would love to see (or hear) some of your work! Example(s) of recent work or highlights you are proud of (what would you like to share)
After almost 10 long years, we’re still working on our first entertainment title: Reggie, His Cousin, Two Scientists and Most Likely the End of the World, which has improved enormously over time along with our own skills. Reggie it’s an action platformer with gravity mechanics, and you have to try it to truly appreciate how good it feels and how hard we’ve worked on physics balancing. Another unique feature of our game is that it will include almost one hour of fully animated cutscenes, which is why our studio is also specializing in animation. The game will be available on Steam and all major consoles, as we are certified for Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox.
This year is especially important for us because, if everything goes well, Reggie will finally be published! Our initial plan is to self-publish in the West and partner with a good publisher for Asia, but time will tell.
We’re currently hunting for wishlists, so if you’d like to check out Reggie, here’s our Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2848910/Reggie_His_Cousin_Two_Scientists_and_Most_Likely_the_End_of_the_World/
How long have you been a DGA member and what is your main reason for joining? What can DGA do to help your company?
We were isolated and in despair, facing a mountain of work with no recognition so far. Then, lawyer René Otto managed to find us via Twitter. He became our first supporter in the industry and also a friend. Initially, we joined DGA for the discounts on legal fees based on his recommendation, but since then, we have felt truly supported by the organization (kudos to Panji Leroy, who is no longer there but will be a friend for life).
Later on, we discovered the DGA missions to game events like Gamescom, GDC… but most importantly, Japan.
We cannot emphasize enough how great our experiences have been (we’ve already joined twice) with DGA on these missions—full support, interesting events, genuine care for us and our products, and tons of networking opportunities. Martine in the Netherlands and Carolien in Japan did an outstanding job. We felt truly welcomed and the experience leaded us to the big discovery that our main market lies in Asia.
Besides this, there are always opportunities for free or affordable advice for gaming startups, which is really valuable. For example, right now, we have access to the Rami Ismail sessions, which we recently tried. Overall, we think DGA is a huge help. I’m sure bigger studios can explain even more perks, but from our small studio’s perspective, they have a lot to offer.
What ambitions/plans do you have for your company?
Pretty clear! First of all, finish and publish our first game and cross our fingers for its success. Gloria (me) is getting burnt out from this slave life, so my first wish is to be able to quit my job and focus on Degoma 100%, while improving our daily life.
We have tons of Reggie sequels in mind, but only fate will reveal what our possibilities are.
Anything else you would like to share with us?
Fun fact: We were featured in a Japanese reality show. We cannot upload it online because of copyright, but you can always ping us if you’re interested in watch and laugh on us (Japan is a totally different universe).
Thank you, Gloria and Frank! Find more info on their website: https://www.reggiegame.com
Are you a member, and would you also like to be featured? Great! Send an email to marlies@dutchgamesassociation.nl and we’ll send you our questions.