A separate home for games.sobra.be

Published Misc Braindump

I'm a keen gamer myself, when I have the time. That enjoyment of games now has a home of its own at games.sobra.be, where I build my own games.

A trip down memory lane

When I think back to the games I grew up with, the Game Boy definitely belongs there. And Gran Turismo on the PlayStation 1. It seemed so realistic to me back then. I still enjoy good racing games, but also adventures like Tomb Raider. I locked Winston, the butler, in the freezer. Sorry, Winston!

Diablo and World of Warcraft belong among those memories too. I sometimes played Diablo II: Lord of Destruction all night. A game can draw me right in with a good storyline, or with something I never saw coming.

I remember just how far that can go from F.E.A.R.. That horror game with the jump scares was the first that sometimes had me looking around a little suspiciously in the real world too. You're so caught up in its world that some of it stays with you after playing.

That magical feeling, when a game surprises you and draws you right in, still appeals to me. Interesting game mechanics, motion and interactivity have always fascinated me. I'm convinced games helped spark my creativity. And they still do.

There is also research on action games that finds improvements in directing attention and spatial cognition. Those effects vary by game and skill, and publication bias can make them look larger. That research concerns those skills; the influence on my creativity is my own experience.

These days I also enjoy something like Valheim, where you build, explore and try to survive. And I can't wait for Grand Theft Auto VI. The announced Free Roam mode in Assetto Corsa EVO looks like fun too: driving through an open world that recreates the Eifel region around the Nürburgring.

Building games myself

That interest in what a game can make you feel carries over into building games myself. I worked as a developer on OK Groomer on Roblox, together with VML for Child Focus. The game teaches children to recognise, report and block online groomers.

At games.sobra.be, I want room to take that further. That's why it's deliberately separate from this website. There needs to be space for more complex things, and for a game to grow when the idea calls for it.