FIREPLACE GAMES : the team behind the game "EN GARDE!" » develops its own studio!

Two years after obtaining their diplomas, crowned with the success of their graduation project, the team of En Garde! founded his own game development studio : Fireplace Games !

Congratulations to Adrien Poncet, Valentin Capitaine, Corentin Mangé, Sylvain Schmück, Pierre Chapelet, Tim Guthmann, Anaïs Simonnet and Julien Fenoglio for this great project which has just been announced publicly. 

TEAM INTERVIEW

How do you see now your graduation project En Garde! ? What did the game success bring to you ? 

The success of the game brought us several happy combinations of circumstances. This was especially during our trip to GDC San Francisco in March 2019. Thanks to the appointment of En Garde! for the best student game, we were able to meet with several publishers and investors.
They were surprised to see such an ambitious student project, and interested in the potential of our team. All this allowed us to have contacts ready to support us, which made us feel confident that we were in the right conditions to set up our studio.

The team of « En Garde! » won the Ping Award for Best Student Game in 2018.

Why did you decide to set up your own studio ?

We thought about it a lot, right out of school. Founding our own studio is above all the guarantee of being free to work on what we want, under the conditions we want, to carry our creative projects and our values ​​for this industry.
We also told ourselves that it was a good time in our lives to try this adventure, an opportunity to be seized. But it is also an important responsibilities. Having no business background, it didn't seem obvious at first. Anaïs, originally character artist on En Garde!, got interested in entrepreneurship after leaving school, and now takes on the role of President of the company.

Are everyone on the team embarking on the adventure ? What were your current positions and was it "obvious" to give them up to push your project ?

Obviously, many of us were very reluctant at first. It is a very important lifestyle choice. We had comfortable positions in well-known studios like Ubisoft or Amplitude, and it's not easy to leave everything.
But even in times of doubt, we kept talking about our studio project and getting everything ready as if we were sure we were doing it. Gradually, this helped build excitement with the whole team, as we also started to tire of our positions. Today, therefore, the entire student project team has embarked on the adventure, which is a great chance for us ! The original 8 members are all equally co-founders of the studio, and we have even recruited other Rubika alumni to join us.

Where are you now ? What are the different steps of the project ?

Unsurprisingly, setting up a studio takes a long time. We originally thought we were ready for April, and the lockdown didn't help matters.
Finally, the company was created at the end of May, some investment contracts (confidential !) are still being discussed, and we are just starting to settle in premises in Montpellier. We're starting to see the end of it, but it's not the end of the journey: there is now a game to develop !
We don't want to reveal more just yet as we want to make a nice announcement when we have things to show, but we are already well at work on our first project.
Do not hesitate to follow us on our networks to be kept informed !

Fireplace Games website

(RE) DISCOVER THE GAME "EN GARDE!"