A dramatic turn of events
Neither I nor any of the people behind Yfrit Games could ever have guessed that in 2026, with our new game in its very early stages, we’d be attending Brasil Game Show to showcase it to thousands of people.
The way it happened, too, was nothing short of unreal. In fact, up until the actual day, we were all wondering if it was too good to be true, or worse, if we’d fallen victim to some kind of elaborate prank or scam. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
It all began a few months back, when I got a strange little message on LinkedIn, of all places, from someone wanting to discuss Primateria and talk about game development, our journey with the game, and things of that nature. At first I thought nothing of it. We receive dozens of messages like this every day from scammers trying to poach Steam keys and whatnot. Luckily, I fought against my first instincts and decided to answer it. “What’s the worst that can happen?” I thought. We messaged each other back and forth for a bit and decided to call on Discord.
The small world of the Internet
After scheduling a time that worked for everyone, I invited my good friend and Yfrit Games co-founder, Purei Shatsu, and we hopped on the call.
thenameisflic introduced himself as a fellow game developer from Brazil. He showed us his awesome game, Soulsworn, a roguelike deckbuilder with heavy inspiration from Yu-Gi-Oh!, and told us he had seen Primateria on a livestream from a creator we really love called Dayabeatus a while back. We were fascinated to learn he had started working on Soulsworn after being inspired by Primateria!
This alone was already an unbelievable moment. Besides the creative process and the actual expression, having our games, music, writing, and art in general touch other people is one of the core reasons we do what we do. Our smiles were showing through our voices as we thanked thenameisflic for the really kind words while still kind of processing the strange but wonderful feeling of having our passion project inspire a whole new work of art.
The invitation
We continued the call with thenameisflic, as he asked us about the history of our little studio, our games, and how Primateria came to be. We went on and on from the very beginning, from our start as kids just messing around with RPG Maker 2000, to our experience working with a foreign publisher, the road through development, wishlist hunting, and finally, the launch and the adversities that come with releasing a game that took more than 6 years to complete. We also discussed our new game, Reburn, and how its journey is shaping up to be completely different from its prequel. We explained our desire to focus on ourselves, on our artistic expression, and on our goal to release a game we’re obsessed with, no matter what other people, the market, the digital storefronts, or anyone else thinks of it.
It was a great talk! thenameisflic asked questions and drove the conversation, laying the groundwork for something we would never in a hundred years be ready for.
As we went over the current state of Reburn and the heavy experimentation we were doing with it, thenameisflic explained that the reason he reached out was because of the games conference Brasil Game Show that was coming up. He told us how last year he attended it in a small booth, and that it was pretty cool, but this year he was attending again with a bigger space. A space that he found a tad too big for a single game.
To say we were taken aback would be an understatement. In a couple of seconds, a flattering conversation about our game inspiring a new indie developer became a humbling invitation to participate in the largest video game conference in Latin America, as thenameisflic promptly asked us to share the space he had acquired, proposing a nice collab artwork and multiple stations for people to play Soulsworn and Primateria: Reburn at Brasil Game Show 2026. We, of course, agreed and asked for more info, and thenameisflic readily made himself available to share every detail with us.
What now??
Purei and I came out of the call just flabbergasted. We were still not sure this wasn’t some kind of elaborate scam, and the initial feeling of pride at learning about a game that came into existence, at least in some ways, as a direct consequence of our silly little card game still lingered. Though now heavily overshadowed by the unexpected invitation.
In the end, we decided the signs all pointed toward this being real. All the cogs clicked into place and thenameisflic provided us with all the information we needed to make sure (as sure as possible, that is) that this was legit. I talked to my wife and the realisation came that we had basically four months to come up with a demo from scratch that would be played by a metric ton of people. Oh boy. Purei had to get plane tickets from a whole ‘nother state, and we had all the preparations to do. Business cards, artwork, PCs for the playing stations, buying the exhibitor tickets, vinyl graphics, my oh my!
The day comes
Four months pass by in the blink of an eye. We miraculously put together a playable demo we are proud of, and everything else is handled with thenameisflic for the big day. At this point, we’re about 90% sure this isn’t a scam, but still take our precautions in case it is, like paying for things with a credit card so as to make chargebacks easier. Thinking about this in hindsight makes me chuckle.
Then the day comes. Purei flies to São Paulo and stays with us in improvised accommodations for the duration of the event. We leave on Friday morning, the first day, with our dear friend and social media person madzera1 at the wheel through the busy roads of this massive metropolis, finally reaching our destination about an hour later.
There, we patiently wait at the previously agreed place. With our hands filled with backpacks, laptop bags, sacks, and monitors, hearts beating and that remaining 10% chance of a scam ringing in our heads, we’re overtaken by relief as two friendly people approach us wearing Soulsworn t-shirts and big smiles. It’s happening!
Brasil Game Show
The four days went as they came, fast and brutal, taking their heavy toll on us and everyone from the Soulsworn team. We met a bunch of lovely people, collected feedback and took plenty of notes about our game. Each day we came home with a wonderful sense of a job well done. What a ride.
It is true this was a pretty underwhelming edition of the event. Although it was my first, word around was the event was smaller and way worse than all its previous editions. Our location was by the very end of it, far from ideal.
It’s also undeniable that there was a concerning lack of games and large publishers at what’s supposed to be an event about playing and hearing about the latest games. I am still fuming that none of the demo booths were open early, thus denying me the opportunity to experience the new Persona 4 Revival demo! If I were one of the people that paid extra for early entry only to discover my money was spent standing in lines, I’d be even more pissed.
Still, none of that matters too much! I am ecstatic to have been a part of it. Meeting everyone from the Soulsworn team was a blast, and just being there and seeing people discover our game, play it, talk about it, love it or hate it was worth it through and through!
View this post by oifrancine on Instagram
Final words and a humbling lesson
All in all, I can’t do anything but be grateful for this unexpected journey and the generous opportunity thenameisflic presented us with. Looking back, even with how cool it was to be at BGS, I’m still amazed and can’t help but smile when I think about the Discord call, as thenameisflic recalled seeing Primateria and being inspired by it. It reminds me of our very first released game, Dual Snake, when we saw a playthrough on YouTube by a person with a motor disability, playing our incredibly motor-demanding game with specially made controls. An indescribable feeling of happiness Purei and I will forever cherish.
To summarise, 2026 might not have been the best edition of BGS, but it was the best for Yfrit Games, that is for certain! A massive thanks to thenameisflic for the invitation; to the Yfrit team and my wife, who gave their all throughout the four days, on their feet 8 to 10 hours a day, talking to people, handing out cards and chatting about silly indie games; to the talented and kind people of the Soulsworn team, who stood with us through it all; and of course, to all the people that came by and played our rushed little demo!
And to you, who might be another indie game dev working on your passion project, I hope this serves as inspiration for you as well! When you feel that sharing your game with that one small streamer on YouTube seems silly, do it! You never know who might be watching.
Reburn has some exciting things coming very soon, so stay tuned! We’re making all preparations to release the BGS demo for everyone to play, and we’re also cooking up a cheeky little collab thingy we can’t wait to share!
One more thing
The collab artwork you saw at our booth was made by the ridiculously talented Patrick Miura, a.k.a. Duckartisan, our dearest friend and main artist for the Primateria games. Thank you, Patrick! Go give him a follow and throw some work his way.
And while you’re at it, go wishlist Soulsworn! It’s a literal love letter to old-school and even new Yu-Gi-Oh! games from people who really understand Yu-Gi-Oh! combo mechanics. The game is grounded on fusing any two cards into countless fusions for combos. Number go up, folks! It’s a blast. The demo is free on Steam and the devs and us would love to hear what you think.
Thank you, and until next time!
Yfrit Team.