INFINITE GAME JAM

Meet SOKPOP COLLECTIVE, the indie studio releasing two new games every month.

- Fraser Brown

Every fortnight, a visit to Sokpop’s Itch page – and, more recently, its Steam page – guarantees a new treat. Maybe you’ll drive through the rain to hunt down bounties in Blue Drifter, explore a pink sky castle in Labyrinth or spend an hour solving puzzles on Pear Quest’s little island. In two years, Sokpop has released more than 50 games, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Aran Koning, Ruben Naus, Tom van den Boogaart and Tijmen Tio met around five years ago when they started doing game jams together, including the popular Ludum Dare. When there wasn’t a formal one to go to, they’d just jam at home.

Those events always came to an abrupt end, but they wanted to keep it going. The collective grew from that, leading the four of them to embark on what’s become an infinite game jam. But they rarely work together.

“We basically never collaborate,” says Koning. At the time of writing, they’ve released 54 games, though that number will already be out of date when you read it. Only a couple of games in this rapidly growing collection were collaborative projects. So it’s a collective of individuals, all equal within the studio, but always following their own ideas and going off to experiment solo.

This contributes to the incredible range of Sokpop’s massive back catalogue. There are cute sandboxes, puzzlers, management games, racing games – and the themes and art styles are just as varied as the genres. A great deal of them fall into the category of ‘wholesome’ games, some more overtly than others, but otherwise it’s remarkable how the foursome avoids repeating itself.

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