The GameDev Técnico, a group of students from Instituto Superior Técnico dedicated to video game development, will publish at the end of May its first video game produced without the support of an external organisation, ‘Too Small to Matter’, a visual novel game, is being developed by a team of five people and is available on Steam platform, where its production can be followed.

‘Too Small to Matter’ follows the story of a group of animals surprised by the outbreak of a war between the humans of their world. The narrative focuses on the suffering and loss that war causes these animals, but also on the hope and strength to unite and overcome adversity. The player will make choices that influence the events in the story, also including side-scrolling, allowing each character to use their specific skills.

“It’s not easy to develop a game part-time, without any kind of funding or investment”, says André Antunes, a computer engineer who graduated from Técnico in 2022. However, the alumnus believes that “leading a team of dedicated and talented developers makes the whole process much easier”, highlighting the fact that the game was, from the very beginning, “a project to which they have become very attached” and that “seeing it being played by other people is undoubtedly satisfying”.

Gonçalo Goulão, a Telecommunications and Informatics Engineering student, shares “I have learnt a lot of new things about developing a video game, from creating assets [(elements inserted into the game, such as objects and sounds)] and a Steam page to managing social media”. According to the student “more than anything, Técnico has been a driving force behind the project”, since without GameDev “we wouldn’t be able to publish a video game so easily”.

The ‘Too Small to Matter’ team is made up of André Antunes, Beatriz Azevedo, Diogo Pires, Gonçalo Goulão and Rita Torres, all GameDev members and Técnico students or alumni. In addition to the Steam platform, the game also has an Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) accounts.