Photo : @kawaii_ninchen

A few square meters among the giants

Our Gamescom begins with two cars packed to the roof. We decided to transport all the equipment ourselves from Belgium, which meant playing a real-life game of Tetris to fit in the computers, furniture, screens, stand structures, large printed banners featuring our games, and pretty much everything else we thought might come in handy once we got there.

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Even before thinking about the players, simply getting into Gamescom already feels like an achievement. Finding the right entrance with two cars full of equipment in the middle of Koelnmesse becomes our first “small” challenge. Between restricted access points, delivery zones and the badges we still had not collected, we had to take a few detours before finally reaching our spot.

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That is when the contrast becomes quite striking. In Hall 10.1, mainly dedicated to hardware, we are surrounded by enormous installations, with towering façades and spaces designed to welcome hundreds of visitors. On our side, we discover a rather narrow corridor where we somehow have to fit our two games, our furniture, our visuals and everything else. The first impression has a slight David versus Goliath feel to it. We have come from Mons with resources that are obviously on a completely different scale, but we are here, facing the same audience, and that is ultimately what matters.

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First, though, we still have to build the stand. As is often the case with events like this, nothing goes exactly according to plan. This time, the problem comes from the feet supporting the frames for our large printed banners. Once assembled, the structures lean in a way that is not exactly reassuring. So we spend part of the setup screwing, reinforcing and improvising until everything finally feels stable. Once the stand is ready, our small space suddenly looks completely different. Both games are running on the PCs, the large banners cover the walls, and our huge fairy wings are already starting to catch people’s attention. On the first day, we invited several Winx influencers and cosplayers to discover the demo before anyone else. Until then, Winx Club - Moonlight Quest had remained largely hidden away inside our offices. In Cologne, the project finally reaches the hands of fans who have sometimes known this universe since childhood.

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As soon as the show opens to the general public, the pace changes completely. Among the roughly 360,000 visitors expected throughout the event, we end up meeting relatively few French speakers and mostly German players. That is perfectly logical in Cologne, although it still feels a little strange for a Belgian studio based less than 220 kilometres away. Very quickly, families, groups of friends, journalists and fans who came specifically to see us begin to pass through the stand one after another.

When the Game Finally Meets Its Fans

Before Gamescom, we already knew the game’s announcement was performing well on social media, but we did not expect such enthusiasm on site. Some visitors told us that Winx Club - Moonlight Quest was the game they were most excited to see at the entire show, even with huge productions being presented just a few halls away. Others simply showed up dressed as Bloom or Stella because they had heard we were there and wanted to meet us.

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And the truth is, when you see Bloom flying across your screens every single day, you almost stop noticing it. Then a fan tells you she used to watch Winx Club after coming home from school, and suddenly everything feels different. You realise that what we have in our hands goes far beyond our own game. We are also working with the childhood memories of an entire generation.

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The demo quickly turns into a full-scale playtest. We estimate that between 200 and 250 people played the game at our stand during the week, mostly on just two PCs. The pace is intense, with sessions following one another almost continuously. Overall, everything goes very well, although the game is still in development and naturally brings a few surprises. At one point, the character decides to keep walking while flying, which creates a rather unusual way of moving through the air. Elsewhere, a few rocks prove slightly more permeable than expected and allow the player to pass straight through them. Nothing serious, and in fact all of this is extremely useful at this stage. Two hundred players never behave like a development team that already knows the game by heart. They take unexpected routes, try commands in combinations we would never have considered, and naturally expose the moments where the controls still feel less intuitive than they should. Within just a few days, the stand becomes one of the biggest playtests we have ever organised.

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The fans’ perspective also brings attention to details we had started to take for granted. Before the show, we would probably have expected flying, exploration or the larger environments to provoke the strongest reactions. Yet several players immediately recognised a short Bloom animation directly inspired by the series, and some even asked why it did not last longer. Others repeatedly told us they wanted to see more of Stella, Flora, Musa, Tecna and Aisha throughout the adventure. These reactions remind us that a licence also lives through details that can seem secondary at first. A pose or just a few seconds of animation can bring back twenty years of memories.

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That level of anticipation is understandable. Many conversations naturally come back to the Winx Club game published by Konami on PC and PlayStation 2 in 2006. Other adaptations have been released since, but that title still holds a special place for fans who remember it as a genuine 3D adventure set in this universe. Twenty years have passed, consoles have changed, and the children who played it back then are now adults. One thing, however, seems unchanged. Their hopes and dreams for a Winx game are still very much alive. Being able to fly freely as Bloom is obviously part of that, but our conversations at the stand quickly show us that flying alone will never be enough. Fans also want to explore familiar places, meet beloved characters, use Bloom’s powers, fight enemies and, above all, experience an adventure rich enough to finally make them feel as though they are living inside this world.

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Our large printed fairy wings capture that desire in a much simpler way. We assumed the two PCs would be the absolute heart of the stand, but visitors quickly made the photo area their own. Cosplayers pose in front of the wings, families stop to take pictures and, at certain moments, a queue forms just for the chance to leave with a photo. Our narrow little corridor, which seemed so modest during setup, suddenly feels a lot bigger.

In the evening, the pace finally slows down. After spending the whole day standing, answering questions and watching one session after another, we have more than earned the short walk across the street to L’Osteria, just outside the venue. To honour Balio Studio’s Italian roots, pizza and pasta almost become a small ritual of their own. It is also the moment when we can finally unwind, even though the conversation inevitably returns to everything we saw during the day. Once back at the hotel, we still take the time to read new comments, watch the videos posted during the day and see what players are saying about the game. Then it is already time to think about the next morning and another full day at the stand. Luckily, we had the very good idea of bringing the studio coffee machine with us. Every morning, it genuinely helps us get going again.