The Liquid Swords Update: Autumn 2023

Since you’re reading this at the beginning of 2024, we know that because we’re the ones who published it on January 9, let us begin by wishing you a happy new year. Despite it being the beginning of a new year, this update is all about looking back at 2023. So, sit back, get up to speed on everything Liquid Swords, and let our founder have the final word of 2023 and the first of 2024.

Well, perhaps more like the autumn that wasn’t. Stockholm was blasted with snow pretty much from the middle of November until *peers out of window* now, actually. We certainly won’t complain about a white Christmas, but the cold was indeed upon us before we’d barely had time to enjoy our selection of fall jackets. Regardless, the fast-track-to-winter-coat-weather provided ample opportunity for snowy walks, unparalleled photo opportunities, and, of course, delayed and canceled buses.

When we weren’t layering up and tugging on our winter boots, we were getting nominated for awards. What (we hear you cry)? You haven’t even announced a game, let alone released one: what awards? OK, not for Game 1, but Liquid Swords HQ was nominated for Sveriges Snyggaste Kontor 2023 (Sweden’s Best Looking Office 2023). We may not have won, but this recognition goes hand-in-hand with our game development ethos. We can’t build an outstanding, groundbreaking game without the right space to do it. That’s why creating our new space has been a crucial part of studio growth in 2023 (congrats to the winner, Fabege).

In November, we celebrated Sweden’s most beloved gameshow, På Spåret, by playing our own version in the studio and with our followers on Instagram. For those unfamiliar, the show features teams of celebrity contestants who compete to figure out where in the world they’re headed. The hosts provide clues, but the number of points they can win will diminish as the clues get easier. Our version instead featured a fictional location from a video game. You can find all the clues on our Instagram account if you missed it and still want to play along.

We’re always proud to be part of the global gaming hub that is Stockholm, and we appreciate how this helps us attract local and international talent to our studio. That’s why working with Dataspelsbranschen (The Swedish Games Industry) is so important to us. In November, we sponsored and attended the first (and hopefully soon-to-be annual) Game Summit Sweden. The event put developers in the spotlight, and we enjoyed sessions including technical advancements, failures becoming learnings, and a talk on prototyping open worlds from our own Senior Designer, Ricky Siddek. Thanks, Dataspelsbranschen; looking forward to our involvement again next year!

What better to end the year than with a word from our founder, looking back on everything we’ve achieved and what you might expect from 2024:

To say that 2023 was a very active year for Liquid Swords is quite an understatement. We rapidly grew the team with super-talented individuals in a business climate that grew tougher and tougher. Despite growing the team so fast, we managed to stay on vision by keeping things simple, avoiding making development complex, and focusing on quality. Most importantly, we managed to keep the team spirit family-style and personal – where everyone can be themselves and where everyone's voice is heard.

2024 will be an even more exciting year as we move into a new development phase, both with the studio and the IP. Studio-wise, we will continue to break new ground, establishing Liquid Swords as a true cross-media studio developing our IP. Game-wise, we will continue to establish our vision of developing a mature, narratively driven, open-world, contemporary revenge drama. This can only be achieved with the talent in every aspect of the business, which we have been so fortunate to have on board.

That's all for now, see you when the snow thaws.

– The Liquid Swords Team