Bi-weekly blog #8: busybusybusy, here's a guest blog (Patreon)

Positively surprised by Wooden Plank Studios

Last year I did my internship at the Dutch Game Garden in Utrecht. Wooden Plank Studios are part of the Dutch Game Garden family for a while now and they made sure that I became part of that family as well.

Through the Dutch Game Garden’s facilities and myriad services, they help starting game companies establish themselves, promote the healthy growth of their studios and help further the development of high quality games.

The assorted mix of creativity is what makes Dutch Game Garden a prime hub for game development in the Netherlands. The Dutch Game Garden guides promising young studios throughout their starting phase. With their support program and the events they organize, they help Dutch game developers create more exposure for the games they make.

You have no idea how hard it is to communicate with game developers, they almost never reply to anything (except if it’s about free food). Fortunately I could always count on Wooden Plank Studios to reply. At least they have their communication in order. Wooden Plank Studios was the first Dutch Game Garden company I had personal contact with during my internship. Abel and Christiaan are very open to meeting new people, to help others, and they are often up for some gaming (if they’re not too busy). I met Abel and Christiaan during the first week of my internship at Dutch Game Garden. It was a Friday afternoon and Christiaan came to our office to ask if anyone was up for some Super Smash Bros. From this day forward, visiting each other’s offices became a very common occurrence. Later on, I was even babysitting their plant while they were on holiday. They made me feel welcome and they contributed a lot to my awesome experience at Dutch Game Garden.

These two gentleman have surprised me in a positive way. They’re very serious about their work, eager to learn, give kick-ass presentations and just are a lot of fun in general. Whenever Dutch Game Garden has an event, presentation or workshop, they’re there.

Every Wednesday, Wooden Plank Studios publishes a new comic and every week I’m very eager to discover the subject of the comic beforehand. This is confidential information that I haven’t told them before, but every week I try to guess the subject of the comic before it’s published. I even started paying more attention to news to figure out the subject, or I try to guess what little jokes will be hidden in the comic. I’m not a very good gambler, however, so Wooden Plank Studios manages to surprise me every week with a subject that I didn’t think off (except for the Game of Thrones-weeks!). 

My internship at Dutch Game Garden has provided me with a lot of new experiences and made me feel at home. Every working day made me feel useful and welcome. During the time in which I got the chance to help starting game companies, organize events and expand my network, I felt part of the Dutch Game Garden family. Wooden Plank Studios welcomed me into this family with open arms and even though my internship has ended, I await their newest comic eagerly each Wednesday.