Jason Priskomatis, the solo developer behind EJETA Studios, always enjoyed playing video games, ever since he was young. “It was always my escape, a comfort place,” he says. While studying Information Technology in Athens, Greece, he created a small game for his thesis. “It was nothing special, but it was enough to make me fall in love with the process of creating something that other people can play and enjoy.” That passion led to Friday Nights, his debut horror game featuring voice recognition, designed to immerse players in a uniquely interactive nightmare.
Working alone has its perks. “Some aspects of the development work faster because I don’t have to wait for hours for a partner to get back to me,” he explains. But it also comes with challenges: “If a game mechanic takes me three days to implement, that’s three days where nothing else is happening in the game.” To stay creative, he starts weekends at a local bakery, sipping coffee and jotting down ideas while listening to game soundtracks. “This is truly the most peaceful time of the week for me.” For now, he’s happy in the solo dev life, but the door to collaboration remains open. “I would love to work in a team and share a common passion with other people… if I find the right people.”
Why did you become a solo developer?
“I always enjoyed playing video games, ever since I was young it was always my escape, a comfort place. So I would say it happened naturally as I studied Information Technology and for my Thesis I created a game. It was nothing special but it was enough to make me fall in love with the process of creating something that other people can play and enjoy.”
What are the biggest advantages of working solo?
“As weird as it may sound, some aspects of the development work faster, because I don’t have to wait for hours for a partner to answer or get back to me on a feature of the game. That allows me to paste my imagination directly into the game and work while I’m in the ‘zone’ without any delays.”
And the biggest pitfalls?
“Lots of other aspects of development go very slow. For example, if a game mechanic takes me 3 days to implement, that is 3 days where nothing else is happening in the game. In addition, you are forced to make some difficult choices that you don’t have anyone to share with to ask for guidance. Because they won’t be able to fully understand your game if they are not working on it.”
What’s your creative process?
“Every weekend either on Saturday or Sunday morning, I go to my local bakery and grab a coffee with my laptop. I do zero programming and only research and develop ideas. They can be wild and completely difficult to implement but I still take notes of them. I put suitable background music on, usually soundtracks from other games and I also look at how films succeed to convey the feeling I want for my game. This is truly the most peaceful time of the week for me. Once I get home filled with ideas I get straight to trying to implement some of them.”
How do you stay motivated through (years of) development?
“I genuinely love game development! While I’m eating I might put on a dev-blog, learn about how X mechanics can be implemented or listen to podcasts of other game developers. Even when I’m working on practice projects or projects I know will never see the light of day, I still enjoy every second of it and wouldn’t change it for anything.”
Will you ever work in a team or is it only solo for you?
“I would love to work in a team and share a common passion with other people! There are no plans for it as of now but I can see that happening in the future if I find the right people.”
How did you get the idea for Friday Night?
“I have always been a fan of horror, as it conveys a feeling of adrenaline you can not find elsewhere. I grew up reading creepy pastas and watching horror movies, so I knew I always wanted to do a horror game. Then I thought ‘Okay, you have to have something to make it unique’. I didn’t just want to make another copy paste of famous horror game X. The way I made it unique is to have players interact with the game themselves, so the idea of Voice Recognition was born. It aims to create a unique and immersive experience for the player.”
“As for the name, I love staying at home on Friday Nights and watching people play horror games. It makes me feel cozy for some reason. So I imagine players playing my horror game on a cozy Friday Night!”
What’s the biggest lesson learned from this project?
“Keep pushing your comfort zone, try new things and don’t turn down an idea because you’re not sure how you will implement it. Don’t be afraid to learn new things.”
The toll on your mental health can be quite high for solo devs. How do you deal with that?
“To be honest with you, I’m thankfully not in a position where my mental health is taking a hit. I love what I’m doing and I’m doing it because I enjoy it and find pleasure in it. I can understand that if this is your main job the amount of stress you have to endure and I can only feel empathy for these developers. As of now I try to focus only on the positive areas of game development and try to learn from them and make myself better in this area and keep on growing.”
Friday Night will be out later this year.