Factsheet

Developer:
Thomas Waterzooi
Based in Gent/Brussels, Belgium

Founding date:
December 26, 2017

Website:
studiowaterzooi.com

Press / Business contact:
info@studiowaterzooi.com

Social:
twitter.com/thomaswaterzooi
instagram.com/ThomasWaterzooi

Releases:
Please Touch The Artwork
Please Touch The Artwork Installations
Please Touch The Artwork 2

Address:
Games Brussels
Rue D'Alost 7/11, 9000 Brussels

Phone:
+32 496 60 54 79

Description

Thomas Waterzooi is a game director from Brussels. He previously worked on Divinity Original Sin (Larian Studios, Baldurs Gate) and Hitman (IO-Interactive ) before becoming a solo-developer in 2018. He focuses on making accessible interactive stories and playful things driven by art, culture, society and human interest. His games are not about skills or high-scores. They are about relaxing, reflecting, playful tinkering, and being sucked into the story and aesthetics (often referred to as "wholesome" or "cozy").

"Please, Touch The Artwork" is Thomas's first big solo project. It's a cozy puzzle game about touching abstract paintings (from Mondrian and the Style) and finding out what happens. It has received several awards and international nominations such as the Google Play Indie award 2022, Apple Design Award nomination, 2 Belgian Game Awards, and a Tokyo Game Show Best Art award. The game was also featured in '2022's best of'-lists in The Guardian and Eurogamer.

The sequel "Please, Touch The Artwork 2" is releasing in february 2024. This time it will be a hidden object adventure set in the paintings of James Ensor. The game was created with the support of the Flemish Government on the occasion of the Belgian EU Presidency 2024. The game will be available for free on Steam, Apple Appstore and Google Play.

History

Inspiration

Inspired by Pietro Righi Riva’s manifesto Rejecta, Thomas Waterzooi founded Studio Waterzooi. The manifest aims to provide guidelines to develop games for a new audience. He (and Thomas) want to advance the medium in a certain direction that makes it interesting to people that are not normally interested in video games but have other interests such as art, culture, humanity..etc (or are interested but don’t find games about specific topics that interest them). We have to cater to these people and learn how to make games for them so games can eventually become the art-form it deserves to be.

Stories

Conflict is a part of every good story, but it doesn’t have to be the only part. Entertainment is about being immersed and triggering emotions, not only about having fun. We focus on creating shorter experiences that are still impactful (because of the typical time-shortages tied to adult life). The success of pc-games like ‘Firewatch’, ‘Life Is Strange’, ‘What Remains of Edith Finch’ or mobile titles like ‘Monument Valley’ and ‘Florence’ tells us that there is a market for these slice of life experiences.

Projects


Images

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There are far more images available for Thomas Waterzooi, but these are the ones we felt would be most useful to you. If you have specific requests, please do contact us!


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Awards & Recognition

  • "Winner "Digital Design Award" @ Henry Van De Velde awards with BabelAR" - Flanders, 1 November, 2021
  • "Winner "Best Art" @ Tokyo Game Show with Please, Touch The Artwork" - Tokyo, 1 October, 2021
  • "Finalist Indie X Festival 2020 with Please, Touch The Artwork" - Lisbon, 1 October, 2020
  • "Winner "BIG Impact: Best Educational" @ Brazilian Independant Game Festival with Please, Touch The Artwork" - Sao Paolo, 1 October, 2020
  • ""Official Selection" @ Ludicious with Please, Touch The Artwork" - Zurich, July 1st, 2020
  • "2nd finalist @ The Label Indie Showdown with Please, Touch The Artwork" - US, April, 2020
  • "Winner "Very Big Indie Pitch" @ Pocket Gamer Connects with Please, Touch The Artwork" - Helsinki, 4 October, 2019
  • "Official Selection @ INDIECADE Paris 2018 with Please, Touch The Artwork" - Paris, 19-20 October, 2018
  • "Official Selection @ INDIGO 2018 with Please, Touch The Artwork" - Utrecht, 29 June, 2018

Team

Thomas Waterzooi
Design & Development


presskit() by Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) - also thanks to these fine folks