Mateo Covic, also known as Zoroarts, is a solo developer responsible for some of my favorite indie games. From the humble and exciting Makis Adventure to the upcoming Rogue Jungle, he’s continuously pushing himself to the limit to deliver new and exciting experiences for everyone to enjoy. Between school and work, he finds time to tirelessly work to put together some of the most refreshing games I’ve had the privilege of playing. So, I had to find out what makes Mateo (Zoroarts)… well, Mateo. And how he can continue pushing on in a wild field such as this.
What inspired you to start working as a solo developer on games such as ‘Makis Adventure’, ‘Rogue Jungle’, ‘Paddle, Paddle, Paddle’, and ‘ Ultimate Indie Racing’?
I have always loved video games. My first game, which I still remember, was Pokémon Pearl on the Nintendo DS. This game may also be the reason why I still love pixel art today. In my opinion, it’s one of the best and most difficult art styles since you place pixels by pixels. The real reason for me to start learning game development was the school lockdown during the pandemic back in 2020.
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I had a lot of time at home since my school shut down and we had home-schooling. And I was pretty bored and wanted to learn a new skill in my free time. I’ve always loved to draw and practiced drawing everyday since my childhood. I wanted to find a new skill/hobby that could benefit from my passion for drawing. One day, I stumbled across a video by the YouTuber Thomas Brush. He later also became my big inspiration as a solo game developer. After watching his video about game development, I started to learn game development myself, and so the journey began.
Making Different Types Of Games Is A Journey In Itself
The decision to make games like the Action-Platformer Makis Adventure or the Dungeon-Crawler Deckbuilder Rogue Jungle came because I love to develop games in a genre that I also love and enjoy playing. Makis Adventure, for example, was my first commercial video game. It is inspired by two of my favorite video games: Hollow Knight and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD. I can only give 101% during development when I really love the game myself. I will never make a game only because it would make a lot of money.
Zoroarts stands for games with love and passion put into the development!
When it comes to developing different games in these types of genres, what’s the most difficult part of the game development process?
When I get a new game idea, I love to start with a prototype. I always love to have an evaluation of the game by posting footage of the prototype on social media, and with the response of my community, I can see if this game has a solid base to build on. Also, I often get a lot of great feedback and ideas to improve the prototype by posting it on Twitter or TikTok.
After this step, I only have a small gameplay piece and not a finished game, so moving on from that point is the hardest step for me. I need more ideas for features and mechanics to find an art style that fits the game. And also finish the game loop, which takes a lot of time. During the development of Makis Adventure, I also had big problems finding an end for the game that suited the whole story.
A few of your projects, primarily ‘Ultimate Indie Racing’ and ‘Paddle, Paddle, Paddle,’ have gone viral on social media. Does that add additional pressure during the development process?
First of all, I’m super happy and thankful that these games went viral! But of course, I also want to keep up with the high expectations of the community. And that adds a lot of pressure on me. My approach is to never show anything that is not in the game already, so people only see actual gameplay.
I also highlight my situation: I’m a 22-year-old solo dev and student who has a job. I’m not a Big Company with hundreds of full-time developers, but a solo dev who gets home in the evening and develops games into the night (with a lot of coffee). Doing this full-time is my dream, of course. But right now, I am building up my studio and brand.
All in all, I’m really happy that my Games and Demos got really positive feedback from players and the press. I also love to offer Playtests and a Demo to collect feedback and impressions if people even enjoy the unfinished game. The Demo for Paddle Paddle Paddle has 14 positive Steam reviews already. I watched a few streamers who played and enjoyed it in the last few days, so I know that I’m on the right track — and the pressure slowly starts to disappear.
As an indie developer, what is the most difficult part of getting the word out about your games, Mateo? More video games are being released now than ever before. It’s got to be difficult getting your game out there.
Finding players and getting the word out is one of the hardest things for me. As a solo dev, you have to do everything: From planning to developing and also marketing. Over the last 5 years, I built up a community of almost 40,000 followers across all my social media (TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) and learned a lot about marketing and community-building. It’s definitely the most difficult for the first game since nobody knows that you and your game even exist. But it gets easier and better with every launch since you keep and increase your community from game to game.
I love to compare it with a Roguelite. The launch is the dungeon, but after every run, you have more people who know your games and will probably also like and support your next game. That way, the release gets better and smoother with every game. After developing Makis Adventure for over 2 years and building up a community? I could announce Rogue Jungle to an audience of more than 30,000 followers who instantly gave me a lot of feedback about the concept and gameplay.
I also now have a Steam developer profile with ~140 followers who see my next game on the front page under the “From developers that you follow” Tab. Marketing Rogue Jungle went way better already, and I’m really thankful for that!
You’ve mentioned that you’d love to see ‘Paddle, Paddle, Paddle’ become the next big “rage game”. When it comes to developing a game like this, is the intention to get more brand recognition? Or is it just because it’s something fun and different? A little of both?
To be honest, I can not really say that this Game was planned, and if it goes viral? It’s more about good timing and luck. The idea for Paddle, Paddle, Paddle came to my head when I took a shower. Nothing about this game is really planned, but I’m so happy about the feedback so far! I recently launched the Demo three days ago, and the development of the game started less than three weeks ago.
This game could become a small breakthrough for me and a cool game for streamer duos. But maybe it also failed because I could not reach enough streamers to get the word out. I will definitely give my best to make a small and fun game here. I plan to not focus too much on pure marketing, even though my views and Followers on TikTok are doing pretty well right now, but to also stay focused on developing a fun and polished game here.
Today, the Demo for Paddle, Paddle, Paddle reached the Positive Review Mark with 13/14 Positive Reviews, and it’s clearly a good sign to me that I’m on the right track!
When you’re not working on games, what does a typical day in the life of Mateo look like?
There’s no day without game development for me. Since 2020, I have had no 0% days, and I’m still as motivated as on Day 1! I just love developing Games, and it does not feel like work to me. My days pretty much look the same since I started to study. I go to university to study and work (I work as a Tutor at my University and help fellow students with technical problems), take my daily walk in the park since I love nature and need a break before heading back home to work on my games.
But I also meet friends and do some social stuff, and after that, I drive back home and work on my games into the night. I just love my daily routine and could not imagine a better life… My goal for 2025 is to walk 10,000 steps (at least) every single day since I love to go for long walks alone or with a friend. Also, I want to fix my sleep schedule. So, right now, I aim for 7 hours of sleep every day since I realized that I’m way more productive when I have enough sleep.
What is one piece of advice you’d like to offer anyone looking to make a break into the game creation scene, Mateo?
You have to enjoy the process and keep your expectations on a realistic level. Developing games is hard. Doing that full-time is even harder. You will fail a lot, repeat a lot, and eventually also win, but it’s a long and hard path!
If you love the process of developing games, learning new skills, and connecting with fellow devs by visiting events such as Gamescom? You are 100% gonna have a super fun time! A lot of people just want to make games because they want to get rich, and that’s the wrong mindset! When I started to not focus too much on the financial aspect and just enjoyed the process? I fell in love with game development, and now I do not even care if my games make enough money.
I make games because I know there are people who will love them — and because I just enjoy it! That’s my advice.
I would like to thank Mateo Covic, aka Zoroarts, for taking the time out of his busy schedule to chat with me for this interview.
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