Ioana Șopov – invited as a speaker to the first edition of Bucharest Graphic Days.

Ioana Șopov is a Romanian illustrator and animator with a little over 13 years experience in the field. Her illustration career began in advertising and editorial projects and expanded to include animation and motion graphics not long after. A passion for video games rooted in childhood years spent playing games like Starcraft, Caesar III and Monkey Island in her family’s internet&games cafe in the early 2000’s grew into a strong desire to create a game herself. In 2018 that desire grew into the shape of an idea, developed alongside her partner Rareș, which ultimately took the shape of Bear & Breakfast – a casual management adventure game. Launched in July 2022 after being in development for almost three years, Bear & Breakfast is Ioana’s first official foray into game development and a truly challenging but also rewarding experience that crystalized Ioana’s desire to continue on the path of indie game development going.

She is one of the three speakers at TALK day, invited by the Tuan Nini, the curator of illustration cathegory. More details here.

It’s a miracle any game gets made” – the trials of transitioning from independent artist to art lead in a small indie game development team. From prototyping an idea for a game and pitching it to publishers worldwide, to learning how to delegate and manage relationships with collaborators on the project, to marketing your game and nurturing a community centered around your project, indie development will always require you to wear a lot of hats. And if you add the technical challenges into the mix, well… it’s going to be a wild ride.