Happy July everyone! ✨
Kelsy, your HeartLoop Community Manager, here!
We hope you have been enjoying the summer so far, and maybe even picking up a few games during the Steam Summer Sale.It's the perfect excuse to kick back, relax, and spend some quality time gaming.
While you've been tackling your backlog, we've been busy introducing Poly Fighter to hundreds of new players across three back-to-back events. It's been an incredible few weeks, and we're so grateful to everyone who stopped by our booth, played the demo, and shared their thoughts with us.
Poly Fighter Booths at the most Recent Events:
EVO 2026 - Las Vegas, NV: June 26-28
Montreal Comiccon Indie Zone - Montreal, QC: July 2-5
Eh! Game Expo - Kingston, ON: July 3-5
Held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, EVO (Evolution Championship Series) is the world’s longest-running fighting game tournament, and one of the biggest events in the genre. If you’re a fighting game enthusiast, it’s the place to be. And if you’re making a fighting game like Poly Fighter, it’s a dream come true! Since its beginning in 1996, EVO has grown from fighting game tournaments into a massive celebration of the genre, featuring exhibitors, artist galleries, merchandise, controller shops, and of course… indie games.
We were thrilled to be invited to showcase Poly Fighter at EVO 2026 and put it in the hands of professionals of the fighting game community. Our creative director, Osama Dorias and I, arrived early Thursday morning to set up the spacious booth that landed right on one of the corners next to the main walkway of the event. Perfect!
Check out our booth set up here!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DaDonGeAZ53/?hl=en
The response to Poly Fighter at EVO 2026 was heartwarming. Fighting game fans of every skill level stopped by our booth to play, and seeing so many smiles, rematches, and excited conversations throughout the weekend was incredibly rewarding. Even better, players shared thoughtful feedback on what they loved and where they thought we could make the game even stronger.
Our booth stayed busy all weekend, and we couldn't be happier with the reception. We also have to give a huge shoutout to our friends at 8BitDo. After trying Poly Fighter, they generously lent us one of their Arcade Fighting Sticks and a Leverless controller so visitors could experience the game with different control options. Thanks guys 🫶
Purchase their sticks here! Not sponsored by the way! They’re just THAT cool!
As for the professional competitors, they kept coming back for one more run in an attempt to go further in the game. We filmed reactions and runs from familiar faces: EEvisu, TKbreezy, RG, and the world’s greatest gamer, Void! We’ll be making a special video to thank these talented gamers who took the time to not only play Poly Fighter, but who gave us further feedback, and suggestions that we’re heavily considering. ✍️
Twitch’s “World’s Greatest Gamer” 2024, 2025 “Void ” was one of the 6 total players who were able to beat Act 3 in the Poly Fighter Demo during EVO 2026
No sooner had we landed back home from EVO than it was time to pack up again for Montréal Comiccon! (Not that we were complaining, we were still riding the excitement from the previous weekend.)
Thanks to Loto-Quebec, the popular Indie Zone returned to Montréal Comiccon bigger than ever, and we were honoured to showcase Poly Fighter alongside so many talented indie studios. It truly felt like a family reunion of Québec game developers. Check out who else was featured here!
MTL Comiccon presented the opportunity for gamers to come meet with our developers! players chatted with our Creative Director, Osama Dorias, our Game Designer, Kyra Hedley, and our Technical Director, Yan-Simon.
The Indie Zone had quite the vibe, in the best way. The biggest (and greatest) shock came from child-prodigies who returned to the booth over and over again and, in more than a few cases, completely outplaying the adults! Watching the next generation of fighting game fans discover Poly Fighter was a lot of fun. If they're this good already, we can't wait to see what they'll be capable of in a few years. Props to you all for bringing such smiles on our faces! ❤️
While at the show, Yan also sat down with École NAD-UQAC for an interview about the development of Poly Fighter and what it's like working in an indie studio where everyone wears multiple hats. The interview is in French, but don't worry, we've included a full English translation below!
UQAC: We’re in front of the game: Poly Fighter! Yan, can you talk to us a bit about your game, and your role on the team?
Yan: Yes! I’m the tech director on Poly Fighter, I handle the programming of the game. This is a roguelike, single player fighting game. You can compare it a little bit to Street Fighter but the focus for the moment is that the game is single player. Players start off with a basic moveset in comparison to other fighting games but when you defeat an opponent, you learn one of their unique new moves and apply it to your moveset. Every time you play the game, you will fight different rivals which means the moveset that you construct will be different to aspire to new experiences and combos.
UQAC: How long has the game been in development for? How many people are working on this project?
Yan: We are currently 8 people working on this project from our studio and have hired some contractors alongside us. We have been working on this game for about a year and a half as of April 2025.
UQAC: Is the game available? Is there a playtest available?
Yan: The game is not yet available, but we have our demo now out on Steam which you can download and play right now. We frequently update the demo as we continue to develop it. The game will be released by the end of the year.
UQAC: How is the team divided? How many programmers? How many artists? Etc…
Yan: In each domain, we’re all divided evenly. We have one artist, a primary programmer, one person that handles design, one person that takes care of marketing. But, we all work together by wearing different hats when we need to. Everyone has their main focus, but our talents touch different parts of the development process to help each other out when we can. So even though I’m not an artist, I will help out the artist with some designs here and there. With a small team, we have no choice but to adapt by helping one another.
UQAC: Yep that’s it, when it comes to a small company you’re likely all to wear many different hats to cover many different roles. Is this your first game that you guys are developing, together?
Yan: Yes! This is our first game that we are creating together. A lot of us have created games individually with many years of game development in the past. But, this is our first game together as a studio: Heartloop Games. We have come together to launch this studio so that we can produce Poly Fighter.
You can watch the full original interview right here!
While the team was conquering Comiccon Montreal, I drove off to invade Kingston’s first ever Eh! Game Expo.
We were thrilled to be invited to not only showcase Poly Fighter on the show floor, but also to make a special guest appearance on VGBootCamp's Twitch channel alongside "rooflemonger" to show off the latest version of the demo.
I took viewers through Act 1, highlighting the different strategies players can experiment with, to make every run unique, and the variety of encounters, bosses, and stages they'll face along the way.
Catch the entire broadcast here! Shoutouts again to both VGBootcamp and rooflemonger for hosting this incredible opportunity!
Back on the show floor, our booth was part of the Indie Game Freeplay area, where attendees could discover a wide variety of indie titles throughout the weekend. Poly Fighter was always being played, with people waiting behind players, spectating and reacting to the fun as everyone patiently waited for their turn. It was a blast to experience, with my personal face smiling so much that my cheeks hurt by the end of each day.
One of my favorite memories from the weekend was meeting 11-year-old Nathan and his dad, Marvin. They kept returning to the booth throughout the event as Nathan pushed farther and farther into the demo. Eventually, he reached the final boss of Act 3, Mama Blaze, only to lose in a heartbreaking last-hit finish.
A little later, Marvin sent us this photo to let us know Nathan had come back for one more run, and this time, he finally defeated Mama Blaze. I'm proud of you, Nathan! ❤️
Moments like these remind us why we make games. Watching players embrace the challenge, improve with every attempt, and celebrate those hard-earned victories takes us back to why we fell in love with games in the first place.
We want to thank everyone who came out to these events, and for all the feedback that you gave to the team. We’ll see you at the next one. Meanwhile, keep on growing stronger and reaching further with the current demo of Poly Fighter!
Talk soon, Kelsy - Community Manager
HeartLoop Games