Powered by LootLocker: Helping the new generation at Empty Box to keep their focus on creativity

The team at Empty Box are all aged between 21 and 24. They’re self-taught, dynamic developers whose latest game, NanoHive, is already a hit. They’re using LootLocker to keep their time free for the jobs they most enjoy.

New kids on the block

Empty Box is a team of seven developers, hailing from Denmark, Romania and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. They’re seriously impressive: their skills come almost entirely from self-teaching, they already have games out there that you can play today, and none of them were yet born when Tomb Raider 2 came out.

When we asked the Empty Box team where they learned to make games, almost all of them mentioned ‘YouTube tutorials’ and ‘online courses’. And even the most experienced of the seven (Frederik) has been making games for only 4-5 years.

They’re a great example of what you can achieve by simply soaking up information from readily available tutorials, and then putting it into practice.

NanoHive: the top-down shooter with a biological twist

Empty Box’s latest game, NanoHive, is available to play now on itch.io. In the game, you control a hive of nanobots, traversing the human body to destroy germs and viruses. It’s fast-paced and challenging, with plenty of scope for coming up with clever new strategies.

NanoHive took first place at Create Jam Spring 2021 – getting rave reviews for its ‘engaging and creative game mechanics’. Empty Box have already rolled out two big updates for the game, which could easily leave you wondering: how do they develop so fast for such a small team?

Create what you love, buy what you need

When we chatted to Empty Box, we asked what they most like about making games. Their answers were all similar: “the incredible freedom of creation” (Adam), “creating something from scratch” (Hannibal), “creating an interactive art piece” (Radu).

And when we asked what they least enjoyed, they were all practical, non-creative tasks: “running a business” (Radu), “making it a job” (Tomi), “juggling all the moving parts that make up game development” (Frederik).

This is reflected in how they work. They pour their time and passion into the artistic aspects of development. And for the less artistic, practical stuff, they choose the right tools to make it quick and simple.

Helping NanoHive go from solo to competitive in just 48 hours

In their second big update, Empty Box wanted to add a competitive element to NanoHive – creating leaderboards where players could compare their scores.

After shopping around for a while and settling on Lootlocker, they had their leaderboard function up and running in just two days.

The team say they chose Lootlocker for: “its ease of use, extensive documentation and cool developers that are eager to help with solving all problems you might find along the way”.

The team say they’ll be using more Lootlocker features in their upcoming developments. You can follow the NanoHive devblog on the Empty Box website.

Use Lootlocker to keep your focus on the things you most love about your job