Ramin Access Memory: Daisy Chain Games takes bubbly nine-player racing to Gamescom 2026

When the four-person team at Edmonton-based Daisy Chain Games learned they’d been selected by Edmonton Screen to demo their upcoming game at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, they were ecstatic.

“That was a crazy day for us,” said Jawdat Toume, co-director and sound designer with the studio. “I think we booked the flights that night because we were just like ready to go.”

At that point, they had already done demos for their upcoming nine-player online party racing game, Slipstream, at events like Edmonton’s annual Game Discovery Expo (GDX) and Games Con Canada. For Jawdat, it was a mix of on-the-ground hustle and hands-on impressions from players that helped the game evolve to a state where it was noticed by Edmonton Screen.

“It gave us a lot of connections that we still have to this day, and in a way it also helped us get in with Edmonton Screen, because then we were able to show off like, ‘this is all the stuff that we’ve already done, these are the people who have played the game, and these are the reactions that we have found people often have when playing the game.”

Toume thinks that level of preparation and consideration for user feedback made a good first impression on Edmonton Screen, and helped set the internal tone for the studio going forward.

However, none of that experience could have prepared the team for the scale of something like Gamescom 2026, which recorded a whopping 368,000 attendees from 131 countries.

“I don’t think we really wrapped our heads around how huge it was going to be,” Toume said. “We ended up having like a lot of people from many different corners of the earth enjoying our game and wanting to play it. Having a lot of people play our game was like such a wonderful thing.”

Getting direct player feedback not only helped shape the level design and art style, but also gave the team ideas for new modes.

“Time trials, specifically, wasn’t even on our original plan,” said Alexander Salm, co-director and programmer with Daisy Chain Games. “That was something that we considered doing after GDX last year, but I think it has ended up being one of our most popular modes. People really like the kind of focused time-trialing that we have in the game rather than the very chaotic, like nine-player races. So I think that was a good direction that we went in.”

Salm said he’s grateful that Slipstream was colourful and vibrant enough to draw in curious players from long distances, but Toume thinks the booth’s location was also an unexpected boon to their efforts.

“(We were) right next to the bathroom, which I don’t think that was insignificant.”

Toume and Salm say the whole team has been energized by the experience, brimming with newfound knowledge and wisdom from their time at Gamescom.

“I think that one thing that we’ve learned that’s really important is like making sure that we connect with people on a human level to figure out like what, what can we do to benefit you and what can you do to benefit us,” Toume said. “And I think that really helped us throughout Gamescom.”

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