{"rewrite":{"id":"r_e4a277b56cf370d78425e3a6","clusterId":"c_2f8ae9981ab19a4256891eac","slug":"busan-student-team-smallboots-wins-two-rookie-awards-for-soom","model":"deepseek-v4-flash:free","headline":"Busan Student Team SmallBoots Wins Two Rookie Awards for Soom","summary":"Team SmallBoots, 14 students from Dongseo University in Busan, won Excellence in Art and Excellence in Game Design in the rookie category at BIC2026 for their graduation project Soom. The top-down action adventure draws visual inspiration from Sky: Children of the Light and combat references from the Zelda series and Death's Door.","whyItMatters":"The interview reveals how the team unified its art direction mid-development and structured its coursework to make a polished student game that drew consistent lines at BIC2026.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003eAt BIC2026, the booth for Soom kept a steady line of attendees across two days, prompting 4Gamer to try the game on the final day and speak with its developers. The team, Team SmallBoots, consists of 14 students from the Game Department at Dongseo University in Busan, South Korea, and Soom is their graduation project.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe action adventure casts the player as Rif, a totem god awakened from a seal, fighting monsters born from human desires. The art takes inspiration from Sky: Children of the Light, while combat, built on attacks and parries, references the Zelda series and the top-down soulslike Death\u0026#39;s Door. The team started with 15 members and now has 14, with three main art staff though all members contribute to modeling in some form.\u003c/p\u003e","blueskyPost":"Soom's two rookie wins at BIC2026 put Dongseo University's 14-student team in the same bracket as studios with years of release history. The gap between student production and professional recognition is the real metric.","twitterPost":"Soom's two rookie wins at BIC2026 put Dongseo University's 14-student team in the same bracket as studios with years of release history.","threadsPost":"Soom took two rookie awards at BIC2026, but the team behind it is 14 students from Dongseo University. That puts a graduation project in the same conversation as studios with full release pipelines. The gap between student production and professional recognition is the real metric.","newsletterBlurb":"Team SmallBoots, a 14-student team from Dongseo University, won two rookie awards at BIC2026 for their graduation project Soom. The action adventure, inspired by Sky: Children of the Light and Death's Door, kept a steady line at the event. The team unified its art direction mid-development to achieve a consistent look.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"4Gamer.net\",\"url\":\"https://www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999901/20260818027/\",\"title\":\"Where is the goal for a graduation project game made by 14 Korean students? Interview with the \\\"Soom\\\" development team that won two rookie awards at a Busan indie event [BIC2026]\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":4675,"outputTokens":621,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1787048510,"createdAt":"2026-08-18T10:14:15.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-08-18T10:16:44.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-08-18T10:14:15.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_2f8ae9981ab19a4256891eac","canonicalTitle":"韓国の学生14人が作る卒業制作ゲームのゴールはどこか。釜山のインディーイベントでルーキー2部門受賞の「Soom」開発チームに聞く［BIC2026］","representativeArticleId":"a_57050371105590691feffdeb","sourceCount":1,"writtenSourceCount":1,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":true,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[\"Soom\"],\"studios\":[],\"people\":[],\"type\":\"news\",\"domain\":\"games\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"published","firstSeenAt":"2026-08-18T09:29:00.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-08-18T09:29:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-08-18T10:16:45.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"4Gamer.net","url":"https://www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999901/20260818027/","title":"韓国の学生14人が作る卒業制作ゲームのゴールはどこか。釜山のインディーイベントでルーキー2部門受賞の「Soom」開発チームに聞く［BIC2026］"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":[],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":["Soom"],"studios":[],"people":[],"type":"news","domain":"games","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":null}