Olivenaut: The Edmonton Developer Bringing YANCY to Gamescom

For Jackson, better known in the video game development community as Olivenaut, the best games are the ones that let players get a little lost.

That philosophy is at the heart of YANCY, an NES-inspired adventure game that the Edmonton indie developer has spent the past five years building. This August, YANCY will make its international debut at Gamescom 2026 in Cologne, Germany, as part of Edmonton Screen’s Summit Push Program.

YANCY is one of five Edmonton-made video games being showcased through the program, giving local developers the opportunity to connect with players, publishers, and industry professionals from around the world.

A Passion Project Five Years in the Making

What started as a small experiment has grown into a fully realized indie title built almost entirely by one developer.

Five years ago, after joking with a friend that they were making “a Zelda clone” while in a bad mood, Jackson started experimenting with the idea without any plans for where it would go. That project eventually evolved into YANCY, an adventure game shaped by their love of exploration, discovery, and classic video game design.

Working under the name Olivenaut, Jackson handles YANCY’s programming, art, design, and writing, with music created through a collaboration with a friend and composer based in Brazil. You can hear his work on Bandcamp.

Their interest in creating video games started early. After growing up playing titles like Yoshi’s Island and Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, Jackson discovered game development through developer interviews and began teaching themself Game Maker at age 13.

“Game Maker as a software is just so accessible and easy to understand,” they say. “I started making games on it when I was 13, and I just didn’t stop.”

Growing Through Edmonton’s Game Development Community

Olivenaut first connected with Edmonton Screen through the local video game development community in 2024. After hearing about the Summit Push Program from Edmonton studio ThirtyThree Games, they applied and were accepted.

Since then, YANCY has been showcased at Game Con Canada and the North American Games Industry Summit (NAGIS), giving Olivenaut opportunities to connect with players and fellow developers while continuing to grow their presence within Edmonton’s interactive digital media community.

Gamescom will mark the next step in that journey, bringing YANCY to an international audience and giving Edmonton’s growing video game industry another opportunity to showcase the creativity being built locally.

A free demo of YANCY is available on Steam, with the full release date still to be announced.

For aspiring developers, Olivenaut’s advice is simple: start creating.

“It’s so much easier than you think it is,” they say. “You just have to actually do it.”