IndieCade 2020: Highlights for Game Developers
Diego Lizarazo Rivera
Sr. Developer Evangelist
Two of the things I really like about game developers are their constant drive for innovation and seemingly endless energy. And that cannot be more obvious than participating in an event like the IndieCade International Festival of Independent Games. For 15-plus years, IndieCade has been the premiere stand-alone gathering and showcase for indie games worldwide.
This year, the festival had to completely rethink itself to accommodate our new global reality, and I am so happy to say that the organizers absolutely nailed their “Anywhere and Everywhere” motto. For nine days, the Samsung Developers team were immersed in game presentations and awards, networking events, game slams, and social media madness.
Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of the event and my general musings about the games and participants.
As an event sponsor, we had the privilege to collaborate with the IndieCade audience in several ways:
- Attending multiple live presentations
- Presenting the renewed Samsung Galaxy Store
- Creating a virtual Samsung Developers booth
- Watching the nominated games and the highly-anticipated award winners
The Samsung Galaxy Store Presentation: Where Indie Games Get Discovered
For obvious reasons, the biggest point of the event for me was to lead the presentation that introduced the new game-focused experience of Galaxy Store. Available in more than 180 countries with more than 400M month active users, Galaxy Store is a great place for developers to publish their game and get discovered. With the help of my colleague, Shelley Wu, we showcased the different opportunities that game developers have to promote and market their games, gave a hands-on walkthrough of the Games tab in the store, and showed how its design promotes discovery of new games.
Additionally, I gave a live step-by-step demonstration on how to create a Seller Portal account, how to request commercial seller status, and the different steps an indie developer should follow to publish their first game.
This presentation is filled with helpful information and tips, and I recommend you watch it.
Live Presentations
Pre-selected game developers were able to showcase their games and particate in the conference chat on IndieCade’s Twitch channel. It is hard to pick just a few games, but these will give you a pretty good idea of what you could expect:
- Aria
Aria is a story-based VR experience where you are placed in a pod to escape a catastrophic explosion on your spaceship. Watch Aria's stream
- Endlight
This one is more like a psychedelic, fast-paced experience. Watch Endlight's stream
- Lost Words
This one is a highly praised puzzle game that is set in the pages of a young girl’s diary, and you have to use words to advance the story. Watch Lost Words' stream
- Thousand Year Old Vampire
This one is for the fans of table top games. It is incredibly innovative and, unlike most TTRPGs, is a solo experience that allows you to create the story of the titular vampire. Watch Thousand Year Old Vampire's stream
Nominees and Winners
This year, IndieCade nominated over 50 games and in the end, there were 12 award winners. As a game designer myself, I particularly enjoyed reading the comments from the jury.
If you'd like to dig more into IndieCade 2020, check out the awards video or the event round-up
We love to chat with mobile game developers and help you as you develop, publish, and market your own games. Galaxy Store is a great place to publish your game and get discovered. If you are a game developer and want to request a quick chat with us, just fill out this form.
