Indiecade: International Indie Game Developers in Little Tokyo This Weekend

There's sure to be a healthy sampling of new technology at Indiecade. The augmented reality and virtual reality hardware guys will surely be there. Perhaps your love is the immersive VR platform of Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive, or the AR platform of the Microsoft Hololens or Epson Moverio BT-300 series. Maybe you don't even know what these are, but are curious about the experiences.

The game development competition that is Indiecade provides developers with the opportunity to visualize scenarios for this new technology. What would your game be like? What application would you build if you had a competition to enter? Developers gather in teams because there's a lot to be done, and it's hard to be an expert at everything. I suppose there's a genius out there that is. Expert at everything, I mean. At a minimum I suspect you'll need a digital artist and a programmer.

The competing developers are competing for prizes, yes, but they are also competing for visibility and attention. Indie developers actually have the chance of getting their games published, but it takes work. Shopping your indie game is sort of like doing a game Kickstarter. You need to get out there, to the cons and competitions. You need to gather your fan base around you. Maybe you should even pre-sell or create advertising artifacts. When you make something, you want to share it, anyway. I've seen at least one game make it to Steam, the digital game distribution site owned by Valve.

Indiecade is not just for digital games, however. I've seen a number of game types there. Most are digital or involve electronics, but there are also some board games, publishers and card producers. There'll be groups that teach game design.

My friends Morio and Caprice are working on their board games. Makersville, the group that I created that operates in the Makerspace at the Long Beach Sea Base, has a game design club, and Caprice's game, Archaeologist, is the most advanced. She's been working on it for at least 2 years now, and has been play testing it at every chance she gets. We're trying to figure out when and how she'll get it published. You can be sure I'll be looking for small board game publishers at the Indiecade this weekend! I love the way the game has evolved, from idea to concept, with 3D printed tokens and hand drawn (and printed) laminated cards. Does she want to be famous? She already is (she is the hands of E.T. in the well known movie), but I'm sure she'd like the opportunity to be famous for her board game.

Indiecade, now in its 10th year, spent a number of years in Culver City, moved to USC (last year) and now is in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles. Tickets still available - http://www.indiecade.com. See you there!