“Each year we’re seeing more complex, more innovative, and even some more accessible products coming from gamemakers working from garages, basements, universities, and other indie settings... Everyone is turning to the independent creators who are willing to take risks exploring new forms of play, rapidly pushing the industry forward from the edges.”
//Details
What: IndieCade @ E3 Expo
When: June 15 - 17, 2010
Where: Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall 4344
Attendees: Industry Professionals
//Featured Developers
Arcshock
Location
South Korea
Bio
Arcshock is Korean Indie Game team, made up with Husband(Moonyeom) & Wife(Komagi), and even music is also done by moonyeom to make non-budget Indie Game. Associated with Pig-Min Agency, which supports to let Korean Indie Games abroad. We will have 3rd. member of Arcshock, maybe 20 years later, our baby.
Game Title:
Sand Castle
Description
A shining example of physics-based puzzle gameplay, in Sand Castle players directs the flow of stand through tubes, into containers and over mill wheels to solve the game's clever puzzles. Created by a husband-and-wife team from Korea, Sand Castle explores particle physics and particle effects to find interesting gameplay and beautiful visual effects.
Artistic Statement
(originally by moonyeom, translated by mrkwang)
1. How did we decide to make Indie Game?
- I've worked for Korean Online Game company, always felt heavy that I can't make real game. So I decided to make my own game, and [Sand Castle] is the first.
2. What did I feel while making this game?
- Even if game is small, it needs lots of efforts & life. And though I tried my best, something left undone to my heart. But now I make what I want, and that's the best important thing.
Credits
*Arcshock
Moonyeom : Game Design / Programming / Music & Sound Design
Komagi : Game Design / Graphic Design
* Pig-Min Agency : Agency team to support Korean Indie Game teams.
mrkwang : admin
kalrito : manager
ritgun : supporter in Boston, US
* Arcshock is related to Pig-Min Agency, and this submit is done by mrkwang based on permission of 'Moonyeom'.
Website
http://arcshock.com/en
Copenhagen Game Collective
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Bio
Copenhagen Game Collective is a multi-gender, multi-national, non-profit game design collective based in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collective comprises a tight network of different companies, non-commercial projects, and creative individuals.
Game Title:
B.U.T.T.O.N.
Description
B.U.T.T.O.N is a four-player one-button party game consisting of short rounds. In each round, the game instructs players to put their controllers down and back away from them. It then gives a short instruction, followed by a win condition. The first player to meet the win condition wins! B.U.T.T.O.N pushes gameplay back outside the machine and into real physical and social interaction between players. Featured in Gamma 2010.
Artistic Statement
Our goal was to push gameplay outside the computer - to make a physical game that just happens to use a computer. What players are allowed to do will depend on the specific people playing. The computer, of course, cannot detect if players are taking a full six steps back, or if each player really completed five pushups, etc. This is not a shortcoming, but a feature. Rather than let the computer carry out all the rules, the players are themselves responsible for enforcing (or not enforcing) the rules. On this account we were inspired by old folk games and board games, which allow for improvisational play and house rules.
The game is best played in a party setting, preferably while inebriated. It was designed collaboratively by a team of people who were themselves inebriated while developing the idea.
Credits
Development Team:
Lau Korsgaard, Douglas Wilson, Nils Deneken, Lawrence Johnson
Art:
Nils Deneken
Music and Sound:
Nifflas (http://nifflas.ni2.se)
Programming:
Douglas Wilson, Lawrence Johnson
Website
http://www.copenhagengamecollective.org/b-u-t-t-o-n/
Demruth
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Bio
Alexander Bruce is a creative young developer who thrives on positivity. He aims to capture the essence of wonder he finds in the little things in life, and share them with the world through his creations.
Game Title:
Hazard: The Journey of Life
Description
Developer Alexander Bruce, describes Hazard: The Journey of Life as a "Philosophical First-Person" game. Playing Hazard is immersing yourself in an interactive painting that takes you on a metaphorical life journey through simple, abstract graphics in a complex 3D world that is constantly twisting and turning to send you down unexpected paths.
Artistic Statement
In creating this game, I purposefully strayed from convention in favour of experimentation. Iteration is one way to discover new play spaces, but changing the rules of Chess, for example, in hopes of finding new mechanics that work well together will always give much more refined results than starting with a blank slate and seeing where it takes you.
I'm interested in trying to help expand the artistic potential of the medium, and creating highly experimental ideas is what I do best. There are enough other people in the world working with more traditional flavours of game development. I don't believe that games solely have to be fun, or even about telling a good story, hence why I have actively been pushing the artistic and philosophical sides of Hazard, despite questions of whether they make the game commercially viable. Maybe a game like this may not be commercially viable yet, but ideas have to start somewhere.
Credits
Alexander Bruce
Website
http://www.demruth.com/hazard.htm
Farbs
Location
UK
Bio
Farbs pretends to be an indie super star rock god, but he's really just an awkward nerd who craves your approval.
Game Title:
Playpen
Description
Playpen is a game that encourages creative collaboration by asking players to build and modify one another's pixel art. Half Myst and half Wikipedia, it invites the player to explore a world of other people's ideas, and add to it however they choose. The game currently includes over 5,000 player created pixel art pages.
Artistic Statement
PlayPen is an attempt to encourage creative anonymous collaboration. I've tried to make the act of contributing as fun, simple, and non-threatening as possible. The world the players create reflects not only their individual ideas but also their shared experience of collaboration.
Credits
Farbs - Development
MediaWiki - Technology Platform
Bennett Foddy - Name
Andrew Leys - Promotional Music
5P - Progression
Website
http://playpen.farbs.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
GLPeas
Location
UK
Bio
GLPeas believe that innovation should be at the heart of indie development. With that in mind, they deliver unique gameplay experiences and constantly strive to push through the boundaries of conventional game design.
Game Title:
Blind GiRl
Description
Blind GiRl is a XBox Live Indie Games adventure puzzler based on the mechanics of realistic wave propagation. The player uses sound waves to illuminate the environment and navigate obstacles and adversaries. Blind GiRl sets aside traditional player assistance mechanics, tutorials, and even clear feedback, to bring the player's journey from confusion to clarity in line with the protagonist's.
Artistic Statement
BlindGiRl was designed to be covert in delivery. Standard, good practice player assistance mechanics presented in our previous products like tutorials, clear controls and performance feedback were intentionally removed. The stripped down product was just so by design, in order to start the player in confusion, such that they embark on the same discovery activity as our protagonist.
Credits
Yordan Gyurchev
Website
http://www.glpeas.co.uk/
Greg Trefry
Game Title:
Gigaputt
Description
Gigaputt transforms the physical environment into an exciting 3 hole mini-golf course! Gigaputt uses intuitive motion controls that allow you to swing your iPhone like a golf club and navigate the course, seeing your neighborhood and surroundings in a new and different light. Play a quick round of golf no matter where you are!
Artistic Statement
As developers, we really want to connect people and places through play. We believe the the future of fun is in games that you take with you. Games that help you meet new people. Games that help you explore the real-world, as well as the virtual world. These are the sort of games we make.
We've long been very interested in how games can help you rediscover the world around you. We've worked on a number of real-world street games over the years. With Gigaputt we tried to answer some of the challenges of real-world and augmented reality gaming. Namely we wanted to make a game that would encourage social behavior, playing off the rich culture of golf.
It was also very important to us to make a game that could be played anywhere by anyone with an iPhone. Instead of setting up courses, we use the game mechanics to procedurally generate a course. This we hope leads to happy accidents as people play and move about their world seeing bits of it they'd previously ignored.
Credits
Mattia Romeo - Game Design, Programming
Greg Trefry - Game Design, Art
Website
http://www.giganticmechanic.com/
Jeff Lait
Location
Canada
Bio
Jeff Lait, a self-styled roguelike developer, is best known in that community for his work on the more traditional game POWDER. Once a year, however, he dedicates a week to making something that pushes the boundary of the genre. This year that contribution is Smart Kobold.
Game Title:
Smart Kobold
Description
A rogue-like dungeon crawl, Smart Kobold is designed to explore the limits of difficulty and enemy AI. By utilizing Kobolds, traditionally the 'weakest' of monsters, but giving them intelligent, logical AI, Lait creates an extremely challenging game. Smart Kobold is a rewarding and engaging game poses more interesting questions about relative difficulty in games than it answers.
Artistic Statement
One aspect of the roguelike genre is that they are dungeon crawls. A lone adventurer enters a dungeon and slays everything in its path, eventually accumulating unlimited power prior to "ascending".
A common suggestion for an improvement for roguelikes is that they need better AI. Developers have been quick to retort that an "intelligent" AI is the last thing you want. Brent Ross described an optimal AI as one that would empty the dungeon ahead of the player, leaving them only to face the concentrated forces of their enemy with no chance to level up or gain equipment. On Zen of Design, Damion Schubert boldly stated that you don't want realistic AI: http://www.zenofdesign.com/2005/05/31/you-dont-want-realistic-ai/ (Note he does exempt turn based strategy games, which may be stretched to include roguelikes)
My goal in designing Smart Kobold was to:
1) Have a standard roguelike with the single adventurer facing a horde of creatures.
2) Ensure the horde of creatures are extremely underpowered so the adventurer would easily win a "fair" fight found in most roguelikes.
3) Improve the AI of the creatures, without any cheating, until the game is unwinnable.
The intent was that the result would prove that too good of an AI is no longer fun.
I followed the general AI plan suggested by Brent Ross. The kobold dungeon has some guards. When they report your invasion, the rest of the kobolds scoop up all valuables, carry them to the storage room, and then set up an ambush. Even during the ambush they do not just blindly charge forward, allowing you to kill them one by one in a hallway, but balance their motion to ensure they always get at least one hit in before dying.
When I released the Seven Day Roguelike version I thought I had succeeded. I certainly could never win.
However, my hubris proved short lived, as many players still managed to outfox the AI and slaughter the kobolds. Rather than being deterred by the frustration of the AI that refused to play nice, they were compelled to think one level higher and subvert the coding.
At time of writing, I am planning on a second re-release to close a few loopholes that were discovered. But I now suspect my thesis was wrong. Players do want realistic AI. The reason developers assume good AI is bad is they imagine applying it to the current monster mix of dungeons. If the kobolds in Smart Kobold were of the normal sort of strength you encounter at the start of a dungeon crawl the game would be unwinnable regardless of player actions.
Either that, or roguelike players are masochists so have a higher tolerance for brutal gameplay.
Credits
Design, Programing: Jeff Lait
Music: jice
Website
http://www.zincland.com/7drl/kobold
Marc ten Bosh
Location
New York City, USA
Game Title:
Miegakure
Description
Math meets game mechanics in Marc ten Bosh's 2010 IGF finalist, the insanely brilliant mind-bender Miegakure. Miegakure presents a series of three-dimensional puzzles that are solved by flipping between the third and fourth dimension, engaging players to think about spatial geometry in a new and unfamiliar way.
Artistic Statement
Our world is three-dimensional: width, depth, and height. But what if there was a fourth physical dimension that we cannot see, in addition to the other three?
This game is about exploring the consequences of being able to move in four spatial dimensions. It plays like a regular three-dimensional platformer, but at the press of a button one of the dimensions is exchanged with the fourth dimension, allowing for four-dimensional movement.
Think about a two-dimensional character living on a horizontal, flat two-dimensional plane. To this character, height would be a foreign concept. A number of actions we three-dimensional beings take for granted feel like absolute magic to this two-dimensional character.
For example, if there is a wall in the shape of a circle around an object in 2D, it is essentially closed-off, since to reach it one would have to leave the 2D plane. It is also impossible for an outsider to know what is inside.
But us 3D beings can see the object from above, and also simply lift it off the ground to move it outside, essentially teleporting it. Now by analogy a four-dimensional being could perform many similar miracles to us living in only three-dimensions. This game allows you to perform these "miracles."
The game medium makes the mathematical concept of a fourth dimension easier to understand by allowing to experience it first-hand, using trial and error, as opposed to being told about it.
Credits
Marc ten Bosch - Programming, Design
Jeff Weber - Modeling, Animation
Rich Vreeland - Audio
Website
http://marctenbosch.com/miegakure/
Outso (Lockwod Publishing)
Location
UK
Game Title:
Sodium
Description
Sodium One is an immersive game space within Sony's PlayStation Home virtual world. Leveraging the platform's advantages, Sodium One builds interesting and engaging social play around its high energy twitch-based Salt Shooter. Persistent gaming, personal objectives, and community score totals all help drive emergent social entertainment.
Artistic Statement
The world of Sodium is set in a positive future of advanced technology and shifting quantum realities following the technological singularity.
The complete hub area sits within remote salt plains and features explosive vehicular combat, social bar-related activities and the eradication of rogue robotic scorpions through stomping.
The message behind Sodium is one of positivity as players are encouraged to come together as a community to explore the world and co-operate to complete objectives.
Persistent gaming, personal objectives, community score totals and an exclusive range of themed clothing brings players together in a social capacity.
From its successful launch, Sodium will continue to grow and expand along with Playstation Home. New features and community events encouraging new players to visit over time.
The continuing aim is to make Sodium the number one spot in Home for players to make new friends whilst having fun and playing games.
Credits
Sharon Price / Steve Riding
Taiyoung Ryu
Location
Los Angeles, USA
Game Title:
Maum
Description
Maum is an experimental game using a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) and a physical interface device. In Maum, various forms of immersive gameplay are explored with the use of only those two intuitive inputs. This unique interface is integrated tightly with a surrealistic and beautiful art style, giving the player a unique and affecting experience.
Artistic Statement
The most important feature of Maum is using the new user interface of a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) device with a physical input device - to produce meaningful, engaging, and fun experiences for the gamer. The BCI device transfers various signals from the player¡¯s brain to the computer, which then translates raw brainwave signals into input data for the game. In Maum, two brain states are transferred via the device: attention level and meditation level. Unlike complicated EEG devices with lots of sensors, the game's BCI device, called Mindset, is small and easy to wear, and ¡°ideal¡± to use for gaming. With this BCI device, the player can change the environment to make the gameplay easier, solve puzzles.
Using the Wiimote controller creates physical action-involving gameplay. With accelerometer and an optical sensor installed in the Wiimote controller, the player can directly control the main character and do various actions in the game. In addition, the Wiimote provides a more exciting and participatory experience than traditional game controllers. Therefore, the combination of BCI device and Wiimote controller in this game provides an opportunity to explore immersive and experimental gameplay.
Credits
Director: Taiyoung Ryu
Designers: Jonghwa Kim, Kwangho Lee, Minjin Ko,
Producer: Joseph Spradley
Programmers: Heeman Seo, Jinman Chang, Soonjae Hwang, Sungsoo Kim
Concept artists: Daesung Han, James Bulvanoski
3D artists: Andy Uehara, Dongsoo Shin, Hyemyoung Lee, Hyunjung Rhee, Inyoung Yang, Seongyoung Kim, Sungwook Lee
Sound director: Charlie Silver
QA director: James Bulvanoski
Website
http://taiyoungryu.blogspot.com/
Team Rose
Location
Georgia Tech, USA
Bio
A collection of students from the Computational Media and Digital Media program at Georgia Tech, Team Rose represents the growing talent and ambition found among today's student game developers.
Game Title:
Vision By Proxy
Description
In this charming platformer, created by a team of Georgia Tech students, players change their view of the world by stealing eyes from various characters. Seen through the gardener's eye, the world provides vines to climb from holes; through the construction worker's eye, scaffolding provides access to high places. An engaging game that lets you see the world through other people's eyes.
Artistic Statement
Team project for game design course at Georgia Institute of Technology, 'Vision by Proxy' was created as a challenge to create a simple game that breaks from usual play conventions. With an interesting play mechanic, increasingly complex level layout and zany art style, 'Vision by Proxy' does just that.
Credits
Ning Song - Programmer
Rose Peng - Artist
Andrew Brasuell - Programmer
Danielle Arabov - Artist
Andrew Ho - Team Manager
Website
http://www.kongregate.com/games/rosyPenguin/vision-by-proxy
The JBurger
Location
Los Angeles, USA
Bio
UCLA Student / Professional Amateur currently working on the retro neo-noir adventure game, Gemini Rue.
Game Title:
Gemini Rue
Description
Called "insanely brilliant adventure gaming" by Indiegames.com, Gemini Rue immerses players in a complex science fiction world with a series of twists and turns in the tradition of Westwood Studio's 1990s classic Blade Runner. The next generation of "old school" adventure gaming. Winner of the 2010 IGF Student Showcase.
Credits
Joshua Nuernberger
Onesimus Nuernberger
Sarah Nuernberger
Sean Viola
Website
http://www.brothersoft.com/games/boryokudan-rue-download.html
Wadjet Eye Games
Location
Chicago/New York, USA
Game Title:
Puzzle Bots
Description
Puzzle Bots is the newly published game from Erin Robinson based on her self-produced indie hit, Nano Bots. To solve its puzzles, players must manage cooperation between a team of tiny, quircky—and sometimes not entirely cooperative—robots. In the grand tradition of the best adventure games, Puzzle Bots also boasts a well-written comical story.
Artistic Statement
I set out to make a fun and accessible adventure game. It took me two years, but I finally got it done. Since the game has come out, I've gotten glowing reviews from PC gaming veterans, casual gamers, and 7-year-olds alike. What exactly did I make, here?
Credits
Erin Robinson (Developer/Designer) caught our attention with her awesome freeware game Nanobots. The concept was so interesting we wanted to see how far we could take it. Erin currently lives in Chicago, where she runs a blog/comic as well as spearheading the indie game scene there. Erin has designed all the characters and puzzles for Puzzle Bots as well as drawn and animated the majority of its characters.
Dave Gilbert (publisher/programmer) started Wadjet Eye Games in 2006 to publish his own games, but has taken his first steps into the world of publishing with Puzzle Bots. It's his hope to become a portal of sorts for other indie adventure game developers.
John Green (Background artist) - During college, John formed Cryptic Press, where the comics Quicken Forbidden and Teen Boat (which John did the art for) were published. Upon graduating, he went on to become the Comics Assistant at Disney Adventures Magazine. After a brief stint as an Assistant Editor, he went freelance. In addition to handling layout and production of the Disney Adventures comics, he wrote, colored, and lettered a number of them. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Marion. You can read more about John's work at his website.
Website
http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/puzzlebots.htm
With IndieCade’s third annual independent game festival scheduled for October 8-10 in neighboring Culver City, a diverse collection of new games have already raised eyebrows among jurors engaged in the rigorous IndieCade selection process. The jury’s out on whether these titles — the E3 Selections — will garner positions in the IndieCade Festival, but there’s little doubt they’ll help form the future of digital gaming.
IndieCade’s showcase offers E3’s insider audience the first hints of what is to come in the independent game scene. “Where goes the independents, the industry eventually follows,” says Sam Roberts, Festival Director, noting such independent harbingers as the Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom and Machinarium, both IndieCade awardees from 2008.
At the E3 showcase, IndieCade will highlight the creativity and breadth of vision that independent game designers incorporate into their work. IndieCade Festival Chair Celia Pearce states: “Each year we’re seeing more complex, more innovative, and even some more accessible products coming from gamemakers working from garages, basements, universities, and other indie settings.” Previous E3 Showcase selections have helped young gamemakers land development and distribution deals with Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and others. “Everyone is turning to the independent creators who are willing to take risks exploring new forms of play, rapidly pushing the industry forward from the edges.”
The E3 IndieCade Showcase traditionally highlights games that will speak to the E3 audience, from among the hundreds of entries submitted by independent gamemakers. IndieCade CEO Stephanie Barish commented, “The breadth of gameplay experiences are expanding almost as fast as the scene in general. But we don’t want to lose track of the real value of the independent impulse. Without the corporate focus on the bottom line, independent creators can explore expression, emotion, artistry and the human condition. Ironically it’s only the indies who can really afford to undermine the dominant conventions of videogames, creating new forms from the ruins of old. This is what fans will see at IndieCade in October, but at E3 the crowd will have a sneak peek of what’s to come.”
