Submissions are closed. The 20th annual IndieCade Festival will be held in January 2027 and submissions for our next Festival will open early next year.
IndieCade Festival is an annual celebration of innovation, creators, and games centered around the IndieCade Awards. It is an online event, organized to enable access and participation from around the globe. Learn about the most recent Festival HERE.
IndieCade accepts and features a wide spectrum of games and experiences including tabletop, VR, AR, Escape Rooms, Zoom Games, mobile, traditional digital games, and more — regardless of platform, style, experience, or background, and we especially encourage work-in-progress as well as completed projects.
How does the Submission process work?
Throughout the year, developers submit their games for Festival consideration.
All submissions are reviewed by a diverse jury of leaders from the games industry, academia, fine arts, and indie development for placement &award nominationsat the IndieCade Festival. You can learn all about how how jurying process worksHERE.
Entries are also considered for Night Games inclusion (in participating years).
Members: Along with other benefits, members at the Developer Plus level may also opt-in to receive written feedback on one game submission.
We do our best to play every submitted game but the Documentation is the most important part of the submission materials and is essential in cases where a submission is unplayable for any reason.
Submitting does not guarantee Festival inclusion.
What to Prepare Before Submitting:
Contact Information
Written Documentation: We ask for an Artistic Statement and a Statement of Innovation. These are critical parts of your submission as they help contextualize your work. LEARN MORE
Video Documentation: We ask for video documentation of gameplay, highlighting the core player experience and mechanics. This is not a teaser / trailer video. This is particularly important for games with custom hardware, interactive performances, or other “real world” elements where hands-on gameplay might be difficult to arrange. LEARN MORE
Game Access Information: How can our reviewers experience your work? For most digital games this will be a Steam key or download link. Other games might require the shipping of tabletop materials, travel to an installation, scheduling a live performance, etc.
Gameplay Requirements: We ask for platforms, number of players, accessories, languages, genre tags, and more to best sort and assign your submission to our reviewers.
You may not update your submission materials or build after submitting except in cases of broken links or similar technical issues. Please only submit the version of your work you would like IndieCade to consider for this IndieCade year.
Are you an IndieCade Alumnus? We want to know! If you've been a speaker, organizer, juror, or presented your game at IndieCade or any IndieCade-related showcase (ex. IndieCade @ E3, IndieCade @ SIGGRAPH, etc. - doesn't need to have been a finalist) we'd like to be in touch.
