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Alumni

Our community has grown from a ragtag group of indies to a thriving international network. We have been lucky to host, serve and support great designers every year since our humble beginnings, when independent games were almost invisible to the mainstream audience.

Over the years, it has been our honor and joy to see game design communities popping up everywhere around the world. We have featured more than 2,000 selected games and so many more creators over these years. We are striving to continue creating an international venue for appreciating and amplifying unique and diverse voices in independent games.

It continues to be a central component to our mission to celebrate these creators, their successes, and their ongoing projects.

Are you still making thoughtful, experimental, out-there games? Get in touch with us! Let us know how it’s going, what you’ve been up to, and what you’re looking forward to.

Join our Discord server to talk to alumni, current festival participants, and more!

Alumni Spotlight

Ben Vance

Ben Vance is a director, designer, and engineer in games and XR. Whether working with Electronic Arts on a top secret Steven Spielberg project, or VR pioneers like Wevr on theBlu and Harry Potter, he brings a uniquely holistic perspective to create powerful, evocative worlds. 

News & Updates

  • Visit @AconiteCo on Twitter for the latest news on their second game, Bureau of Multiversal Arbitration! Their first game, Holovista, was an IndieCade Narrative Award Winner (2021)!

  • IndieCade Innovation in Experience Design Award Winner Historiated’s (2021) next game, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, will debut on Meta Quest and other platforms in 2023.

  • IndieCade Audio Design Winner Cook, Serve, Delicious! (2021) is continuing its series with our next installment: Cook Serve Forever! Check out the announcement trailer here: https://youtu.be/JmQDLemD0Ec

  • IndieCade Impact Award Winner Out For Delivery (2021) is showing at Museum of Pop Culture (@MoPOP). The team also recorded an oral history with the exhibition crew. Check them out in Seattle anytime for the rest of the year!

  • IndieCade Innovation in Interaction Design Award Winner The Telelibrary (2021) continues to grow and learn each day, having recently crossed 1400 calls and 1000+ users, and counting!

  • IndieCade Tabletop Design Award Winner Alice Is Missing (2021) has been picked up by Paramount as a feature film! Take a look!

  • Jeremiah Dickey made our first custom animation and trailer that we showed at our first event E3 2007. It was gorgeous! He was recently honored with second place at TED-ed for his work “The Rashomon Effect”.

  • Congrats to Jarryd Huntley, lead programmer of We Are OFK! He was featured on the Nintendo’s official Indie World Showcase.

  • Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye won Best Music for an Indie Game at the GANG Awards (@audiogang)! Congrats, Andrew Prahlow (@andrewprahlow)!

  • IndieCade Chair Celia Pearce’s co-created FunFair premiered in Seattle with great reviews. One of her next projects is to run the IndieCade Playable Theater Symposium on our Twitch channel this December. Last year’s was incredible, and this year’s should be even better! 

  • A new Sam Barlow game is getting good attention! Read a review about Immortality.

    Barlow’s Her Story won the Grand Jury Award at the IndieCade 2015 Festival. Here is an interview we did with him in 2019.

  • Sara Thacher along with Jeff Hull, part of the IndieCade award winning team Games of Nonchaelance (’11), amazing work with the Disney Larp!!! IndieCade alumnus Caro Murphy (’20) also joined the team!

  • Tim Cullings has been our partner for many years, helping with our education intitiatives, running the IndieCade annex in Seattle and partnering with us on the Climate Jam all these years, and so much more… We are so happy for him that it has been officially anounce that he is the new Executive Director of the Global Game Jam. Congratulations Tim!!

  • Tatiana Vilela dos Santos (’19), co-host of the popular Alt Control edition of our weekly twitch stream Beyond Screens, was honored with a Villa Albertine residency to further her work with Alt Control. Looks like we are going to see a lot more of her in the states! Plus, Beyond Screens is going strong – don’t miss it on Wednsdays!

  • Aureia Harvey (’07) published an interesting article about the future of digital sculpture and discussion with Emann Odufu about her career so far. Don’t miss it! 

  • Diana Hughes (Pluff ’08), amazing work at Age of Learning with ABC Mouse. Making an important impact for kids and math!

    Read more

  • Joel Yokohama (’09) one of our original volunteer coordinators! Way back in Culver days! Congratulations Joel on your new position at 505 Games as a Producer!

  • Our friends at Devil’s Cider (’20), winner of “Jamming the Curve” with their game Cat Colony, released a new game on Steam: Zero-G Gunfight!

  • Congratulations to all our IndieCade Alumni who made big wins at this year’s @G4CAwards! Congrats to the Dot’s Home team (’21) for taking home the Best Narrative and the Game of the Year! 

  • Rob Manuel (’10), congratulations on your new position at IGN as Events Editorial Manager! IGN is lucky.

  • Nina Freeman (’14) is a longtime alumnus, showing work with Fullbright and shining with her own work 2014 with finalist “How Do You Do It?”, many speaking engagments, and so much more. We are so proud of her. Check out the profile piece on Nina in the New York Times

  • Tom Happ released Axiom Verge 2 on Steam on August 11! Learn more on their website or check out @AxiomVerge on Twitter.

  • Check it out! IndieCade and Row, the winning game of our 2022 Climate Jam, are featured on the Science Friday podcast.

  • Santigo Zapata (’10, @slashie) deserves kudos for setting up our original jury and review system. He had submitted a game to our initial iteration and offered to help. His system was the basis of our jury system for more than a decade. He deserves even more kudos for his amazing games!!! This past month he was featured in the Global Game Jam spotlight for his game jam game. Well deserved attention. https://globalgamejam.org/news/global-game-jam-presents-community-spotlight-santiago-zapata

  • Once again, Cade Peterson (’09 and onward) of Midboss has spearheaded the Steam and Twitch Season of Pride events! Such great work! https://seasonofpride.tv/

  • Before Your Eyes (2014, GoodbyeWorld Games) began as a student project at USC, but it was recently published by Skybound and received a BAFTA award!

  • Yuxin Gao (‘18, ‘21) and their colleagues developed a group board game called “Nothing to See Here” coming to bookstores and retail chains in May this year after two years of development.

  • OK Play (Travis Chen, ‘13, ‘15) has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the World Changing ideas, and featured also as Apple’s App of the Day.

  • Telelibrary (‘21, Yannick Trapman-O’Brien) has exceeded 1000 performances!

  • Tale of Tales (‘08, ‘09, ‘10, ‘12, ‘13, ‘15, ‘19 – IndieCade Trailblazer Honorees!) released the Beta version of The Enchanted Forest – the Second Decade.

  • Tale of Tales
    Tale of Tales, multiple IndieCade award winners including IndieCade Trailblazer Honorees, taking over IndieCade festival 2010.
  • Skybound Entertainment (‘14) announced they have raised a new round of funding for expansion.

  • Sketchbook Games (‘20, Mark Backler) is one of the 21 companies selected to receive UK Games Funds support for their new project!

  • Sindi Breshani (‘20, Propaganda) and her colleague have been working with the Victoria and Albert Museum on an exhibition exploring the impact of the pandemic on play called “Play in the Pandemic.”

  • Playdate launched with 24 games – so many of them IndieCade alumni, including Zipper by Bennet Foddy, Flipper Lifter by Serenity Forge (‘15, ‘20), Echoic Memory (Carol Mertz, ‘16, ‘19, ‘20), Snak (Zach Gage, ‘11, ‘13), and more…

  • Sara Elmaleh (‘13 ++) had their first ever Super Bowl commercial for Toyota.

  • Awards co-hosts Sara Elmaleh, Asher Volmer, with Mitu Khandaker at the Awards Ceremony in 2014.
  • Sam Roberts (IndieCade co-Founder) co-created an interactive D&D livestream by called The Maze on Planet 7 which starred Sarah Elmaleh (’13+).

  • Patrick’s Parabox (‘19, Patrick Traynor) hit 1000 reviews on Steam with a 99% positive review ratio.

  • Out For Delivery (‘21) showcased at NowPlayThis festival in London in April.

  • Numenious Games (‘13, ‘18) new work, the VR Game Area Man Lives, is an official Cannes Selection. The new game was created with the support of Cyan Ventures (‘13, ‘16) and with acting talent Ronan Farrow and Max Greenfield.

  • Sara Elmaleh became a recurring guest on Eggplant: The Secret Lives of Games alongside IndieCade pals Nick Suttner (‘13,’14,’15,’16), Andy Nealen (‘09,’13,’ 20), Zach Gage (‘11,’13), and Doug Wilson (‘10. ‘11, ‘13, ‘14,’20).

  • Doug Wilson, creator of award-winning J.S. Joust (Sportsfriend) and recipient of Bernie DeKoven Big Fun Honorary Award in 2018, with a colleague showcasing BUTTON. Another great IndieCade Awardee!
  • Mighty Coconut (‘18) is developing a new 36-hole VR course as an extension of its existing best selling Walkabout Mini Golf VR title. The new course will be in collaboration with Cyan Entertainment (‘13, ‘16) and the Myst course will debut in the fourth quarter of 2022.

  • Mary Flanagan (‘11,’12,’15,’18, ‘21) ’s solo gallery exhibit, entitled “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” is now open at the renown Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art in Houston.

  • Marie Foulston (‘17, ‘18) was featured and quoted in the April issue of the New Yorker.

  • Laila Shabir’s (‘14) impactful Girls Make Games summer program is set for this July 11-19th.

  • John Romero (‘12, ‘13) announced his memoir is now available for pre-order. He describes it as a positive story of gratitude for a life in games. “Code and games changed the trajectory of my life.”

  • Jared Yeager (‘10 + ) was instrumental in the release of Alien Isolation.

  • Indie games studio developer of Nine Witches: Family Disruption (‘20) is now working on Vlad Circus: Descend into Madness.

  • Curve Games has announced the acquisition of Fiddlesticks Games Limited, the indie developer behind puzzle platformer Hue (‘15, Dan Da Rocha/ Henry Hoffman).

  • The Museum of Modern Art in New York City has announced an upcoming show for Fall 2022, that includes many IndieCade Alumni such as Flower (‘09, ‘14, thatgamecompany) , Never Alone ( ‘14, Upper One Games/E-Line Media), and Everything is Going to be Okay (‘14,’16, ‘17, ’20, alienmelon/Nathalie Lawhead). The show is entitled “Never Alone: Video Games and other interactive design.”

  • IndieCade Trailblazer Honoree Elan Lee’s (‘07, ‘12, ‘17, ‘20) Exploding Kittens is being turned into a TV Show and mobile game, with stars Tom Ellis and Lucy Liu.

  • Giant Exploding Kittens in play at IndieCade 2017!
  • Nicolás Recabarren, David Hellman (‘08), and Nick Suttner (‘14) announced the formation of their new game company, Furniture & Mattress. The studio is receiving support by the Astra Fund (‘14, Eileen Hollinger).

  • CLAWS (‘21) is now a permanent installation and new tickets are released on the 11th of every month.

  • Chris DeLeon (‘07 +++!), Alumni Chair, has released his third audio book, Self-Doubt, as part of this set: https://Self-Command.com. It also went out as an included update to the HomeTeam GameDev Training Library on itch.io, which many people have through one or two charity fundraising bundles run by indies.

  • Chase Bethea (‘19 +) was featured in a major interview on Shout Out LA.

  • Celia Pearce (co-founder) co-created an immersive theatrical production, FunFair, which will open July in Seattle.

  • Griffin Gaming Partners (‘17, Anthony Palma) led the investment of more than 8$million to support the development of CEO Dino Patti’s (‘15) network technology that makes multiplayer game development accessible to all developers.

Become a Member

If IndieCade has played a significant role in your life and if you would like to give back to the community, consider supporting us by becoming a member. It’s one of the best ways you can make sure that we are able to continue discovering and promoting the work of pioneering indie game developers like you.

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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.

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