IndieXchange 2021 Overview
Panels – For the two days, we have created a program around three topics and questions inspired by the broad theme of “Climate Change:”
- Impact: How can independent game development contribute to a better world? What kind of initiatives are making a difference in people’s lives through independent games?
- Business: What is the current state of the business of independent game making? What are the latest opportunities you should be aware of? How can you grow your business or develop your hobby into a business?
- Individual: What are the best ways to maintain a good quality of life? What are good techniques to improve the development workflow? How can we as individuals improve and grow?
Every day, we will have a panel for each of the topics above.
“Gather” Roundtables – Another part of the program are the breakout sessions. We understand that the current pandemic has limited the networking opportunities that are so important in order to thrive in this world of independent game making. The breakout sessions are your opportunity to connect with peers, and to explore opportunities. We are excited that the online format allows us to provide these networking opportunities to every individual regardless what part of the world they are from, allowing us to provide equal opportunity around the globe.
GameTasting – Finally, each day will end with a GameTasting event. GameTasting offers IndieXchange attendees who have signed up ahead of time to show in-progress demos and get feedback from the community. IndieXchange’s GameTasting event has always been one of the best ways to meet fellow indies to share our mutual love of making, talking about, and playing indie up-and-coming games at all stages of development.
Program Schedule
October 2nd
From: 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET / 6:00 PM CET
To: 2:30 PM PT / 5:30 PM ET / 11:30 PM CET
- 9:00 – 9:50: What is an Ethical Game Company?
- 10:00 – 10:50: What Will Marketing Look Like in 2022?
- 11:00 – 11:50: “Gather” Roundtables Featuring Two Topics:
- What can indies do about environmental climate change?
- Will current indie development & funding models serve the needs of the next five years?
- 12:00 – 12:50: How Has Life as an Indie Developer Evolved?
- 1:00 – 2:30: GameTasting
October 3rd
From: 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET / 6:00 PM CET
To: 2:30 PM PT / 5:30 PM ET / 11:30 PM CET
- 9:00 – 9:50: Moving Past Manipulative Game Design
- 10:00 – 10:50: Finding Business & Funding Success Around the World
- 11:00 – 11:50: “Gather” Roundtables Featuring Two Topics:
- How will environmental climate change impact indie game development?
- How can indie developers more effectively collaborate globally?
- 12:00 – 12:50: Seeking Development Collaborators Beyond Your Friends
- 1:00 – 2:30: GameTasting
This is going to be a very special year for IndieXchange and we cannot wait to see old friends and new! If you want to be part of the exciting and important conversations that will be happening throughout the weekend but didn’t submit a game this year, you can sign up as a Developer level IndieCade member for access to the event!
See you there!
The IndieXchange Chairs,
Jeremy Bond, Juan Gril, Erin Reynolds
IndieXchange was created in 2011 by Jane Pinckard with the goal of facilitating meetings between game developers and publishers or platform holders who would be interested in their games. It has always been open and free to anyone who submitted a game to the IndieCade festival. Jeremy Gibson Bond took over the reins in 2013 and continued to develop it as not only a day to network with publishers but also a time and space for developers to meet each other and share both best practices and half-finished games. Chairs of IndieXchange over the years have included Juan Gril, Chris DeLeon, Kellee Divine (Game Tasting), Karin Ray (Publisher Meetings), and now Erin Reynolds.
Throughout its development, IndieXchange has included practical talks on a variety of topics that are of interest to IndieCade developers. Our goal is to help developers who have successfully finished a game level-up their development processes to help build more sustainable businesses, so topics often include business, marketing, and legal sessions. Though it wasn’t possible to include the Game Tasting and Publisher Meetings in 2020s online IndieCade Anywhere and Everywhere, we did continue our successful talks and had some of the best sessions of 2020, featuring panelists who called in from around the world.
Building on the success of IndieXchange 2020, we’ve decided to keep IndieXchange online for the foreseeable future, but now instead of one day, once a year, we’re planning to have IndieXchange weekends. Each day will include three sessions (one each for Impact, Business, and Individual issues) and a time slot for several breakout rooms. Future IndieXchange weekends will also be themed, allowing us to feature different content throughout the year while sticking to our three pillars. If you have ideas for future sessions or speakers that you’d love to hear from, please let us know by filling out the form at: https://form.jotform.com/211105931390042
Jeremy Gibson Bond
I first showed my game Coalesce at the IndieCade 2013 E3 showcase, where it was featured in the Kotaku story. Shortly thereafter, I was asked to join IndieCade as the Chair of Education and Advancement. In 2013, I chaired both IndieXchange and GameU alone, and in 2014, I brought in Juan Gril and Chris DeLeon to help me. Since then, I’ve chaired IXC every year except for 2018, when my son was born. I also showed Ranamor, a getting-to-know-you game about frog love on cell phones at IndieCade Night Games in 2014 or 2015.
Juan Gril
Juan Gril is a game designer, and augmented reality developer. Over the past 4 years, Juan has worked in Augmented Reality applications, experiences, and games. Juan has more than 20 years of experience developing interactive software and games.
For the past 2 decades, Juan has been involved in the design and production of mass market games. In the late 90s Juan was one of the original members Yahoo! Games (the first and most popular gaming web site in the early years of the Internet). From Yahoo! he went to found Joju Games, a successful casual games studio which over 12 years developed more than 50 games for PC, console, and mobile platforms, for big media companies and game publishers.
In addition to his work for IndieCade, Juan is a judge for the “Sense of Wonder Night” Game Festival at Tokyo Game Show since 2012.
Erin Reynolds
Erin Reynolds is most well known as the creator of the critically-acclaimed game “Nevermind.” She has diverse experience spanning the past 15+ years in developing games within a variety of environments, including as a developer, publisher, academic, and indie. She is a studio founder and a two-time TEDx speaker. Erin is passionate about the potential games have to empower, educate, and inspire players of all kinds and is always seeking new ways -big and small- to help make the world a better place.
