Indiecade or IndieCade is an international juried

Juried (competition)

A juried competition is a competition in which participants' work is judged by a person or panel of persons convened specifically to judge the participants' efforts, either by the competition's stated rubric or by a subjective set of criteria dependent upon the nature of the competition or the...

 festival of independent video games

Indie game

Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large firms can create independent games, they are usually designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the...

. IndieCade is known as "the video game industry's Sundance

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

". At IndieCade independent video game developers are selected to screen and promote their work at the annual IndieCade festival and showcase events. In 2009, IndieCade launched a conference track featuring classes, panels, workshops, and keynotes. The conference has since become a major attraction for indie developers and others in the industry, and in 2011 spanned three days.

Background

IndieCade is focused on innovation and artistry in interactive media, helping to create a public perception of games as rich, diverse, artistic, and culturally significant. It was formed by Creative Media Collaborative, an alliance of industry producers and leaders founded in 2005. IndieCade's board of advisors includes (among others) Seamus Blackley

Seamus Blackley

Seamus Blackley is a former agent with Creative Artists Agency representing video game creators.After entering Tufts University to study jazz piano, Blackley switched to study physics and graduated Summa cum Honore en Tesis. As a sophomore, he published his first paper in the Journal of Magnetic...

, Tracy Fullerton

Tracy Fullerton

Tracy Fullerton is an American game designer, educator and writer. She is currently an Associate Professor in the USC Interactive Media Division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and Director of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab. In December of 2008, she was installed as the holder of...

, Megan Gaiser

Megan Gaiser

As CEO/CSCO of Her Interactive, the pioneer in popular mystery gaming designed for girls and women, Megan Gaiser sets corporate, product and market strategy. Under her stewardship, Her Interactive has grown from a boutique company to an emerging competitor with the globally loved Nancy Drew...

, Andy Gavin

Andy Gavin

Andy Gavin is a programmer notable for co-founding the video game company Naughty Dog with childhood friend Jason Rubin in 1986. Naughty Dog's games are known for their combination of exceptional technology, great graphics, and polished gameplay...

, Carl Goodman, John Hight, Robin Hunicke

Robin Hunicke

Robin Hunicke is a video game designer and producer, currently working at thatgamecompany. Hunicke began her career at Electronic Arts, where she worked on multiple games, including Sims 2 and MySims as a designer, and Boom Blox and Boom Blox: Bash Party as a producer...

, Henry Jenkins

Henry Jenkins

Henry Jenkins III is an American media scholar and currently a Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC School of Cinematic Arts...

, Richard Lemarchand, Frans Mayra

Frans Mäyrä

Frans Mäyrä is a professor of hypermedia, especially digital culture and game studies in the University of Tampere, Finland. His background is in comparative literature and the arts studies, and he has worked in subjects related particularly to fantasy, science fiction, horror fiction, video games...

, Jamil Moledina

Jamil Moledina

Jamil Moledina works in the videogame industry doing business development. He was born in Mombasa, Kenya, raised in London and Los Angeles, and now lives in San Francisco. He now works for Funzio, where his role is to sign independent game development studios for publishing deals. Before he worked...

, Janet Murray

Janet Murray

Janet Murray is a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she is the director of graduate studies in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture. Before coming to Georgia Tech in 1999, she was a Senior Research Scientist in the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives...

, Robert Nashak, Carolyn Rauch, Kellee Santiago

Kellee Santiago

Kellee Santiago is a video game designer and producer, and the co-founder and president of Thatgamecompany. Santiago was born in Caracas, Venezuela and was raised in Richmond, Virginia, where she played video games from a young age and was encouraged by her software engineer father to experiment...

, Keita Takahashi

Keita Takahashi

is a game director, his most notable titles being Katamari Damacy and its sequel, We Love Katamari. The original Katamari game was a surprise hit and was praised for its quirkiness, originality, and charm...

, Will Wright (game designer), and Eric Zimmerman

Eric Zimmerman

Eric Zimmerman is a game designer and the co-founder and CEO of Gamelab, a computer game development company, which is known for the game Diner Dash. Each year Zimmerman hosts the Game Design Challenge at the Game Developers Conference...

. IndieCade founder is Stephanie Barish, Festival Chair is Celia Pearce, and Festival Director is Sam Roberts.

The festival started as part of the E3 trade show before being spun off as an independent event in Bellevue, Washington

Bellevue, Washington

Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is...

. In 2009 the festival moved to Culver City, where a Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

 game and an "urban" scavenger hunt were part of the festivities.

The Indiecade festival is the only stand-alone festival for independent games in the United States, and open to the public. Games are submitted for consideration to the IndieCade festival jury in the early spring and a selection of finalists for the culminating annual IndieCade festival is determined and announced by the fall. Additional games from the pool of IndieCade submissions are showcased at a variety of events each year around the world. 2009 IndieCade showcase events included E3, the Ottawa International Animation Festival

Ottawa International Animation Festival

-History:In 1976, the Canadian Film Institute founded the biennial Ottawa International Animation Festival . First held August 10 to 15, 1976, the OIAF created a gathering place for North American animation professionals and enthusiasts to ponder the craft and business of animation...

 (OIAF) partnered with the IndieCade organization "that focuses on independent games and works to cultivate innovation and artistry in interactive media" in 2009, and an independent video gaming ("IndieCade Europe") festival has been held annually in the United Kingdom in 2009 at Gamecity

Gamecity

GameCity is an independent, annual videogame festival in Nottingham, England. The festival is aimed at the general public, and many events allow members of the public to participate freely. The festival receives little funding from the commercial video game industry, and is concerned instead with...

 after being established in 2007.

Location

In 2009, IndieCade moved its flagship stand-alone festival from Bellevue, Washington

Bellevue, Washington

Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is...

 to Culver City (Los Angeles), California. Each year IndieCade "invades" downtown Culver City, collocating with local businesses such as Gregg Fleishman's gallery, the Actor's Gang's theater, and other restaurants, galleries, and auditoriums. It also appropriates and transforms a central blacktop parking lot, leveraging the open space and building temporary structures that host parties, individual games, and planned and spontaneous "big games." The previous IndieCade festivals took place October 1-4, 2009, October 8-10, 2010, and October 6-9, 2011; IndieCade 2012 is scheduled for October 5-7 again in Culver City.

Finalists and awards

Indiecade 2010 finalists

• 1066 - The Game
• A Slow Year Awardee: Virtuoso & Vanguard
• Auditorium
  Auditorium (video game)
  Auditorium is a music-based puzzle game developed by Cipher Prime. Originally released as a Flash game in April 2008, Auditorium was later released for iOS devices and then the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PSP in 2010.- Gameplay :...
  
  
• B.U.T.T.O.N. Awardee: Wildcard
• BIT.TRIP RUNNER
• Blue Lacuna
• Cargo Delivery
• Castle Vox
• Continuity Awardee: Gameplay Innovation
• Creaky Old Memory
• Every Day The Same Dream
  Every Day The Same Dream
  Every Day The Same Dream is a short, 2D art game that puts the player in the role of a man whose life is about to change. The game has been described as "a beautiful game with a very bleak outlook." The creator, Paolo Pedercini, claims it is "a short existential game about alienation and refusal of...
  
  
• Faraway Awardee: Sublime Experience
• FATALE
• feelforit
• Fractal
  Fractal (video game)
  Fractal is a puzzle game from Philadelphia-based studio Cipher Prime. The game involves pushing hexagonal fragments together to form large hexagons and chain reactions....
  
  
• Gentlemen of the South Sandwiche Islands
• Groping in the Dark Awardee: Jury Recognition
• Humans vs. Zombies
  Humans vs. Zombies
  Humans vs. Zombies is a live-action game predominately played at college campuses where players begin as Humans and try to survive in a story where Zombies have begun to rise from the dead. The ultimate goal of the game is for either all Humans to be turned into Zombies, or for the humans to...
  
  Awardee: Kid's Choice
• LIMBO
  Limbo (video game)
  Limbo is a puzzle-platform video game and the premiere title of independent Danish game developer Playdead. The game was released in July 2010 as a platform exclusive title on Xbox Live Arcade, and was later re-released as part of a retail game pack along with Trials HD and Splosion Man in April...
  
  Awardee: Sound
• Miegakure
  Miegakure
  Miegakure is an indie video game platform where the gamer explores four dimensional space in order to solve various higher dimensional puzzles within a garden setting...
  
  Awardee: Amazing
• Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess!
• Recurse
• Retro/Grade
  Retro/Grade
  Retro/Grade is a video game developed by 24 Caret Games. The game is about ace pilot, Rick Rocket, who must repeat his last space battle in reverse in order to protect the space time continuum. The game play is rhythm-based and timed to original music by Skyler McGlothlin...
  
  Awardee: Audience Choice
• Sixteen Tons Awardee: Developer's Choice & Jury Recognition Honorable Mention
• Socks, Inc.
• Solace
• Spirits Awardee: Aesthetics
• Tic-Tac-Totum
• The Cat And The Coup
  The Cat and the Coup
  The Cat and The Coup is a 2011-made documentary puzzle game by Peter Brinson and Kurosh ValaNejad. The game follows the life of Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammed Mossadegh, and his subsequent downfall through a CIA- and MI6-engineered coup during the 1950s...
  
  Awardee: Documentary
• The Games of Nonchalance Awardee: World/Story
• TRAUMA
  Trauma
  Trauma can refer to:-In psychology and medicine:* Trauma , an often serious and body-altering physical injury, such as the removal of a limb...
  
  
• VVVVVV
  VVVVVV
  VVVVVV is a 2D puzzle platform video game designed by Terry Cavanagh and scored by Magnus Pålsson. The game was built in Adobe Flash and released on January 11, 2010, for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The game was ported to C++ by Simon Roth in 2011, and released as part of the Humble Indie...
  
  Awardee: Fun/Compelling

Indiecade 2009 finalists

• Aether
  Aether (video game)
  Aether is a video game designed by Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel and published by Armor Games. Released on September 3, 2008, it can be played for free online or downloaded for offline play. Players control a lonely boy and an octopus-like monster that the boy encounters, solving puzzles on...
  
   Honorable Mention
• Akrasia
  Akrasia
  Akrasia , occasionally transliterated as acrasia, is the state of acting against one's better judgment. The adjective form is "akratic".-Classical approaches:...
  
  
• Classic Night
• Closure
  Closure (video game)
  Closure is an independent video game currently being developed by programmer Tyler Glaiel and artist Jon Schubbe with music and sound by Chris Rhyne...
  
  Awardee: Gameplay Innovation
• Cogs
  Cogs (video game)
  -Gameplay:Cogs is built on a number of puzzles that mimic sliding block puzzles. Each level, representing some three-dimensional object, has various objectives, but generally involve moving tiles to connect sets of gears, piping, and other physical elements to make that object behave in a specific...
  
  
• Dear Esther
  Dear Esther
  Dear Esther is an experimental "ghost story" PC game created as a research project at the University of Portsmouth. It was first released on July 29, 2008 as a free Source engine mod, and is currently being remade for a commercial release in early 2012....
  
  
• Eliss
  Eliss
  Eliss is a puzzle video game developed and published by Steph Thirion. It was released for the iPhone OS on March 6, 2009.Eliss gameplay revolves around filling "squeesars" with planets of like color and size. Planets can be combined, split, and moved around using the multi-touch interface...
  
  Awardee: Auteur
• Everybody Dies
• Global Conflicts: Latin America
  Global conflicts: latin america
  Global Conflicts: Latin America is a serious game. It was developed by Serious Games Interactive for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.-Summary:Global Conflicts: Latin America lets players explore key problems in Latin American countries....
  
  
• Gray
• Mightier
• Minor Battle Awardee: Finalist Choice/Audience Choice
• Modal Kombat
• Moon Stories Awardee: Jury Selection
• Nanobots
• Osmos
  Osmos
  Osmos is a puzzle video game developed by Canadian developer Hemisphere Games for different systems as Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. The game was made available on Steam on 17 August 2009. The Android port was also hinted to be in development...
  
  Awardee: Fun & Best in Show
• Papermint Honorable Mention
• Radio Flare
• Ruben & Lullaby
• Shadow Physics
• Sowlar
• Spectre Honorable Mention
• The Deep Sleep Initiative Runner Up: Finalist Choice/Audience Choice
• The Maw
• The Path
  The Path (video game)
  The Path is a 2009 art game developed by Tale of Tales for the Microsoft Windows operating system and later made available for Mac OS X by TransGaming Technologies. It is inspired by several versions of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, and by folklore tropes and conventions in general, but...
  
  
• Train Awardee: Vanguard
• Tuning Awardee: Sublime Experience
• You Get Me
• Zeno Clash
  Zeno Clash
  Zeno Clash is a 3D fighting game or brawler, with some elements of a first-person shooter. It is the debut game of Chilean developer ACE Team and uses Valve Corporation's Source engine. It was first released for download through Valve's content delivery service, Steam, on April 21,...
  
  

IndieCade 2008 Finalists:

• And Yet It Moves
  And Yet It Moves
  And Yet It Moves is a single-player puzzle platform game developed by independent developer Broken Rules. The game was released on personal computer and WiiWare platforms, and the name itself is an English translation of Galileo Galilei's famous remark E pur si muove!-Gameplay:And Yet It Moves is...
  
  
• Cactus Arcade
• Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble
• Darkgame
• Dark Room Sex Game Awardee: Fun
• Democracy 2
• Fatherhood
• Flywrench Honorable Mention
• Global Conflicts: Palestine
• Gravitation
  Gravitation
  Gravitation, or gravity, is a natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract with a force proportional to their mass. Gravitation is most familiar as the agent that gives weight to objects with mass and causes them to fall to the ground when dropped...
  
  Awardee: Jury Selection
• ibb and obb Awardee: Design Innovation
• levelHead Awardee: Technical Innovation
• Machinarium
  Machinarium
  Machinarium is a puzzle point-and-click adventure game developed by Amanita Design. It was released on October 16, 2009 for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, on September 8, 2011 for iPad 2 on App Store and on November 21, 2011 for BlackBerry PlayBook. Demos were made available on September 30,...
  
  Awardee: Aesthetics
• Miss Management
• PMOG
  PMOG
  The Nethernet is an online game in which players "passively" participate in while browsing web pages...
  
  
• Polarity
• Ruckblende Awardee: Finalist Choice
• Rider Spoke
  Rider Spoke
  Rider Spoke developed by Blast Theory in collaboration with the was first staged at the Barbican, London in October 2007. Created for cyclists, it combines elements of theatre, performance, game play and state of the art technology....
  
  
• Sociable Tetris 360
• Standard Bits
• Syntaesthete
• Tank Universal
  Tank Universal
  Tank Universal is a computer game developed by Dialogue Design and published by Meridian4. It currently features a 20-level single player campaign as well as a skirmish mode. Its graphical style has been described as "Tron-like," while its gameplay takes inspiration from the classic Atari title...
  
  
• The Graveyard
  The Graveyard (video game)
  The Graveyard is a computer game developed by Belgian developer Tale of Tales in which the player assumes the role of an old lady walking through a graveyard to a bench. A song begins to play, after which the player walks out of the graveyard and the game ends...
  
  
• The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
  The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
  The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is a puzzle platform game for Xbox Live Arcade and Windows PC developed by The Odd Gentlemen. Reviews of the game praised its unique puzzle mechanics, comparing them to the likes of Portal and Braid. It was released for the Xbox 360 on February 17, 2010...
  
  Awardee: World/Story
• The Night Journey Awardee: Sublime Experience
• The Unfinished Swan Honorable Mention

IndieCade 2007 Finalists:

• 8
• Bone
  Bone
  Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...
  
  
• Braid
  Braid (video game)
  Braid is a platform and puzzle video game developed by independent software developer Jonathan Blow. The game was released on August 6, 2008 for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service. A Microsoft Windows version was released on April 10, 2009. Hothead Games ported and released the game to Mac OS...
  
  
• Can You See Me Now?
  Can You See Me Now?
  Can You See Me Now? is an urban chase game developed by and the . Performers on the streets of a city use handheld computers, GPS and walkie talkies to chase online players who move their avatars through a virtual model of the same town....
  
  
• Cloud
• Democracy 2
• Cruel2BKind
• Cute X Doom
• Escape From Woomera
  Escape From Woomera
  Escape From Woomera is a modification of the PC game Half-life. It was developed in 2003 by an Australian-based group of professional game developers, digital media artists and an investigative journalist.- Game concept :...
  
  
• Everyday Shooter
  Everyday Shooter
  Everyday Shooter is an independent video game developed by Canadian programmer and artist Jonathan Mak. It was released on the U.S...
  
  
• N
• Steam Brigade
• Endless Forest
• Whyville
  Whyville
  About Whyville=Whyville is an educational Internet site geared towards children from ages 8-15. Its goal is to engage its users in learning about a broad range of topics, from science and business to art and geography....
  
  

Sources

• When has a video game ever made you cry?; Indie titles prove that games can evoke the same emotions as films, books "IndieCade is the first standalone independent games festival (that is: it’s not a part of some larger games festival) and one that's meant to introduce the public at large to the joys of independent gaming." MSNBC
• Melissa J. Perenson Independent Games Take Flight; Indie game makers look to the music and film business (and creative marketing) to learn how to nurture audience and interest. October 5, 2008 PC World
• http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-indiecade1-2009oct01,0,1172883.story; Ben Fritz’s article in the LA Times, features Keiko and Lucas Pope, creator of 2009 Finalist Mighter, calls IndieCade “The Video Game Industry’s Sundance.”

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/25432/IndieCade_Chen_Hunicke_Takahashi_Encourage_Wacky_FPS_Concepts.php; Gamasutra