Game Jams | Indie Bundles | Game Collectives | Festivals | (Un) Conferences | Online Market/Showcase | Funding | Incubators | Resources | Websites | Indie Dev Goodness
There is a whole lot going on in the world of indie. Jams, festivals, companies, and collectives pop up all over the world. Games and devs need funding, publicity and tools. Below I created a list with all kinds of links to festivals, collectives etc that stimulate indie game development around the world in different ways. I also added a bunch of links to resources and tools for indie devs. More to come!
Game Jams
Jam Calendars:
- CompoHub calendar
- Game Jam Central
- Reddit /r/gamejams – game jam announcements
- GGJ Twitter – game jam announcements
(Regular) Jams:
- Global Game Jam (worldwide, annual – 48h)
- Nordic Game Jam (Scandinavia/ Copenhagen, annual – 48h)
- Exile Jam (Denmark, biannual)
- No More Sweden (Sweden, annual)
- TIGJam
- TIGJam UK (Cambridge Indies, regular)
- TIGJam AU (Richmond Victoria, Australia)
- ToJam (Toronto, Canada, annual, 48h)
- Molyjam | What Would Molydeux? (worldwide, annual)
- Ludum Dare (worldwide, regularly)
- Experimental Gameplay Project (monthly)
- 7DFPS (worldwide, annual (?) – 7days)
- BIG Jam (Berlin, annual (skipped 2012 – 3days)
- Manchester GameJam (UK)
- Lunarcade Factory (IT)
- TIFF Nexus Jams (Canada)
- 48hour game competition (Brisbane, Australia, annual, 48h)
- PhillyJam (Philadelphia, USA, annual, 48h)
- Game Prototype Challenge
Game Jam Books
- The Game Jam Survival Guide by Christer Kaitila
- Global Game Jam: 48 hours of Persistence, Programming and Pizza at Scottish Game Jam by Jon Brady
- “I think they’re mad”: Inside a 48 hour battle to build the best video game (e-book), by Ars Technica / Brendan Keogh
Indie Bundles
General Indie Bundle info: Indie Game Bundle Wiki
Game Collectives / Dev Communities
Canada
- Hand Eye Society (Toronto, Canada)
- Mount Royal Game Society (Montreal, Canada)
- Kokoromi (Montreal, Canada)
- Dirty Rectangles (Ottawa, Canada)
- Bit Collective (Winnipeg, Canada)
USA
- Juegos Rancheros (Austin, Texas, USA)
- Babycastles (New York, USA)
- Boston Indies (Boston, USA)
Europe
- Copenhagen Game Collective (Copenhagen, Denmark)
- The Wild Rumpus (London, UK)
- LondonIndies (London, UK)
- Cambridge Friendship Club (Cambridge, UK)
- Midlands Indies (UK)
- East Midlands Indies (UK)
- GameDevNorth (UK)
- Sheffield Indie Game Developers [Shindig] (Sheffield, UK)
- Edinburgh Game Developers Meetup (Edinburgh, UK)
- F/featuring (Stockholm, Sweden)
- Lunarcade (Italy)
- A MAZE (Berlin, Germany)
- Munich Indie (Munich, Germany)
- One Life Remains (France)
Australia
- IGDA Melbourne (Melbourne)
- Let’s Make Games (Perth)
- IGDA Sydney (Sydney)
- Pop Up Playground
Festivals | Showcases
- Independent Games Festival (USA)
- IndieCade (USA)
- Freeplay Independent Games Festival (AU)
- iFEST (AU)
- Brazilian International Game Festival (BR)
- A MAZE Indie Connect (DE)
- INDIGO (NL)
- Come out and Play (USA)
- Hide and Seek | Weekender (UK)
- GameCity (UK)
- Fantastic Arcade (USA)
- Playful Arts Festival (NL)
Deadlines
- Game Competition Submission Deadlines Calendar: Promoter Calendar
(Un)Conferences
- Event list directory: Gameconfs
- GamerCamp (Canada)
- Bit of Alright (UK)
- Playful (UK)
- GameCamp (UK)
- GameCamp Munich (DE)
- GameCamp Paris (FR)
Indie Gatherings / Meetups
- List of Local Indie Gatherings – TIGSource
Indie Games Showcasing / Publishing
Indie Game Showcase / Distribution Platform/ Marketplace – websites
Indie Games Funding
Game Incubators
- Game Incubator Network (Sweden)
- Dutch Game Garden (The Netherlands)
- Artsy Game Incubator (Toronto, Canada)
- HitFox Game Ventures (Berlin, Germany)
- Montreal Games Incubator (Montreal, Canada)
- The Difference Engine (Toronto, Canada)
- GameFounders (Europe)
- Indie Game Incubator (Montreal, Canada – Jason Della Rocca, starting up)
Resources
- Indie Treasure Trove: PixelProspector
- Create great looking press pages: presskit()
- Track press about your games and apps: Promoter
- Interactive map of indie devs around the world – Add yourself: Indie Dev Map
- Articles, jobs, post-mortems etc: Gamasutra.com
- Game Challenge: Indie Game Challenge
- Game Dev Tools: Excellent list by PixelProspector
- Big list of Game Design by PixelProspector
- The repository for video game pitches and design documents: Game Pitches
- You can make video games
- Reddit /r/indiegaming | /r/GameDev
Indie Websites / Game Culture websites
- IndieGames.com
- VenusPatrol
- Free Indie Games
- Indie Games Magazine
- Rock Paper Shotgun
- Polygon
- IndieBits
- TigSource
- Indie Statik
- Kill Screen
- Unwinnable
Indie Dev Goodness
- GameStorm: A collection of doodles, sketches, and scrap-paper designs by game developers around the world
- GameToilet: “a whole bowl full of wonderful game ideas”
- #ScreenshotSaturday: initiative to promote sharing ideas and dev process. Via twitter.
- Quote Unquote: “Interviews & Quotes – one Indie Videogame Developer at a time.”
- Games We Have Known And Loved: “A collection of people’s favorite moments in games”
- Indie Audio Podcast by Infinite Ammo – featuring different devs and projects.
- Winnitron Indie Game Arcade Network: featuring new games created by indie game developers from Winnipeg and across the globe.
- Indie Raffle: “a chance to discover fresh games”. Vigrid puts money in a secret jar and then towards a game for the raffle.