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A ton of great indie games take over Kyoto at BitSummit 2015
BitSummit has been at the forefront of Japan's independent gaming scene for the past two years, hosting an event that shows off projects from small studios and industry veterans alike, plus live music and an awards show. Last year's showcase attracted 5,000 fans and 130 game developers, including Mega Man designer Keiji Inafune, Epic Games, Sony and Microsoft. For the 2015 show, BitSummit has partnered with four studios -- 17-Bit, Vitei, Q-Games and Pygmy Studio -- to establish the Japan Independent Games Aggregate, which will oversee all event planning. Plus, one of the leading indie-game promotion houses in the Western world, Indie Megabooth, will help organize BitSummit 2015, lending it an extra layer of delicious credibility. Indie Megabooth President and CEO Kelly Wallick joins JIGA on its board of advisers, and she spoke with us briefly about the new collaboration.
Indie Megabooth Solid Gold Collection is 6 games for $20
The Indie Megabooth Solid Gold Collection is here for all those discount divas on Steam, offering Guacamelee! Gold Edition, Hotline Miami, The Stanley Parable, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine and FRACT OSC all for just $20. Individually priced, these all tally up to $85. As Megabooth puts it: "Think of it as the gaming equivalent of a prized box set from your favorite classic rock band, but without all the weird 'lost tracks' from their freestyle-jazz period. Sound awesome? That's because it is awesome. And by buying this awesomeness you're not only helping to support the indie developers who made the games, you're also supporting the Megabooth, so we can keep doing our thing and bringing you the best indie games, live, in person, at gaming conventions all over the world." The Indie Megabooth recently made its Gamescom debut, and it's heading to PAX Prime next week with 78 games and seven panels. [Image: Indie Megabooth]
Small games go big, really big, at Gamescom
The Indie Megabooth is now an international star with its premiere exhibition at Gamescom 2014 in Cologne, Germany. The booth is bigger than ever and surrounded by the largest crowd of any gaming convention, traditionally topping out at more than 300,000 visitors. Indie Megabooth's Gamescom lineup comprises 34 developers and their games, including Capy's Below and Super Time Force, League of Geeks' Armello, Bedtime Digital Games' Back to Bed, QCF Design's Desktop Dungeons, Amplitude Studios' Dungeon of the Endless and Endless Legend, Abbey Games' Renowned Explorers, Two Tribes' Rive, Croteam's The Talos Principle, Rocketcat's Wayward Souls and Schulenberg Software UG's Where is My Heart? The Megabooth is surrounded by people, but also other, louder booths – apologies for the scratchiness of the audio (and the yelling) in our overview video from the show floor. The area surrounding the Megabooth is covered in DJ booths playing the sounds of 100 trash compactors on full, bumping blast. Or so it seems. Check out a super cool view of the Gamescom Indie Megabooth at 0:17 in our video.
Indie Megabooth reveals Gamescom lineup
The Indie Megabooth announced its lineup for Gamescom this morning, featuring 34 teams showing off their babies at the world's largest video game convention. The Megabooth has become a staple of PAX conventions over the past couple of years, but a PAX is nothing compared to the crushing flow of over 300,000 attendees that come to Gamescom. For Gamescom attendees, the Megabooth will be located in Hall 10.1. We've posted the full lineup with links to games after the break.
Indie Megabooth becomes an international booth of mystery
Yeah, baby! The Indie Megabooth is expanding its reach across the pond, to the land of Cologne, Germany for Gamescom 2014. The organization announced the news today, while at the same time opening up submissions for their European debut. Not sure what the Indie Megabooth is? Originating at PAX, the Indie Megabooth is a collection of independent game developers who come together to form one giant ... well, megabooth at a show floor. It's sort of like Voltron, if Voltron were made up of video game developers instead of robot lions in space. And now we're going to have that image stuck in our heads all weekend. [Image: Indie Megabooth]
Hotline Miami 2, Hyper Light Drifter headline PAX East's Indie Megabooth
Indie Megabooth has announced its lineup of featured games for PAX East 2014, revealing that Hotline Miami 2, Hyper Light Drifter, La-Mulana 2, and other indie standouts will be on display at next month's event in Boston. Megabooth offerings include upcoming games like Die Gute Fabrik's Sportsfriends, Tiger Style's Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon, and Ronimo's Swords & Soldiers 2. Event organizers will also host the Indie Minibooth, a smaller venue that will feature a rotating lineup of games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. PAX East will be held in Boston on April 11-14. A full list of all featured games is after the break below. [Image: Indie Megabooth]
The year of the octopus continues with Airscape: The Fall of Gravity
Airscape: The Fall of Gravity pulls an adorable yellow octopus from his beachside (see: in the ocean) home and sticks him on a strange, alien planet with dangerous enemies and wacky gravity physics. It's an action platformer that has players leap over and around obstacles such as angry robots, lasers, vast pits and happy little trees. Airscape is a mix of cuteness and devious things. We're calling it now: 2014 is the year of the octopus. Airscape's first three zones are available to play in the new demo, launched ahead of the game's appearance at GDC with the Indie Megabooth. This is Indie Megabooth's first showcase at GDC, and Airscape is one of 15 games hand-picked to be in the premiere booth. Very fancy. Airscape comes from a team of students based around the world: project lead Daniel West in Australia, artist Claudia Starke in Germany and composer Sam Gossner in the US. It's due out this year for PC, Mac and Linux, and it currently has a Steam Greenlight campaign.
Indie Megabooth makes GDC debut in March with 15 games
Indie Megabooth is busting down the doors of GDC 2014 from March 17 - 22 in San Francisco, with 15 games hand-picked by the Megabooth team, including GNAH!, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Tower of Guns, Assault Android Cactus, Burrito Galaxy and Wayward Souls. Check out the complete lineup below. Indie Megabooth historically makes appearances at PAX East and PAX Prime, and this is its first foray into the mysterious world of other conventions. Indie Megabooth Overlord Kelly Wallick spent part of last year scouting other locations for the project, including GDC Europe and Gamescom. Compared with the almost 100 games Indie Megabooth has previously featured at PAX, the GDC lineup is positively miniscule – but it still hopes to have a big impact. "We're excited to be teaming up with GDC to offer developers additional opportunities to show their games, putting them in front of their peers, and getting them famous before anyone else does," Indie Megabooth Operations Manager Christopher Floyd writes. "This year we're making a concerted effort to extend our reach beyond what you've seen from us before. Our GDC showcase marks just the first of many exciting happenings that we have scheduled for 2014!" [Image: Indie Megabooth]
Indie Megabooth and friends stream Extra Life charity drive this weekend
Team Indie Megabooth plots a 25-hour marathon this weekend, during which 15 indie teams will stream a smorgasbord of games in support of the Extra Life charity. Starting at 8 AM PST on Saturday, the group will host a semi-lucid marathon event at its Twitch channel for 25 hours -- that's a standard day-long marathon, with an extra hour to account for the daylight saving time change on Sunday. Featured games range from big-name favorites such as Dark Souls and DOTA 2 to indie-developed projects like Awesomenauts and Barkley 2, bridged by a midnight journey through Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2013. A full schedule for the event is available here.
Escape Goat 2 pushes its release date baa-ck from Sept. 10
Escape Goat 2 developer Ian Stocker has rammed back the game's release date from September 10 to an undecided day after that, which he will announce after PAX. Stocker announced the September launch date in July, and at the time, that seemed absolutely doable, he writes – but recently, the map system got in the way. The original Escape Goat has a hub-based world, but Escape Goat 2 was designed with a flat world map, with rooms connected and curling around each other. Playtesters at Casual Connect – an expo held right after Stocker announced the release date – prompted him to reorganize some stages, a feat that was easy to do in Escape Goat. Not so in Escape Goat 2. "With rooms locked into specific positions, things become very rigid," Stocker says. "Inserting a room in a series throws off half the rest of the map, which then needs to be reordered. For about 10 days this month, map organization was where I spent the bulk of my time .... What I decided on is kind of a hybrid between the EG1 and original EG2 map system." Stocker says that while it'd be possible to hit the September 10 launch date, the game simply wouldn't be polished to the level he'd like: "We've put 10 months into this project. As much as I want to release it to the world soon, I believe that delaying is the right move to make .... If you're at PAX this weekend, be sure to drop by and play the build. And if you are a pre-orderer, I can apologize to you in person, or try to bribe you with one of our shiny new 1.25 inch buttons." Escape Goat 2 will be in PAX Prime's Indie Megabooth, as part of its "Minibooth" section.
Indie Megabooth starlet 'Gravity Ghost' opens pre-orders on Aug. 26
Gravity Ghost has been on our radar for more than a year. It's a whimsical physics game about flinging yourself around planets and collecting stars in an effort to reassemble the universe. It's not a game about dying, killing or destroying – but it is about to come out as a pre-order, on August 26, from the Humble Store on developer Ivy Games' website. Pre-orders are for PC, Mac and Linux. Gravity Ghost has music from FTL: Faster Than Light composer Ben Prunty, and it snagged a spot in the PAX Prime Indie Megabooth, scheduled to touch down on the show floor from August 30 to September 2. To prepare for PAX Prime, Game Designer and Artist Erin Robinson made "swag" – miniature bottle dioramas starring the Gravity Ghost fox, Voy, in a bell-studded, glittering environment of colorful sand. See the intricate, cute process on the Ivy Games blog. The swag bottles will be available at PAX Prime, and one of them includes a ghost girl, rather than the fox. Gravity sold separately.
Jungle Rumble drums up Patapon-styled action on iOS, Android
A Boston Indie Game Collective initiate, Disco Pixel, will launch its simian-themed "rhythm-RTS" Jungle Rumble for iOS and Android devices later this year. Described as a mixture of Sony's tribal rhythm game Patapon and Nintendo's strategy classic Advance Wars, Jungle Rumble puts players in charge of a family of monkeys suffering under the oppressive rule of a rival tribe. Using rhythmic taps as a means of communication, players will assemble the Mofongo tribe and lead it on a quest for "freedom, happiness, and bananas." Jungle Rumble will be playable at PAX Prime's Indie Mega Booth next weekend in Seattle.
Indie Megabooth at PAX Prime: Aztez, Reus, Hotline Miami 2, 80 more
Indie Megabooth is poised to take over PAX Prime 2013 with more than 80 games, including titles off of the following list: Anodyne, Aztez, Audiosurf 2, Bit.Trip Runner 2, Contrast, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Don't Starve, Electronic Super Joy, Foul Play, Gravity Ghost, Hate Plus, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, Legend of Dungeon, Luftrausers, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, Reus, Monster Loves You, N++, Scale, Secrets of Rætikon, Sportsfriends, That Dragon Cancer, The Stanley Parable and Where is My Heart? That's not even half of it. Indie Megabooth also has the Indie Minibooth space, featuring booths that developers can share, splitting costs and fitting in more games. The Minibooth includes Cannon Brawl, Death Road to Canada, Escape Goat 2, Lost Toys, Mushroom 11, Spellirium, Moonlighters and other alphabetically ordered titles. A space with games hand-picked by organizers is on its way. Indie Megabooth also has a shiny new website featuring all of the PAX Prime 2013 games and a map of the booth layout. It's historically the largest booth at PAX Prime, but still Megabooth organizers get more submissions than they can handle every year, marketing volunteer Rami Ismail told Joystiq at E3. Full-time Indie Megabooth Overlord Kelly Wallick is off to Germany this year, finalizing plans to bring the booth to Gamescom in the future. Indie gaming never looked so fun (and busy): Check out the list of announced PAX Prime 2013 games below.
Indie Megabooth is so popular it has to add shared spaces, more changes
Indie Megabooth has a problem. It's not something that's easy to bring up in polite conversation. Like a friend complaining that he has two dates in one night, or someone pouting because she has too much ice cream, the problem could easily be misconstrued as a humblebrag and brushed aside. But it's a serious issue. Indie Megabooth is too popular. "One of the problems we were running into, is that the amount of submissions that we have this year far exceeds what we can support," Indie Megabooth marketing mastermind Rami Ismail tells Joystiq. This is a major roadblock because Indie Megabooth's goal is to promote the full spectrum of independent games. Even though the Megabooth takes up the most space of any exhibit on the PAX East and Prime show floors, it isn't enough to give every willing developer a spot. Indie Megabooth hosts 40 - 60 developers at each show – that's larger than Sony's booth at E3 – but this year, 150 developers submitted 200 games for consideration, Ismail says. "We just don't have space for that," he says. Luckily, Indie Megabooth has a solution. Or two.
PAX East's Indie Megabooth returns with 62 games in one giant space
The Indie Megabooth returns to PAX East this year, cramming 62 games into a single booth whose vast expanses you could get lost in. Bring survival gear.Here's how enormous the Indie Megabooth is: in addition to dedicated spaces for games like Toki Tori 2, Ridiculous Fishing, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, Outlast, Guacamelee!, and Delver's Drop, the Megabooth even has a "Minibooth" in it with a rotating lineup of games. The organizers heard you liked shared spaces for indie games, so they put an indie booth in your indie booth so you can play games while you play games.Forgive the ancient meme, but it seemed appropriate. PAX East runs March 22-24 in Boston.
Indie Megabooth site up now for PAX Prime
PAX Prime's Indie Megabooth website is live now, featuring the full list of 30 developers, showcasing over 30-something projects. The collaborative buy-in for studios began at PAX East this year and was such a success that the tradition will carry on.The booth space will include the latest indie hotness, like Vlambeer's Luftrausers, Capy's Super T.I.M.E. Force, Carbon Games' AirMech and many other titles we don't mean to insult by not listing here. There are a lot of high-quality projects to check out in the not-so-little booth. PAX Prime 2012 is sold out and will take place next weekend, August 31 through September 2.
Indie Megabooth makes a triumphant return to PAX Prime
The Indie Megabooth proved to be a success at PAX East and is returning, bigger and better, to PAX Prime 2012, running August 31 - September 2. The PAX Prime Indie Megabooth will feature 29 independent studios and more than 30 games, each one shrouded in mystery and intrigue for now.PAX East Indie Megabooth had 17 developers and games, including Andy Schatz with Monaco, Ska Studios showing off Charlie Murder, Alexander Bruce with Antichamber and Capy's Super Time Force. For now, PAX Prime's Indie Megabooth has a website, Twitter and Facebook account to follow for more information as it is made available.
Indie Megabooth devs let anyone ask them anything
At PAX East this weekend, 16 popular indie developers (plus one "bonus" developer) will congregate into a super-giant indie creature in the first-ever Indie Megabooth. Developers include Ska Studios, Strange Loop Games, Retro Affect, Dejobaan Games, Fire Hose Games, DrinkBox Studios, Pocketwatch Games, Carbon Games and the rest -- to get the indie love flowing, the previously mentioned developers are running an "Ask Me Anything" thread on Reddit, right now. So far, we've learned that each developer gets 99 bitches a day and that most of them cried while playing Journey. Andy Schatz of Pocketwatch Games, Eitan Glinert of Fire Hose and Retro Affect's David Carrigg have also offered differing perspectives on the possibility of indie development for the Wii U, or any Nintendo system in general. Said Glinert: "We're not. I don't know any small third party companies that make any serious money there. Nintendo sadly isn't serious about supporting non-Nintendo companies, and so it's not worthwhile for us to spend the time and effort bringing our games to their platform. Sad face." Schatz disagreed with the doomsday sentiment: "Speak for yourself Eitan! I haven't announced platforms for Monaco yet, but WiiU is still a possibility! Nintendo is slow to change (which is weird given the crazy innovation on their software side), but the boulder is finally starting to move wrt their digital sales storefront."Carrigg said Nintendo's eShop is "far behind" the XBLA and PSN competition, but Retro Affect has been talking to Nintendo and would "really like to work with them. I would not be surprised to see a Retro Affect game on a Nintendo platform sometime in the future."James Silva of Ska Studios addressed the lack of deadly dishwasher games on PC, saying he wants to make PC titles, but for now that would be a problematic process. The AMA is ongoing (as of this posting) so head on over and uncover some you-specific bits of information from this mega-group of indies.
Indie Megabooth is a Voltron of indie exhibitors at PAX East
Sixteen developers have scooted in together to give you a concentrated dose of indieness at PAX East. Dejobaan, Gaijin Games, Haunted Temple, Drinkbox Studios, and more have booths situated in a tight grid to form the "Indie Megabooth."To see the full list of games available in this cooperative, you can go to the official Megabooth website (sure to be the only official website for a PAX East booth).
