October 2021 Update
Hello Indies!
We just wrapped a busy, busy month with Seattle Indies Expo, and I hope you all had a chance to tune into the streams for a bit! Recap literally below…
Executive Director Update
September was a busy month for us as you will read below, focused mainly on the 11th edition of Seattle Indies Expo and the second year in a row that we held it fully online. The online format was a challenge at first but thanks to our friends at SOBA we have been able to put together what has hopefully been some entertaining and informative programming to showcase the best that Seattle Indies have to offer to the world. Here’s hoping we will ge to bring back the in-person version we all enjoy and miss so much in 2022 but even when we do return to hosting SIX in-person again we plan to continue producing SIX Online in some capacity to give our community that extra bit of exposure to the rest of the world.
I would personally like to thank all of the organizers, volunteers, hosts, production staff, jurors, sponsors and exhibitors who made SIX so memorable and fun this year. It was a major effort but hopefully it provided a boost to everyone while we are still in the middle of and hopefully on the recovery trail from the global pandemic.
Our friends from the GIG came to town for PAX weekend and asked us to help them co-host a picnic for their members and they invited all of the folks involved in SIX this year. It was a blast getting to see so many friends from the games industry who were visiting and a great chance to gather all of the SIX participants in person since we didn’t have an in person SIX for that. Hopefully this will become an annual tradition. If you aren’t already a member of the Games Industry Gathering you should apply to join and make some new friends with a great group of people.
We also returned to our unofficial home at Optimism Brewing for the Seattle Indies Social and though the turnout was a bit smaller than usual it was still great to see everyone who came out and got together and we appreciate everyone for respecting health and safety guidelines to ensure we had as safe of an event as possible.
We have some exciting things coming up in the next few months that you can read about below and one event that we haven’t announced yet but will be fun and focused on play that we hope to see everyone at.
It is spooky season so grab your pumpkin spice latte or some apple cider and a donut and treat yourself to this month’s update.
Recap
As mentioned, we wrapped up the virtual Seattle Indies Expo, which featured 3 day-long streams on subsequent Saturdays, and an unexpected Bonus Round after! This was our biggest virtual event to date (featuring a Twitch front-page spot!), and we’ve seen some impressive numbers on our streams:
The event also came with a Steam Page feature as well! If you missed it, it’s still live, so check out all the games that participated.
Once again, big kudos to our sponsors for making this all possible. Our Champion Sponsors are PlayEveryWare, Stoic Studio, Academy of Interactive Entertainment, 4Culture, Mega Crit Games, and Modern Wolf. Our Partner Sponsors are Unbound Creations and Hooded Horse. Our Community Sponsors are Quantum Astrophysicists Guild, Purple Arcade and Premack Rogers. And big thanks to SOBA for lending their technical and production expertise, and Meg Kaylee, Goobers, AlchemistJoker, Macncheesep1z, RicJur, Katherine Tole and Stephazoid for hosting.
Aside from SIX we also hosted our 2nd in-person social since the start of the pandemic. Hopefully a good sign we may be able to return to a bit more normality moving forward.
Upcoming Events
Didn’t get enough of SIX? Join us at 11 am Pacific on twitch.tv/SeattleIndies Saturday October 2, 2021 for SIX Bonus Round! We will be talking to the developers of six of the games featured on the SIX broadcast and doing a deep dive into the development process of each game, hosted by Katherine Tole and Andrew Goodenough.
The Seattle Indies Slow Jam is back in virtual form again this year and you can sign up now! The jam officially kicks off on Friday November 5, 2021 and runs all the way through Sunday November 22, 2021 to give you all the time you should need to make your creation come to life. We will be opening theme suggestions to all Patreon supporters soon so start thinking of those ideas. The theme will then be selected by community vote as usual and the jam will take place on the Seattle Indies Discord.
Save the Date! The Seattle Indies Holiday Party is returning to Factory Luxe (the old Rainier Brewery) on Sunday December 12 2021! Board games, the photo booth, holiday cocktails, all of your favorites will be back for the most anticipated party of the year.
WN Conference Seattle’21 is a hybrid event, taking place on November 16-17, 2021 both online and at the Washington State Convention Center.
The conference will bring together over 1,000 industry professionals on-site and 2,000+ more attendees online.
The event focuses on the games market in the USA. The goal is to help establish strong business ties between market players, learn about new games to be released, and meet global industry leaders and celebrities. All lectures from the Seattle site will be broadcast to the WN Hub online communication platform.
All conference features are in sync and will work for both on-site and online audiences to bring people together from anywhere, providing even more networking and branding opportunities.
Seattle Indies members have been offered free demo space at the event! To find out more and register your game go to https://wnconf.com/seattle-21
Monthly Events
Are you a composer? We are still looking for compositions to add to our Seattle Indies YouTube playlist! We will be playing the playlist on our Discord 24/7 for everyone to hear! If you want to be included on the playlist, please fill out this short form. We just need your name and your YouTube link. We are currently limiting it to one piece/YouTube link per composer.
This week’s Game Club will take place later this month, so keep your eye on official time and games. Just hop onto the #game-club channel on Discord! What a book club is to a discussion of literature, this event is to a discussion of game design. Every month, we agree to play a game, then meet to discuss and analyze its design and presentation.
In case you missed it, Indie Support Group has been rebranded to Coffee Break and is happening weekly as well! Tune in every Saturday from 1pm on our Discord in the #isg-voice channel, Curious how to start learning something? Want to chat with someone of another discipline? Need a place to work on a project and share it with others? ISG is a social, game development focused work group that encourages people of all skill levels and disciplines to come together and collaborate for the benefit of all.
We are bringing back Feedback Circle as a standalone event on October 13, 2021 @ 7PM for you to get critical feedback on your game from our community of developers.
Local Dev News
With Steam Next Fest, lots of Seattle Indies are participating. Check out the Void Eclipse stream on Oct 2 at 10am!
_KeyboardKommander released our Autumn Update! Read about it here.
Fisti-Fluffs launched on Switch, Steam, and Epic Games – take control of your favorite cat and beat the crap out of other kitties in all-out kitty carnage. Here’s the website.
Victor announced that Neko Ghost, Jump! was part of Game Devs of Color Expo! Check out the Showcase Video here.
Lil’s game is live on Kickstarter (and already funded) – Become adventurous artisans fighting for their community in the co-op narrative adventure game, The Artisans of Splendent Vale. Check it out here.
Shavikpublished an android game (made with Godot) on the Google Playstore. In Turn Away, you can dodge by rotating the player, collect stars, unlock new designs for the player, get special power-ups and submit your score to the leader board and compare it with others and also earn new achievements. Check it out!
Harassment Policy, AAPI, Black Lives Matter, and Resources
Seattle Indies stands with the AAPI community. We are here for our members who have been affected by the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes both locally and nationally. For further resources to educate yourself on the issue and how to take action, here is a useful link: https://anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co/
Seattle Indies hopes to start having in person meetups again soon. To that effect we need everyone to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus as soon as you are able. The Washington State Department of Health has this website for information on where you can get vaccinated in your area.
Seattle Indies believes the stories of the victims of sexual harassment and assault in the games industry that have been shared this past week and before. We strongly condemn the actions by people in power preying on the dreams of vulnerable people trying to make their way in the industry and strive to build an inclusive community that welcomes all minorities to provide a safe environment and a better vision for the game industry.
While our code of conduct states a zero-tolerance policy for harassment of any kind we are especially sensitive to the daily challenges faced by womxn due to the ingrained sexism that has existed in the structure of the games industry for far too long. We are actively working to build a better community of game developers and we all need to do better.
Additionally Board Member August Belhumeur has offered to be a personal resource for anyone who needs help, someone to talk to or some guidance on next steps if you have experienced harassment in the industry either at our events or elsewhere. She can be reached at august@seattleindies.org.
Our friends at Take This Org have compiled valuable resources for anyone in immediate need of professional help for their situation.
Lastly, Seattle Indies and Diversity Collective+ support Black Lives Matter. Here are some resources compiled by Diversity Collective+ for how you can offer support, whether this is financial, contributing to petitions, preparing for protests, or getting informed. If you have additional resources, comment below and we will add them.
As always, keep an eye on our Discord for any last-minute news and discussion, and let us know about any projects you’re working on that you’d like shared on our Steam or Itch collections or tweeted about from @SeattleIndies!
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