September 2023 Update – SIX Edition!
Hello Indies!
It’s Festival season! We don’t know when you will be reading this, so we hope you are looking forward to / currently enjoying / had enjoyed both PAX and the Seattle Indies Expo (and if we will miss you / are missing you right now / have missed you, hope you have a chance to stop by next year!) Also, lots of updates from our local community this past month, so read on!
Seattle Indies Expo 2023 is here!
Seattle Indies Expo (SIX) 2023 is happening Sunday September 3 from 12pm – 9pm at Hilton Motif Seattle! SIX is the annual celebration of independent games and game creators from the Pacific Northwest. Play 25 of the best up and coming games from the Seattle Indies community and meet the developers. SIX is a completely free and family friendly event, no PAX badge required!
This year we have another stellar lineup of games at SIX IRL selected by our community jurors that will be on display for you to play all day long on the 3rd floor Emerald Ballroom at Motif. Check out this trailer featuring all of this year’s games that you will see and play this Sunday and see the lineup below.
We’re also excited to launch SIX Direct, a full length video featuring clips of each game and VO from local creator Katherine Tole giving you a bit of insight on each of the games being featured at SIX 2023. Enjoy the video and make your lists for Sunday so you know which games you want to play first when you arrive at SIX. Many of the games can be wishlisted on Steam or are playable on Itch.io today.
SIX is truly an event held by and for the community and this year we are excited to present our first ever Community Corner at SIX IRL featuring members of the Seattle Composers Alliance and PlaytestNW greeting guests and sharing information about their communities.
We’ll be back later in October with SIX Online, a full day streaming broadcast where we will feature all of the games from SIX IRL and a few bonus games that we’re sure you will be excited to learn more about.
We thank everyone who contributed to making SIX possible this year, the applicants, the jurors, volunteers, artists, creators, video production team, web developers and so many more behind the scenes people who put many hours of their summer into making SIX happen.
Thanks to our hosts at Hilton Motif Seattle for continuing to have us back each year, even when bigger companies in town for PAX are trying to rent out the space. It means a lot to us and our community who look forward to SIX all year and we hope to keep the relationship going for the foreseeable future. Thank you for being a great member of our community and supporting Seattle Indies.
SIX wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of our sponsors and Patreon supporters so we thank them and each and every one of you for supporting Seattle Indies and helping to keep SIX going and growing.
Headline Sponsors:
Hooded Horse – https://hoodedhorse.com/
Perfect Day Games – https://www.perfectday.games/
Champion Sponsors:
PlayEveryWare – https://www.playeveryware.com/
4Culture – https://www.4culture.org/
Mega Crit – https://www.megacrit.com/
Premack Rogers P.C. – https://www.premackrogers.com/
Epic Games – https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/home
Partner Sponsors: Radix domains – https://radix.website/
Community Sponsors:
AIE – https://aie.edu/
Unbound Creations – http://unboundcreations.com/
Galvanic Games – https://galvanicgames.com/
Seattle Composers Alliance – https://seattlecomposers.org/
3RTechnology – https://3rtechnology.com/
Artwork by Ally Taylor, August Belhumeur, and Max Trest
Video production: Rando Bando
VO: Katherine Tole
And a big warm thanks to all our sponsors this year!
More Upcoming Events
PAX is in full swing, at the start of September. Learn more and get badges right here!
Also, whether you are attending SIX or PAX or not, swing by the Post-PAX Indie Developer Mixer on September 4th, 8pm – late o’clock, at Orient Express on 2963 4th Ave S · Seattle, WA! Here’s the full event info.
Hype Jam is coming again this year! The idea is simple: You have 48 hours. Don’t make a game. Make a game trailer for a game that doesn’t exist. Submissions open from September 15th 2023 at 6:00 PM to September 17th 2023 at 6:00 PM so Check out the itch.io group to join!
Also join the Discord to stay up to date on all the information and the theme reveal!
IndieCade festival (Taking place in California) is coming in October, it’s a great celebration of the art of video games. The submissions deadline has passed but you can still attend! Click here to read more about the event.
FYI if you want to get a list of all upcoming game event shows and get ready early, The Indie House has published this fantastic list of upcoming festival that’s exactly that. Well worth a bookmark!
Monthly Events
The Eastside Meet & Drink is happening at Pint & Pie Public House on Sept 5, at 7pm! Keep in mind it happens on the first Tuesday of every month. It’s time to get together and swap stories. Put down your keyboards and brave the outdoors. Let’s meet for a drink, a bite to eat, and some good conversation!
The Diversity Collective+ will take place on Sept 10, at 12pm at Distant Worlds Coffee House on 6401 Roosevelt Way NE · Seattle, WA. Come to network, socialize, and discuss issues related to diversity and inclusion in game development! Folks that identify as an underrepresented minority in the game industry are welcome. Stop by to get a free coffee or tea from us for this month’s social!
Seattle Indies Social is happening Sept 19 at 7pm at Optimism Brewery. Join us in Capitol Hill for some well-deserved mingling, drinks, and socialization! Make some new friends, catch up with old ones, and find out what the community’s up to. This month a delegation of developers from Australia will be joining us on a post-GDC visit to Seattle so come out and say hello to our Aussie friends.
The Writer’s Room is taking place on Sept 28, 6:30pm right on our discord. Bring your scripts, flowcharts, character bibles or whatever you’re working on to share and get feedback on your storytelling.
Indie Co-working Support Group in-person will take place every Saturday, from 1:00 PM to 6:30 PM PST, at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment. Masks will be enforced and vax cards will be checked at the door. Seattle Center wifi will be available for use. Please bring everything you need to be productive. The online Coffee Break session will still be available to anyone who isn’t ready for in person events yet or doesn’t have the ability to attend the in person event. We will be meeting every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month at AIE going forward. We have also added a Co-working voice channel in Discord for people to use any time they want a quiet space to work alongside their peers.
Indie Coffee Break – Once a week, take a Coffee Break with our Discord community, and chat with your local game devs! Meet new folks. Talk about games. Share your work. Ask for help / feedback. Commiserate over problems. Collaborate on solutions. Give high-fives. We’re a weekly social work group for game devs of all levels and disciplines. Join us on Discord every Saturday from 1pm to 7pm! Drop by anytime; folks usually drop in and out throughout the day. Coffee Break also happens on an impromptu basis throughout the month so if you see folks hanging out in the channel feel free to drop in and join the conversation.
Northside Social is OFF this month! It’s time to get together and swap stories. Put down your keyboards and brave the outdoors. Let’s meet for a coffee/tea, a bite to eat, and some good conversation!
Seattle Indies Board Gaming Meetup is OFF this month.
Feedback Circle happens every other month on the second Wednesday right on our Discord. Time to stop coding, animating, making art or audio or adding that amazing new feature you thought of while you were falling asleep last night and come to Feedback Circle to get some real responses to what you have been working on from game creators in our community like yourself.
The Game Club is OFF this month. 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. This month’s game is TBD!
Local Dev News
Tonik is a recently graduated student who worked with a team on DRACOMATON roguelike! They would love if you checked out their game right here!
DavidDolynny shared that they just entered Early Access with Cornucopia – an immersive 2.5D farming sim with 50+ NPCs, innovative compost system, unique card system, 200+ recipes. Take a look here!
Justice Shultz is pursuing their passion project Asteria full time after years of working in AAA andrunning a Kickstarter to fund this dream. Come check it out here!
FartFish just released Goblin Survivors, a game they’ve been working on for a bit!!! please go check it out here on Itch!
ianketterer is running a game audio company BleepBloop Audio and did a complete sound-redesign of a Starfield clip! Check it out here and consider them for your audio needs in the future.
Corey Kemper share the Conquest of Eldinar Kickstarter Campaign! Go check it out, what are you waiting for!
Mike Sennott released Astronaut: The Best on Steam after six years of work! Check it out here!
Peter N shared that their board game, Favor: Gods of Oethera, is now LIVE on KICKSTARTER. Go take a look!
Kevin Ethridge is doing a shout out for a buddy who just launched Slender on steam! Take a look here.
Jakub K just launched the Steam page for their Just Crow Things game! Take a look here!
Hunter Ahlquist will have a booth at PAX West this year, showing off The Dreamer Must Die. If you plan to attend, come say hi! Here’s their Steam Page.
FineWeather has a demo for their Cooking/RPG hybrid Kitchen Sync featured for Strategy Fest on Steam! They will also be at SIX this year as well. Go check out the Steam Page!
Pocketclown just wanted to share their Kick page, give it a follow!
Kieran L. is showcasing their new game Glassbrakers on Twitch and YouTube. Please check it out if you’re curious!
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 is having in person meetups again and we need everyone to get vaccinated and boosted 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. 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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