The 2025 Indie Craft Management Office (Co-Chairmen: Lee Eui-jun, President of Seongnam Industrial Promotion Agency, and Hwang Seong-ik, President of the Korea Mobile Game Association) announced that a total of 292 indie game developers, including 191 companies in the domestic community sector and 101 companies in the college student challenger sector, completed applications for the submission period that ran until May 31.
The results of this call for entries are even more meaningful in that many excellent indie game developers applied despite the ongoing global economic downturn and polarization of the domestic game industry. The management office said, “This year, there was more substantial participation, and the overall completeness and level of the submitted game content is analyzed to have increased.”
As for the future schedule, we plan to select the TOP 50 developers in the domestic/community sector and the TOP 20 developers in the challenger sector through document screening and presentation screening until the end of May and announce them through the official website (https://www.snip.or.kr/indiecraft). The TOP 9 developers who will win a total of 40 million won in prize money will be decided through the second performance presentation to be held in early August, and among the selected developers, we plan to provide them with the opportunity to grow into excellent developers through additional commercialization support.
The developers who are finally selected will be provided with special opportunities such as various support projects to be held in the future and a semi-conference inviting industry experts through the ‘Indie Craft Networking Day’ scheduled for June. In addition, an ‘IR Demo Day’ is scheduled for domestic and international investors and publishers to write and pitch IR decks, and in particular, an online global IR accelerating program is planned for early October where you can meet overseas investors and publishers directly with the global solution company ‘Xsolla’.
In September, an offline exhibition in collaboration with the game culture festival ‘GXG 2025’ will be held, providing a place to communicate directly with users. Last year, over 30,000 people attended the event, and many game users are looking forward to excellent indie game content this year as well.
Seongnam Industrial Promotion Agency Director Lee Eui-jun said, “The successful conclusion of the ‘2025 Indie Craft’ entry recruitment is the result of the passion and challenging spirit of domestic indie game developers,” and evaluated, “The fact that 292 developers completed their entries even in the midst of a global economic downturn shows the potential for continued growth in the indie game industry.”
In addition, he said, “We plan to actively support promising developers in need of technological advancement and publishing opportunities through future screening and support programs, and through this, we will do our best to help domestic indie games create successful cases in the global market.”
Co-Chairman Hwang Seong-ik said, “We are grateful for the support of many indie developers preparing to enter the global market, which has made ‘2025 Indie Craft’ shine.” He added, “We will carefully select games with good potential one by one and prepare to become the vanguard of K-indie games that can succeed on a global scale. We ask for your interest and participation in the ‘2025 Indie Craft’ event to be held in the future.”
The final selections will be available on the official website (https://www.snip.or.kr/indiecraft) in early June, and inquiries regarding sponsorship and events can be made through the Seongnam Industrial Promotion Agency or the Korea Mobile Game Association.
