The ‘IR Demo Day’, which provides investment opportunities to excellent developers of ‘2024 Indie Craft’, the festival of Korean indie games, has been completed.
This event, which was prepared to conclude the approximately one-year-long ‘2024 Indie Craft’ hosted by Seongnam City and co-hosted by Seongnam Industrial Promotion Agency and Korea Mobile Game Association, was held on November 20th at the Seongnam Global Convergence Center Multipurpose Hall to strengthen the investment capacity of selected developers and lay the foundation for investment activation.
The Indiecraft Management Office stated that the event was a great success. Around 40 game developers and affiliates supporting Indiecraft were in attendance, which will strengthen developers moving forward.
This event was about presenting IR decks and included lectures on how to write IR decks, ways to secure funds, and IR deck mentoring.
Among ten developers, three excellent developers were selected and provided opportunities for future investment consultation and products. The lineup of participating judges was also impressive. In the investment field, ▲Ensel Partners, ▲Scaleup Partners, ▲C2Square Partners, ▲WiseOcean, ▲Partners Investment, and ▲Hanyang University Technology Holdings participated, and in the development and publisher field, ▲Neowiz, ▲Libra Systems, ▲CFK, and ▲ZTQ Games, etc. ten investment, publishing, and development experts participated as judges to ensure fairness in the selection and to closely check investment opportunities.
Neowiz Team Leader Kim Hyuk-jin, who gave his thoughts as a judges representative, said, “There are many game contents that I have been watching for a long time, and I am thrilled to see that most of them have developed. Since this kind of IR presentation opportunity is scarce, I hope you will prepare more thoroughly and use the evaluation to increase your development capabilities.” He also cheered on their future development.
Indiecraft selected ten developers to participate in Demo Day: ▲Idea Bombers, ▲Dungeon Front, ▲Remora, ▲Sandy Floor, ▲Ananas Bananas, ▲Oji, ▲Alien Kidnapping Operation, ▲Hypercent, ▲36 Liters, ▲Studio BBB. The developers presented their prepared IR decks for about 15 minutes and introduced the developers and their roadmaps for future game development and operation to the judges. They competed fiercely, and through strict and fair evaluation, one ‘Grand Prize’ team and two ‘Excellence Prize’ teams were selected.
Excellence Awards went to two developers, with ‘High Percent’ and ‘Alien Kidnapping Operation’ selected. ▲High Percent, the developer of the horror action multiplayer game, has continued game production since its incorporation in January 2024. Backroom Company, created based on the American horror story ‘Backroom’, has been well-received by users for its multiplayer elements.
In addition to being in the Indiecraft TOP50, it was recognized for its development prowess by winning the ‘Best Multiplayer Award’ at this year’s G-Star Indie Awards. ▲Alien Kidnapping Operation is a developer that has already been recognized for its development prowess on Steam through ‘Pig Romance’. ‘Pig Romance’, released last July, is a puzzle adventure game depicting the adventure of a pig that goes against fate, and it boasts the fun in irony that is cruel but does not seem cruel through fairy tale-style artwork using unique gimmicks and pantomime directing methods.
The grand prize goes to Sandy Floor. GREAT TOY SHOWDOWN, released on Steam Early Access in November 2024, is a strategic casual shooting team battle game in which eight stuffed animals fight each other.
Based on cute graphics, it is a new team-battle action game that mixes various genres, from PVE elements where you fight multiple monsters to farming, where you travel around the field to complete missions to PVP battle royale. Excellent developers will be provided with products such as the Galaxy Watch and investment consulting opportunities with investment experts in the future to receive advice on game development and operation.
Hwang Seong-ik, co-chairman of Indiecraft and co-organizer, said, “I am very grateful that so many people came to see excellent developers when it is difficult to attract investment in the game industry due to the recent economic downturn. I believe that Indiecraft has spared no effort in providing various support to small and medium-sized indie game developers even in difficult circumstances, and we will work with Seongnam City and Seongnam Industrial Promotion Agency to find ways to provide more effective help next year.”
