The BIC x Google Play IndieFest Awards concluded on August 15 at the BIC 2026 main stage in BEXCO Exhibition Hall 1 (Hall 2), Busan. The competition distributed ₩50 million in total prizes across the Top 10 finalist teams who competed through live gameplay pitching before an audience of over 100 voter-judges and a five-person professional jury.
The award structure — 50% professional jury scoring, 50% audience voting — was designed to weigh expert evaluation and player response equally. The Top 10 finalists were selected from an initial Top 20 pool through preliminary review and online voting conducted August 7-11 during the festival’s online exhibition period.
The Final Results
1st Place (₩30,000,000): Bojonggye — Banjihwa Games
2nd Place (₩12,000,000): PengPong — Sandy Floor
3rd Place (₩8,000,000): Master of Peace — I AM GAME
Top 10 Stage Pitch Finalists (in final ranking order):
Video Editor — Return True
Void Diver: Escape from the Abyss — Red Brick House
Inquisitor Shepherd — Narrow Deep
Stardust: Stars and Witch — Knive Studio Inc.
HIPS N NOSES — PepperStones Inc.
Seven Trials — Newcore Games
Relicursed: Curse of the Pyramid — Team NHNF
The Competition Format
The live gameplay pitching format — developers demonstrating their games in person on the main stage rather than presenting slides or videos — is the evaluative format that best matches what an indie game actually is. A game that can be shown running is a game that exists; the specific quality of the experience can be assessed in real time by both the professional jury and the audience. The format rewards games that communicate their appeal immediately during hands-on demonstration.
The 5:5 jury-to-audience split explicitly values two different modes of evaluation simultaneously. Industry professionals bring comparative context, design literacy, and commercial assessment capability. The hundred-person audience of general attendees brings the response of actual players encountering games without context — the same cold-start experience that determines whether a game finds an audience after launch. Both modes of evaluation matter for different reasons, and neither takes precedence.
The Coverage Connection
Two games in the Top 10 finalists have been covered in this coverage’s ongoing series. PengPong from Sandy Floor — which earned 2nd place and ₩12 million — was covered in July’s preview, where we noted its G-STAR 2025 Audience Best Game Award and Steam Next Fest top-81 ranking. The reflection physics bullet heaven has now added a BIC x Google Play IndieFest 2nd place to its pre-launch commercial validation. HIPS N NOSES from PepperStones was covered in July as part of the ChinaJoy world premiere coverage.
Seven Trials from Newcore Games also appeared in previous coverage — the Korean mythology action RPG that has been building toward its international commercial launch through festival appearances.
The Institutional Significance
Google Play’s involvement with BIC 2026 extends beyond this award competition into the YouTube Playables partnership (covered earlier this week) — both initiatives represent Google’s investment in the Korean indie gaming ecosystem as a platform relationship rather than a single event sponsorship.
Jang Hyun-se, Google Play’s Global Head of Points, described the event’s purpose as extending beyond prizes: supporting a sustainable discovery environment where good indie games continue to be found, rather than one-time recognition. BIC organizing chair Joo Sung-pil acknowledged Google Play’s contribution as “unprecedented and sincere” support for the indie ecosystem’s activation.
