Event: 2026 IndieCraft Awards Ceremony
Date / Venue: October 15, 2026, Hyatt Place Seoul Pangyo
Host: Seongnam City
Organizers: Seongnam Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA), Korea Mobile Game Association (KMGA)
Participants: 72 studios (52 Domestic, 20 Challenger)
Judging (Domestic): 30% document review + 70% public focus group testing (FGT)
Domestic/Community Division
- Grand Prize: INARI, 1HP Studio (₩40 million)
- Excellence Award: Akseon, Wayway Inc. (₩10 million)
- Merit Award: Kusan: City of Wolves, Circle From Dot (₩5 million)
Challenger Division (university teams)
- Excellence Award: Theseus, Plutacos (₩2 million scholarship)
- Merit Award: War in the Dark, Saessak Studio (₩1 million scholarship)
- Indie Level-Up Award: Pass the Bomb: Runner, Trinut Studio (₩500,000 scholarship)
One life, a fistful of shurikens, and no room for error. That formula won over both judges and players at this year’s IndieCraft, Pangyo’s annual indie game festival.
Seongnam City, the Seongnam Industry Promotion Agency, and the Korea Mobile Game Association held the 2026 IndieCraft Awards on October 15 at Hyatt Place Seoul Pangyo, honoring six studios across the Domestic/Community and Challenger divisions.
IndieCraft is an indie game festival hosted by Seongnam City and co-organized by SIPA and KMGA. The Domestic/Community Grand Prize went to 1HP Studio’s INARI, which received ₩40 million in prize money. Seongnam City announced the results on October 19.
Seven Months, From Selection to Gamescom to Pangyo
The ceremony capped a roughly seven-month program that began in March and ran through the announcement of selected titles, a promotional booth at Gamescom in Germany, an offline exhibition linked to GXG 2026, and the Connect Fair export consultation meetings.
This year’s IndieCraft closed submissions on May 11 with a record number of entries. A total of 72 studios were selected, 52 in the Domestic division and 20 in the Challenger division.
At the GXG 2026-linked exhibition, held in September at a special exhibition hall on the first floor of Pangyo’s Tech One Tower, 51 selected studios ran live booths. The top three in each division took home awards at the ceremony.
[Related Article: Extreme Speed, Shuriken Action Platformer ‘Inari’ Launches on Steam on the 13th]
Grand Prize: INARI and Its One-Life Shuriken Action
INARI is a high-speed shuriken action platformer in which players have just one life. Its Eastern-inspired world, where myth collides with steel, and its high level of polish earned strong marks from the judges.
The Excellence Award went to Wayway Inc. for Akseon, a hack-and-slash action roguelike drawing on Korean shamanism (₩10 million). The Merit Award went to Circle From Dot for Kusan: City of Wolves, a hardcore top-down shooter (₩5 million).
Challenger Division: Tactical FPS Theseus Leads University Teams
In the Challenger division, made up mainly of university student teams, Plutacos won the Excellence Award (₩2 million scholarship) for Theseus, a tactical FPS that combines a commander’s operational decisions with mercenaries’ bodycam perspectives.
The Merit Award (₩1 million scholarship) went to Saessak Studio for War in the Dark, a turn-based simulation that renders Morse-code information warfare on a 1950s battlefield in 1-bit pixel art.
Trinut Studio received the Indie Level-Up Award (₩500,000 scholarship) for Pass the Bomb: Runner, a balance action game in which players run while managing a bomb’s center of gravity.
70% Player Testing, and a Tradition of Champions Handing Off
Final rankings in the Domestic division combined a first-round document review (30%) with a second-round focus group test in which members of the public played the games directly (70%). Rankings were revealed for the first time at the ceremony itself.
Presenting the awards was Yoon Jae-eun, co-CEO of One&One, last year’s Domestic division winner, who shared what the year since winning had been like and cheered on this year’s winners. The organizers plan to make it an IndieCraft tradition for each year’s champion to present the following year’s awards.
“Not the End, but the Beginning”: Investment, Publishing, and Overseas Support
In his welcome address, SIPA President Lee Ju-yeon, co-chair of the organizing committee, said indie games are built less on big capital than on love for the work and fresh imagination. He added that because Pangyo sits at the heart of Korea’s game industry, SIPA will work with KMGA to help developers keep making games and expand overseas.
KMGA Chairman Hwang Sung-ik pledged that the awards would not be a one-time honor, promising continued practical support for growth, including investment, publishing, and global expansion. Details on the winning titles are available on the official IndieCraft website.
What to Watch For
The most distinctive part of IndieCraft is its judging: with 70% of the Domestic score coming from public focus group testing, winners are effectively chosen by players as much as by experts. Watch how the promised investment, publishing, and overseas support materializes for this year’s winners, especially INARI, already on Steam, and Akseon, whose Korean shamanism theme gives it a strong cultural hook for global audiences. The Challenger division is also worth tracking as a pipeline for Korea’s next generation of developers.
The Takeaway
The 2026 IndieCraft Awards closed out a seven-month program that took Korean indie developers from selection to Gamescom to a Pangyo stage, with a record entry pool and a player-weighted judging system that rewards games people actually enjoy. INARI’s win for uncompromising one-life action, alongside a shamanism-themed roguelike and a crop of inventive student projects, shows a K-indie scene confident in both genre craft and cultural identity. The new champion-to-champion handoff tradition is a small but meaningful touch for a festival trying to build continuity.
Information regarding the ‘2026 Indiecraft Awards’
| item | detail |
|---|---|
| Event name | 2026 Indiecraft Awards |
| Date and Time/Location | October 15, 2026, Hyatt Place Seoul Pangyo |
| Host | Seongnam City |
| subjectivity | Seongnam Industry Promotion Agency, Korea Mobile Game Association |
| Participating developers | A total of 72 (52 in the domestic sector, 20 in the Challenger sector) |
| Domestic & Community Sector | Grand Prize ‘Inari’ (1HP Studio, 40 million won) Grand Prize ‘Ak-seon’ (Weiwei Co., Ltd., 10 million won) Excellence Award ‘Kusan: City of Wolves’ (Circle From Dot, 5 million won) |
| Challenger division | Grand Prize ‘Theseus’ (Plutarch, 2 million won scholarship) Excellence Award ‘War in the Dark’ (Saessak Studio, 1 million won scholarship) Indie Level-Up Award ‘Pass the Bomb: Runner’ (Trynut Studio, 500,000 KRW scholarship) |
| Evaluation method | 1st Round Document Screening 30% + 2nd Round General User FGT Screening 70% (Domestic Sector) |
