The global indie game festival, which returned to an offline exhibition after 3 years, starts on the 23rd (Thursday).
‘2023 Indiecraft’, hosted by Seongnam City and co-hosted by Seongnam Industry Promotion Agency (President Ryu Hae-pil) and Korea Mobile Game Association (Chairman Hwang Seong-ik), is a global indie game contest that has been promoted since 2017. It is an event prepared to foster innovative games that will lead the global game industry by fostering the game industry breaking down the polarization in the game industry, and contributing to creating an ecosystem for grassroots game culture.
Starting with 5,000 visitors at the first Pangyo Station underground sunken plaza (waiting room) in 2019, Korea’s first online virtual game show in 2020, Korea’s first virtual game show held in the metaverse for two consecutive years in 2021-2022, Indiecraft received favorable reviews as an ‘event only for indie game developers and indie games’ and continued to meet with about 100,000 indie game-loving users and officials over the past four years. Afterward, it will be held as a ‘global conference’ only for indie game developers, with an offline exhibition once again after 3 years, away from the danger of Corona 19.
The recruitment of entries has also changed. First of all, we will start recruiting in the domestic sector and community sector. The domestic sector targets small and medium-sized indie game developers nationwide regardless of genre and platform definition, such as mobile, PC, console, AR/VR, HTML5, blockchain, etc., and content that can be played or is less than a year old (2022.03. As of the 22nd), anyone can apply.
The community section can only support entries selected for the existing ‘Indicraft’ exhibition from 2017 to 2022. If an existing selected developer submits new content, it must be submitted in the domestic category. The new ‘Challenger’ sector in ‘2023 Indiecraft’ was prepared to bring a fresh breeze to the indie game industry. Any team or individual who has a passion for indie game development and is currently attending university can participate.
This is a new section in ‘2023 Indiecraft’ to discover future talent in the Korean game industry. You can also apply if you are a student attending a designated vocational training facility approved by the Ministry of Employment and Labor. An Indiecraft official said that through the recruitment of the Challenger category, it is expected that many potential college student developers will participate in the development of the ‘K-Indie Game industry.
Applications for entries can only be made through the Google Form until April 12 (Wed) at 7:00 PM, and a total of around 60 award-winning works, including 50 in the domestic/community category and 10 in the challenger category, will be selected through document and presentation screening. Award-winning works are given an exhibition booth to participate in offline exhibitions, and for the best-selected works, customized ‘ALL in ONE’ commercialization package support for indie game developers and commercialization support vouchers that can be freely used in marketing, game development, graphics, etc., and Indiecraft A total of 500 million won worth of benefits will be provided, including efficient commercialization support for indie game developers in connection with sponsors.
In addition, ‘Metaverse ZONE’ will be newly established with the capacity to start the first metaverse game exhibition in Korea. In Metaverse ZONE, business matching and networking are conducted online. Real-time lectures can be watched during B2B global conferences, so various ways to enjoy 2023 Indiecraft, not only offline but also online, will be prepared.
In particular, this year, various programs are prepared with the goal of being a ‘global game conference’ exclusively for indie game developers. In addition to talking about game development that indie game developers might miss, premium lectures by domestic and foreign game experts will be held to advance into the global market, and it is expected to satisfy the needs of both beginners and veteran developers.
In addition, it will be fully decorated, from diagnosis mentoring, which was well-received by both developers and mentors, to user review events directly from indie game users and communication with domestic and global developers through diagnosis network day and community day.
News related to the recruitment of ‘2023 Indiecraft’ entries, notices for entries, and other submission forms can be checked and downloaded from the meeting site Onoffmix and can also be found by searching for ‘Indicraft’ in the search bar.
