Welcome To Game The designers and developers of these games, individuals or small teams independent of large studios and publishers, take daring creative risks to explore new forms and methods of play. Independent games are a fountain of innovation and experimentation, pushing games forward as one of today’s most dynamic and crucial cultural forms.
Event Times Thursday Oct. 8th 2:00 PM
Introduction to Unreal Engine’s Paper2D 2:00pm - 3:00pm
2:45 PM
Developing Awesome Games with Unity 2:45pm - 3:45pm
4:30 PM
Show and Tell (Best of Game Tasting) 4:30pm - 6:30pm
5:00 PM
IndieXchange Reception 5:00pm - 6:30pm
8:00 PM
Red Carpet Awards 8:00pm - 9:00pm
Event Times Friday Oct. 9th 2:00 PM
IXC Game Showcase 2:00pm - 3:00pm
2:45 PM
Diversity Roundtable 2:45pm - 3:45pm
4:30 PM
IXC Game Showcase 2 4:30pm - 6:30pm
5:00 PM
Self-Publishing with Nintendo 5:00pm - 6:30pm
8:00 PM
Developing for PlayStation Platforms 8:00pm - 9:00pm
SPEAKERS Jenova Chen Phil Fish Jonthan Blow
Jenova Chen Journey
Jenova Chen, the great visionary designer of the award winning games Cloud, flOw, Flower, and most recently Journey. After earning a bachelor’s degree for computer science in his hometown of Shanghai, Chen moved to Los Angeles, where he got a master’s degree in the founding class of University of Southern California’s Interactive Media and Games Division. Following school, he founded thatgamecompany with fellow graduates, where he remains its Founder and also the Creative Director. Personally, Jenova was named one of Variety’s 10 Innovators to Watch in 2008, was selected as one of the Most Creative Entrepreneurs in Business in both 2009 and 2010 by Fast Company and was given the prestigious honor of being named to the MIT Technology Review Magazine’s TR35 list, naming the World’s Top Innovators under the Age of 35 in 2008.
Journey Journey is an interactive parable, an anonymous online adventure to experience a person’s life passage and their intersections with the other’s. Faced with rolling sand dunes, howling winds, your passage will not be an easy one.
The goal is to get to the mountaintop, but the experience is discovering who you are, what this place is, and what is your purpose.
Phil Fish Fez
Philippe Poisson, better known as Phil Fish, is a French Canadian former indie video game designer, best known for his work on the 2012 platform game Fez published by his company, Polytron Corporation. He was born and raised in Quebec, where his experiences with Nintendo games in his youth would later influence his game design. He stud- ied game design at the Montreal National Animation and Design Centre, and worked at Ubisoft & Artificial Mind and Movement before starting Polytron in 2008. Phil Fish is a founding member of Kokoromi, the collective that explores experimental gameplay ideas, and organized Montreal’s annual GAMMA games events. While Fez was in development, Fish worked on other unreleased games at Polytron, including Super Hypercube.
Fez The sum of Fez’s intelligent level designs, perception mechanic, massive number of stages and secrets, and incredible art is so much more than just a shout-out to old-school gaming. Fez is a game in love with games.
It has a respect for classic ideals and a confidence in its original ideas. Polytron draws on this to remind players why they fell in love with video games in the first place, all the while daring to make them think about the medium from a brand new perspective.
Jonathan Blow Braid
Jonathan Blow is an American independent video game programmer and designer. He is best known as the creator of Braid, which was released in 2008 and received critical acclaim. He is currently developing The Witness, to be released in 2014. For many years Blow wrote the Inner Product column for Game Developer Magazine. He is the primary host of the Experimental Gameplay Workshop and each March at the Game Developers Conference, which has become a premier showcase for new ideas in video games. In addition, Blow is a regular participant in the Indie Game Jam. Blow is a founding partner of the Indie Fund, an angel investor fund for independent game projects.
Braid In an age when many games feel like clones of one another or are designed to be easy to beat, Braid sticks to its guns and delivers a rewarding and memorable experience that’s definitely worth checking out.
It’s like an invigorating breath of fresh air, and proof that a handful of independent developers can create games that raise the bar for others.