IndieCade Submissions Open; Panic Ensues

Another year, another indie game festival deadline.

IndieCade, the International Festival of Independent Games that takes place each year in the fall, is now open for submissions for the 2010 event. The deadline for submissions is June 1st, which means we have less than two months to whip Vespers into shape — or at least into enough shape that it doesn’t embarrass itself in the weight room.

I’ve never been to the event, but a number of notable games have been recognized the past couple of years during the festival. Last year’s finalists included Brenda Braithwaite’s Train, Tale of Tale’s The Path, Hemisphere Games’s Osmos, and even an IF game, Jim Munroe’s Everybody Dies. In 2008, Amanita Design’s beautiful Machinarium was the Aesthetics winner, while Jason Roher’s Gravitation took the Jury Award. So I think it’s safe to say that IndieCade has done a nice job in the recent past picking up where SlamDance left off and establishing itself as a major festival for indie game designers.

It appears that IndieCade tries to distinguish itself from other festivals by focusing on art, creativity, and expression, which I find appealing. I’m not sure how well Vespers fits the bill, but it’s worth a shot.

The main reason this is even under discussion is because IndieCade encourages the submission of works-in-progress. My goal has always been to complete Act I through the first cutscene as a demo, so this would (presumably) qualify as the entry. I doubt it’s enough to make a strong impression on a panel of judges, but that’s what I got and that’s the hand I’m playing, assuming I can even get a seat at the table.

Two months is not a lot of time, though. We still have to finish implementing Cecilia, which is no small task, and then get the cutscene working. On top of that are the hordes of smaller tasks that I’ve never addressed. And the testing. Oh dear heaven, the testing.

So that’s where I’m at. The IndieCade submission deadline came and went last year and I never really got close to submitting. I don’t want to see that happen again.

To start with, I’m looking for a handful of people interested in doing some testing. I suppose this still qualifies as alpha testing, but perhaps as things progress we’ll eventually start to think of it as “demo beta testing” at some point. What I’m really looking for are people who can put a concentrated effort into testing different aspects of the game (which I will describe and emphasize privately later) and providing regular, useful feedback, including detailed descriptions of any bugs or problems. While I haven’t worked out minimum specs yet, the game is currently only for Macs or PCs with dedicated graphics cards – no integrated graphics processors. If you’d like to help us reach our first goal, let me know by either responding here or by e-mailing (use the Contact Me form at the top of the page).

Let the games begin!

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