Local Spotlight: Indie Arcade

Building the local Madison game development community is important to us as a studio, and it’s important to our developers as well. One of the latest additions to the Rune: Ragnarok team, gameplay programmer Justin Terry, is giving back in a big way.

The idea for the Indie Arcade came from a conversation at a monthly Madison Indies meetup. Justin was talking to developers in the group about the absence of a local games showcase event like Chicago’s Bit Bash, despite our growing games community. They realized that there weren’t any major obstacles in their way, and that there would be a lot of support for an event like this. Justin thought about everything that had been discussed and decided that organizing his own local Madison games showcase was well-worth the effort - thus, the Indie Arcade was born!

The first Indie Arcade event took place less than a month after its conception. It featured seven games that were hand-picked by Justin from 6 different local studios. By personally reaching out to  developers, Justin wanted to ensure that the first Indie Arcade would successfully fill their venue at the Robinia Courtyard. He knew that there would be a great deal of support from local studios and game development communities. What he didn’t expect was the incredible turnout.

Over 150 attendees went to the Indie Arcade on October 12th, providing developers with the opportunity to showcase their work and receive feedback. Many of those in attendance were from the Madison area, but several travelled from out of state to connect with the local indie community. The featured games included Race the Sun, Tumbleseed, The Moon Fields, Kissy Ghost, Take-Out Takeout, and the Jackbox Party Pack. Throughout the night, many of the other developers in attendance indicated that they’d love to have their games featured one day. A follow-up event seemed in order.

The Indie Arcade II is shaping up to be even bigger and better than the last. Their new curation process allowed developers to submit their games to the event in hopes that it would be featured. There were a great deal of submissions. Rather than tackle this process on his own, Justin brought in a panel of judges (Allison Salmon, Albert Chen, Victoria McCreary, Alicia Pressley) to vote on their favorite projects. 11 games were selected to accommodate the space. These games came from all over the Midwest, with a few outliers from Kentucky and Florida.

By keeping the midwest at the forefront of the Indie Arcade, Justin hopes to help the Wisconsin Games Alliance in their efforts to put Madison on the map as a major destination for games. You can read more about Madison’s growing game community here!

Are you interested in supporting the Indie Arcade and Madison game community? You can attend Indie Arcade II on February 15th at the Robinia Courtyard from 6-10PM. The event is free with a suggested $10 donation to help Justin support the event, give back to Maydm, and the developers that contribute to it. You can RSVP to the event here!

All photos credited to Meag Sargent, 2017.