Google is known for thinking out of the box or starting something new. From Google services to automated driverless car, Google is always into something new. Following its legacy, Google is ready for its first festival which aims at celebrating indie games on Android.
Google is taking up sign-ups for people who are willing to attend the Google Play Indie Games Festival in San Francisco. It’s also announcing the exhibitor line-up. The event includes 30 games. Half of them have been released to the public and the remaining ones are yet to be disclosed or are in beta version.
Google is unveiling its plans regarding the event. The plans explain how this festival will allow developers to show off their titles to the public as well as to others in the industry. They will be competing for prizes which include Google ad campaign or event tickets to Google’s annual developer conference. Other prizes include Google Cloud credits, NVIDIA SHIELD Android TVs and K1 tablets, and Razer Forge TV bundles.
Fortunately, the event is free and public will also be able to vote on their favourite games at this event. Not only vote, they will also be able to play their favourite games at the event. Initially, event submissions were opened up to the U.S. and Canadian game developers who had 15 or fewer people on their staff. This is how they qualified as “indies.” As per Google, there are over 200 developers who have applied for this event.
There will also be a panel of judges that will help to select the final winners. The judging panel has experts like Ron Carmel,co-founder of Indie Fund and co-creator of World of Goo; Noah Falstein, Chief Game Designer at Google; Hyunse Chang, Business Development Manager at Google Play; Emily Greer, CEO of Kongregate; David Edery, CEO of Spry Fox; Lina Chen, Co-founder & CEO of Nix Hydra; Alex Lee, Producer, Program Manager, Daydream & Project Tango at Google; Jordan Maron, gamer and YouTuber “Captain Sparklez.”
Who next? This event is also being taken care by veteran game designer Richard Lemarchand, who was a lead designer at Crystal Dynamics and Naughty Dog. He is now an Associate Chair and Associate Professor at the University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts, Interactive Media and Games Division.
Parallely, Apple has launched their developer site which teaches newcomers on how to navigate the app business using guides, videos and case studies. Apple is revamping its App Store with things for the betterment of developers.
So be updated with the festival of Indie games and be a part of it.
