UK indie game comps…anyone…anyone…06.08.09
…bueller?
This week saw another fresh set of indie game challenges cast upon a crowd of eager developers by the Experimental Gameplay Project and 2-Bee Games . And of course these two are not the only US based indie game projects which have popped up on my radar in the past year…
artxgame Attract Mode and Giant Robots collaboration that teams up artists & developers. Current projects include Jottobots a collaboration between J.Otto Seibold and Kyle Pulver.
Gamma – Kokoromi’s annual contest, which last year ran with the too cool for school theme of stereoscope 3D giving birth to games such as Papermoon
Experimental Gameplay Project – a group of indie games developers running monthly competitions around a given theme (this month ‘bare minimum’), with the stipulations that they must be the work of one person and worked on for no longer than 7 days.
B2 (2Bee) And finally 2-Bee games who are running their second indie game competition – perhaps the most incentivised of all the offerings with a cash prize and ‘publishing deal’ for the winning game (which last time was the visually and auditory stunning Auditorium)
So as I coo over these projects and their amazing output I’m always left wondering, why don’t I know of any thing similar based in the UK? Although there’s nothing preventing us Brits from taking part or engaging with most of those listed above, we still lack the fun and inspiring sense of community, collaboration and direct motivation that comes from events such as Kokoromi and artxgame.
And even with all the fluffy and loveliness of community aside these events have encouraged the creation of not only some amazing and well known games (some which have gone on to be fully developed), but they also form excellent PR platforms for the regions and developers involved.
So am I wrong, am I missing some amazing competition or event? The closest I can think of was the recent X48 challenge, or even at a stretch the pervasive games community brought together through Sandpit? Or am I correct that there is a definite gap for a big monthly/bi-monthly indie game challenge and event- nothing big, just something lo-fi, fun and inspiring.
Well either way I’m not one to sit here and complain and wait for something to pull itself together, no I think its about time something needs to be done… hmmm where to start…
… and adding Nottingham’s ‘Gambling Lambs’ (http://www.gamblinglambs.com) to the list of similar UK events which kicks off tonight.