IndieCade: The International Festival of Independent Games today announced it will highlight a dozen pioneering digital games from the 2010 call for submissions. The Festival’s annual preliminary showcase will take place at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the "world’s premiere trade show for computer and video games," June 15-17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

With IndieCade’s third annual independent game festival scheduled for October 8-10 in neighboring Culver City, a diverse collection of novel games have captured the attention of jurors engaged in the rigorous IndieCade selection process. Only a selection of these independent E3 titles may appear at the IndieCade Festival, although each is actively shaping the future of digital gaming.

The E3 2010 Highlights will include past winners — the Copenhagen Game Collective and Canadian game-making wunderkind Erin "The Ivy" Robinson. The independent game community continues to blossom and this year’s E3 Showcase will feature daring new voices, such as a counter-conventional game by Alexander Bruce of Australia; a "neo-noir" exploration by UCLA’s Joshua Nuernberger; a spatially divisive game by New Yorker Mark ten Bosch; a digital sand castle by a husband and wife team from Korea Arcshock; an intentionally bewildering entry by UK’s GLPeas; a "rogue-like" work by Canadian Jeff Lait; outstanding collaborative projects by students from Georgia Tech and USC and a project by Farbs, an Australian, occupying the coveted space directly between Myst and Wikipedia.

IndieCade’s showcase offers E3 attendees a look into the future of independent gaming. "Where goes the independents, the industry eventually follows," says Sam Roberts, Festival Director, noting such independent harbingers as the Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom and Machinarium, both IndieCade awardees from 2008.

At the E3 showcase, IndieCade will highlight the creativity and breadth of vision that independent game designers incorporate into their work. IndieCade Festival Chair Celia Pearce states, "Each year we’re seeing more complex, innovative and even more accessible games coming from gamemakers working from garages, basements and universities." Previous E3 Showcase selections have helped young gamemakers land development and distribution deals with Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and others. "Everyone is turning to the independent creators willing to take risks exploring new forms of play, rapidly pushing the industry forward from the edges."

The E3 IndieCade Showcase traditionally highlights games that speak to the E3 audience from among the hundreds of entries submitted by independent gamemakers. IndieCade CEO Stephanie Barish commented, "The breadth of gameplay experiences are expanding almost as fast as the scene in general. We don’t want to lose track of the real value of the independent impulse. Without the corporate focus on the bottom line, independent creators can explore expression, emotion, artistry and the human condition. Ironically it’s only the indies who can really afford to undermine the dominant conventions of videogames, creating new forms from the ruins of old. This is what fans will see at IndieCade in October, but at E3 the crowd will have a sneak peek of what’s to come."

IndieCade supports independent game development and organizes a series of international festivals and showcase exhibitions for the future of independent games. It encourages, publicizes, and cultivates innovation and artistry in interactive media, helping to create a public perception of games as rich, diverse, artistic, and culturally significant. IndieCade’s events and related production and publication programs are designed to bring visibility to and facilitate the production of new works within the emerging independent game movement. Like the independent developer community itself, IndieCade’s focus is global; it includes producers in Asia, Europe, Australia, and wherever independent games are made and played. IndieCade was formed by Creative Media Collaborative, an alliance of industry producers and leaders founded in 2005. Advisors to IndieCade include Dave Perry, Will Wright, Eric Zimmerman, Neil Young, Tracy Fullerton, and Keita Takahashi, among many other storied industry veterans and rebels.

IndieCade’s submissions for 2010 are open through June 20. Visit indiecade.com for more details.

About The Author

Jim Murray is a Blast staff writer

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