A festival of weird games and stuff.

If you’re reading this then by now, whether you know it or not, you’ve played an independently developed video game. They can be anything from small-budget, part time projects to “big indies” which are a half-way point between the former and AAA.

Each year Indiecade brings together people from all walks of life to play games that range from standard fare to blatantly bizarre. For 4 days Culver City is turned into a mecca for the pursuit of play. Most of the event takes place in the Culver City Firehouse and an adjacent parking lot with some panels taking place in some other buildings close by. These panels topics range from sexism in the game industry to helping developers create better games.  You can’t help but be enveloped by the enthusiasm that’s permeating every part of the festival. It’s not just video games represented here. Board games take up just as much of the spotlight, with 3 getting nominations this year. There are also physical games that are as fun to play as they are bizarre to watch.

 This Indiecade had more repeat participants than previous years, but many of the returning games were better builds or newer content. Shovel Knight had a sick presentation with Plague of Shadows, showing off the new player character, Plague Knight. Classroom Aquatic, a VR game about cheating off tests in a classroom filled with dolphins, came back with a complete visual overhaul and hopes for releasing on multiple VR platforms. Double Fine debuted Day of the Tentacle Remastered, which has an updated interface and re-edited audio. Other games like the Museum of Simulation Technology and Butt Sniffin Pugs returned with new demos. It was nice to see how past games had developed.

But Indiecade wasn’t just a museum of older projects this year. Several new, quirky projects caught my eye. Typoman was a literal play on words, with gameplay that combined platforming challenges with typographical tricks. I saw a few clever board games, including Consentacle, a cooperative board game about having sex with a tentacle monster, and Gruff, which weaponized mutated goats. My personal favorite game of the show was Tribal and Error, a language game where you are a robot tape recorder trying to help cavemen survive the ice age.

While these games were around to play for a majority of the festival, some of Indiecade’s games were only available during Night games, a one-night-only outdoor exhibition with separate admission. This year, the park just a crosswalk away from the festival was turned into a neon-lit playground filled with giant projector screens. In the past, some of the festival’s most unusual games have been curated for Night Games, and this year was no exception. Attendees could surgically operate on a bug in Gregor, or become punk rock magical girls in Punk Prism Power. Pixel Prison Blues stole by far the most attention by supporting up to 30 players at once. Year after year, it’s the unusual and outlandish ideas that shine at Indiecade.

When some people think of indie games, they think of a lone developer tapping away at a keyboard in their basement to make something small. But as development tools become more accessible to everyone and more game creators leave AAA to found independent studios, the term has taken on a variety of new meanings. Indiecade continues to grow, too, and will likely remain an important festival for smaller developers and anyone with a love of video games.

Kevin Slackie likes playing too many games and riding motorcycles though not at the same time.