November 2024 Update
Hello Indies!
Hope you had a good spooktober đť and had your fill of horror and witchy games! The year is slowly coming to an end, but we still have some events coming up, so read on!
Seattle EdTech Meetup, Seattle Indies, Pacific Science Center, Perfect Day Games, and sponsor foundry10 are partnering to host the 4th annual Games and Education Industry Collider On Saturday, November 16, 2024. An event designed to bring educators and game industry professionals from all around the greater Seattle area together for a night of networking, knowledge sharing, and of course, games!
YOU MUST GET A TICKET ON EVENTBRITE TO ATTEND: https://indies.eventbrite.comÂ
Seattle Indies is excited to bring you our ninth annual Holiday Party! Join us for a special night of festive drinks and merry-making with your fellow indie devs to celebrate a successful 2024, and kick off 2025!
Come help Seattle Indies raise money to support our ever growing list of community events in the upcoming year.
This is taking place at GameWorks in downtown Seattle, where we have reserved the entire large venue filled with videogame machines, all of which will be unlocked for this event.
Check out the Event Page for more info (and get a ticket before attending!)
If you want to get a list of all upcoming game event shows and get ready early, The Indie House has published this fantastic list of upcoming festival thatâs exactly that. Well worth a bookmark!
Star Victoria Power (aka Slide20XX) is a lifelong composer who writes colorful music for colorful games! They’ve been working professionally for about a decade and their work includes a track in Bloodstainedâs new DLC: Dominiqueâs Curse, the soundtrack for Calico (a game about magical girls running a cat cafe), the anti-racist PSAs put out by Steven Universe, and electro-swing & jazz-hop for the visual novel Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain !
What inspired you to become an indie developer?
When I was a kid, I spent a lot of my time listening to video game music midi files and reading webcomics made out of video game graphics. Specifically, I listened to a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog midis and read a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog sprite comics. It wasnât long before I got curious enough to try to make my own (Sonic) sprite comics, which led to me beginning to view the computer as a creative tool and eventually thinking to myself, âWell, I know how to make sprite comics. I wonder if I could make midis. I wonder if I could make.. video game.. midis⌠I want to make music for video games.â
I played piano and viola at a public fine arts school I attended and started teaching myself to write classical and electronic music. I also spent a fair amount of time making video games with a friend of mine, who I later worked with professionally, and learning about indie games specifically through places like TIGSource and following developers I liked on the brand new website, Twitter.comÂ
What is one important lesson you have learned in your time as an indie developer?
Itâs a marathon, not a sprint. I think it can be easy to look around at the state of things, or at a career that isnât progressing at the rate that you might like it to, and come to the conclusion that whatever dreams or goals you have are impossible to achieve. I grew up in poverty in an unremarkable city in Georgia, so by my estimation, Iâve already done the impossible by getting as far as I have. I didnât get here by thinking that I couldnât do it, so thatâs the lesson I have to share. As cliche as it sounds, believe in yourself and never give up and youâll probably get further than youâve ever imagined.
What is the one piece of advice you would share today with your younger self before you started your career as an indie developer?
Iâd probably say to never be afraid to ask for help. Iâve had to figure out a lot of things on my own, so I think thatâs led to me to self-reliance before anything else. While there are plenty of benefits to that approach to life, I think I might have had an easier time of things overall had I sought advice and guidance at more of the critical points along my path.
How has the game developer community had an impact on your career?
I think itâs safe to say that I wouldnât have a career at all if not for the support of the various communities that Iâve been fortunate enough to become a part of. Iâve made lifelong friends, worked with some remarkable people, and made memories that will last me a lifetime. (and Iâm not done yet!)Â
What is something interesting and unexpected that people would be surprised to learn about you?
My favorite ways to enjoy music are quietly in reverence at a concert hall (classical), on a quality pair of headphones (any genre), or as part of an incredibly good DJ set at a nightclub, surrounded by a crowd of people who are dancing and just as enthusiastic as I am (hip-hop, pop).
How can people follow you and your work?
Find me on Instagram and Twitter at @Slide20XX or at my website, http://slide20xx.com
Hereâs our Meetup Page with all future upcoming events.Â
The Eastside Meet & Drink is happening at Pint & Pie Public House on Nov. 5, at 6:30pm! Keep in mind it happens on the first Tuesday of every month. It’s time to get together and swap stories. Put down your keyboards and brave the outdoors. Let’s meet for a drink, a bite to eat, and some good conversation!Â
This monthâs Show and Tell is on Nov 14 at 5:30pm at Niantic offices at One Bellevue Center – Chinook Room
411 108th Ave NE ¡ Bellevue, WA. Bring your laptop and show off what you’re working on at the Seattle Indies Demo Night. Use this event to get feedback on your game and to network with other game devs. Pizza will be provided. Please bring everything you will need to demo and record feedback for your game.
Northside Social is taking place Nov 14, 6pm at Watershed Pub & Kitchen on 10104 3rd Ave NE (note the new address!!) It’s time to get together and swap stories. Put down your keyboards and brave the outdoors. Let’s meet for a coffee/tea, a bite to eat, and some good conversation!
Seattle Indies Board Game Meetup is happening on Nov 17, 3pm at at Phoenix Comics and Games. Come play board games with Indie Game Developers!
Southside Social is happening on Monday Nov 18, from 5-9:30pm at Wizard’s Keep Games in Kent, WA. It’s time to get together and swap stories. Put down your keyboards and brave the outdoors. Let’s meet for a coffee/tea, a bite to eat, and some good conversation! This meetup will alternate between Kent and Burien for the next few months at least so we can find out which location works best for people.
Seattle Indies Social is happening on Nov 19 at 7pm at Stoup (formerly Optimism) in Capitol Hill. Join us for some well-deserved mingling, drinks, and socialization! Make some new friends, catch up with old ones, and find out what the community’s up to.
The Game Club is happening on Nov 20 at 7pm right on our Discord. What a book club is to a discussion of literature, this event is to a discussion of game design. Every month, we agree to play a game, then meet to discuss and analyze its design and presentation.Â
Seattle Indies Speaker Series is happening on Nov 22 at 6pm at M5 Creative. Join us for an evening of talks and discussion featuring a retrospective from Paul Kankiewicz on his recently released Grapplers: Relic Rivals which was showcased at SIX 2024, then weâll have a Q&A session with Gavin Eisenbeisz of Two Star Games, maker of the indie hit Choo Choo Charles. The talks will be streamed live on our Twitch and YouTube channels. Pizza and NA drinks will be provided for in-person attendees.
The Writerâs Room is taking place on Nov 28, 6:30pm in our discord. Bring your scripts, flowcharts, character bibles or whatever you’re working on to share and get feedback on your storytelling.Â
Feedback Circle is off this month and next happening on Dec 11 on our Discord. It’s time to stop coding, animating, making art or audio or adding that amazing new feature you thought of while you were falling asleep last night and come to Feedback Circle to get some real responses to what you have been working on from game creators in our community like yourself.
Indie Co-working Support Group  in-person will take place every Saturday, from 1:00 PM to 6:30 PM PST, at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment. Seattle Center wifi will be available for use. Please bring everything you need to be productive. We will be meeting every Saturday of the month at AIE going forward. We have also added a Co-working voice channel in Discord for people to use any time they want a quiet space to work alongside their peers.
joe just launched Kickstarter for Battle Train, an explosive Deck and Track Builder from the makers of Tower of Guns and Mothergunship:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/terribleposture/battle-train
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Chariot Rider is fairly new to the Seattle area, but develop small titles and doom wads. Their biggest project is the Doom Art Museum, a museum created in Doom. It’s entirely nonviolent, and is just about experiencing art. Check it out! https://chariot-rider.itch.io/the-doom-galleryÂ
Rawb (Tennis Academy) shared a Gameplay teaser for their game that was in The Indies Showcase. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/fYbiaw3ldPcÂ
Alice Bottino shared the demo for HYPERBEAT: https://fxtwitter.com/bottinogames/status/1843684145924583483Â
Mizuto shared that they released Travellers Hymn! It is a free, top-down, grid-based, open-world adventure game, so consider checking it out if you’re into that: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3249180/Travellers_Hymn/Â
Danielle Osterman launched crowdfund for MONSTER GUTS 2e! Check it out: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/wheels-within-wheels-publishing/monster-guts-second-editionÂ
Oliver Beebe launched demo for their atmospheric precision platformer UnDuster! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2753920/UnDuster/Â
newobject (Brian Long) announced their game Ballionaire and its publishing deal with Raw Fury, and also dropped the demo https://x.com/RawFury/status/1845878047523684759
Sara (she/her) has a demo for Rogue Labyrinth. They made a lot of updates since premiering at the Seattle Indies Expo in 2023. Please check it out and wishlist if you’re interested đÂ
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2623670/Rogue_Labyrinth_Demo/Â
Mike Monroe participated in an indie game horror event with an atmospheric typing horror game DEAD LETTER DEPT.
https://x.com/BeliefEngine/status/1843715448296399258Â
Emma Larkins shared that Epilogue (a cooperative storytelling word/card game) just went live on Kickstarter! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/violetdaisygames/epilogue-finish-your-storyÂ
Jimmy shared the release of Cricket: Jae’s Really Peculiar Game – their little hand animated turn based RPG has! Your support would be most welcome and appreciated! đ
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1381520/Cricket_Jaes_Really_Peculiar_Game/Â
Piero R. shared âNo Happy Daysâ a short solo indie-dev rpg! Please check it out!đ¸đ¸đ¸
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3177870/No_Happy_Days/Â
Brad Kraelingđ§ shared that Which Wizard is officially in Early Access!!! :DDDDDDDÂ
It’s cool to see what a jam game can turn into!
https://x.com/WhichWizardGame/status/1848624590219579530Â
Spencer R (Serf of Cinder) released a demo for their roguelite metroidvania about mastering the four elements and killing demons, Archetype and the Four Winds of Hell.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3020370/Archetype_and_the_Four_Winds_of_Hell/
Harassment Policy, AAPI, Black Lives Matter, and Resources
Seattle Indies stands with the AAPI community. We are here for our members who have been affected by the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes both locally and nationally. For further resources to educate yourself on the issue and how to take action, here is a useful link:Â https://anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co/
Seattle Indies believes the stories of the victims of sexual harassment and assault in the games industry that have been shared. We strongly condemn the actions by people in power preying on the dreams of vulnerable people trying to make their way in the industry and strive to build an inclusive community that welcomes all minorities to provide a safe environment and a better vision for the game industry.
While our code of conduct states a zero-tolerance policy for harassment of any kind we are especially sensitive to the daily challenges faced by womxn due to the ingrained sexism that has existed in the structure of the games industry for far too long. We are actively working to build a better community of game developers and we all need to do better.
Additionally, Board Member August Belhumeur has offered to be a personal resource for anyone who needs help, someone to talk to or some guidance on next steps if you have experienced harassment in the industry either at our events or elsewhere. She can be reached at august@seattleindies.org.
Our friends at Take This Org have compiled valuable resources for anyone in immediate need of professional help for their situation.
Lastly, Seattle Indies and Diversity Collective+ support Black Lives Matter. Here are some resources compiled by Diversity Collective+ for how you can offer support, whether this is financial, contributing to petitions, preparing for protests, or getting informed. If you have additional resources, comment below and we will add them.
As always, keep an eye on our Discord for any last-minute news and discussion, and let us know about any projects youâre working on that youâd like shared on our Steam or Itch collections or tweeted about from @SeattleIndies!
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