SLICE is Back: The Ultimate Preview for Year 2 (And Seattle Indies’ 10th Anniversary!)

Big news for the Pacific Northwest game dev community! SLICE is returning for its second annual conference, and the lineup is bigger, bolder, and more packed with industry wisdom than ever.

Even better? This year’s event marks a massive milestone: the 10th anniversary of Seattle Indies as a non-profit organization! For over a decade, Seattle Indies has fostered, supported, and elevated local game creators. True to that mission, SLICE 2026 is 100% community-run and organized by a completely volunteer staff. It’s an event built by developers, for developers, showcasing the absolute best of our region’s creative talent and industry leadership.

Whether you are looking to learn from industry legends, solve production bottlenecks, or find your next partner, here is your complete guide to what’s happening at SLICE 2026.

🎟️ Ticket Information & Accessibility

Tickets are available now and selling fast at seattleslice.org!

Seattle Indies is committed to keeping this event accessible to the entire community:

• Laid-off Developer Discount: A 50% discount is available for anyone impacted by layoffs in the last two years.
• Student Discount: Reduced-rate ticket options are available for current students.

☕ Early Morning Kickoff & Special Events

• Women in Games Breakfast (8:00 AM – 9:00 AM):
  An invite-only morning gathering generously sponsored by K&L Gates LLP, featuring dedicated roundtable discussions on authentic leadership, confidence, and career growth 
• Roundtable schedule: (all begin at 8:00am)
  • Communicating with Confidence | LEADER: Jen Nichol 
  • Lead with authenticity | LEADER: Carol Miu (exPeopleFun, exAppLovin, exScopely)
  • Power Without Permission: Leading, Creating, and Belonging as Women in Games | LEADER: Elaine Gómez (When Rivers Were Trails, Beyond Blue, Blink Land)
  • Your Voice, Your Value, Your Next Move | LEADER: Faith Price (DoubleDown Interactive, exBig Fish Games)
    
• Fuel for the Day:
  Enjoy coffee for all attendees throughout the event, generously sponsored by Phantom Friends.

🌟 Main Stage & Keynote Highlights

This year’s session track features 46 talks, panels, and micro-talks across four venue tracks: the Auditorium, Allen Room, Norcliffe Room, and Lecture Hall.

• Fireside Chat with the Creators of Among Us (9:30 AM | Auditorium)
  Seattle Indies VP Ty Taylor sits down with Innersloth’s Forest Willard and Marcus Bromander to trace the wild, honest journey of taking an indie project to global viral hit status.
• 28 Years of Sucker Punch (11:30 AM | Allen Room)
  Chris Zimmerman (Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yōtei, inFAMOUS) breaks down Sucker Punch’s core mantra: “Something Special, Nothing Stupid”, sharing audience models and design philosophies developed over nearly three decades.
• From 120 People to One: What Ambition Actually Costs (4:45 PM | Allen Room)
  Industry icon Chris Taylor (Total Annihilation, Dungeon Siege, Supreme Commander) delivers a candid look at 30 years of building massive AAA studios and games, and why he is taking a completely different, solo approach today.
• Steam Q&A + Platform Update (11:30 AM | Auditorium)
  Get direct, direct-from-the-source insights as Valve’s Erik Peterson, Ria Hu, and Tom Giardino host an open Q&A and share essential platform updates.

🛠️ Code, Engine, & Production Deep Dives

• Acclimating to Dwarf Fortress‘s Codebase (1:45 PM | Norcliffe Room)
  Dwarf Fortress programmer Ana “Putnam” gives an insider look into stepping into an unusually old, iconic codebase after years of solo development.
• Graphical Optimizations in Unity 6 (10:30 AM | Allen Room)
  Esteban E. Maldonado Cabán (Unity, ex-Amazon, ex-Microsoft) walks through performance-boosting rendering tools and optimization techniques to keep large scenes running at high frame rates.
• Democratizing Unreal Environments with Gaussian Splatting (5:07 PM | Norcliffe Room)
  Gyanendra Vyas demonstrates how to turn Unreal Engine renders into high-quality 3D Gaussian Splats without expensive hardware or scanning setups.

🛡️ Studio Survival, Career Resilience, & Business Truths

• Studio Legal Triage (2:45 PM | Allen Room)
  KUSK Law’s James Barker walks through emergency legal prep for indies: safe content pipelines, IP clearance, and deal hygiene.
• You Got Laid Off, Now What? (4:45 PM | Lecture Hall)
  Lizzie Mintus gathers career coaches, recruiters, and developers who recently landed roles to share actionable, realistic strategies for navigating today’s job market.
• Myths and Realities of Cannibalization (2:45 PM | Norcliffe Room)
  Tom Kaczmarczyk (IndieBI, ex-SUPERHOT) uses data to evaluate whether Game Pass deals, subscription services, or steep discounts actually hurt Steam sales.
• Managing Burnout for Game Devs (2:56 PM | Norcliffe Room)
  Dr. Elizabeth Kilmer (Take This) delivers a rapid-fire micro-talk on individual strategies to stay resilient and build a sustainable dev career.

💬 Interactive Roundtables & Special Activations

Beyond the main presentation rooms, SLICE 2026 is hosting small-group roundtables, hands-on clinics, and pitch competitions designed for direct peer-to-peer engagement:

• Interactive Roundtables: (Note: Each roundtable will be hosted twice to give more people an oppotunity to attend throughout the day)
  • Funding Options for Indie Developers with Ed Fries (Xbox, 1Up Ventures).
  • Ask Tencent Anything with John Polson (Tencent Games, ex-Humble).
  • Before You Build: Early Decisions That Set Games Up for Success with Geoffrey Zatkin (EverQuest, Extra Credits).
  • From Solo Dev to Studio: Surviving the Transition with Sai Narayan Natarajan (Gilgamesh Drift).

• The Big Indie Pitch (Hosted by Pocket Gamer Connects):
  Indie developers showcase their games in rapid-fire pitches to a panel of expert journalists, publishers, and investors for real-time feedback and editorial coverage.
  
• Creativity Clinic & Speed Networking:
  Drop-in spaces to debug design roadblocks, get feedback on pitch decks, and connect fast-paced with potential partners, publishers, and fellow developers.

⚡ The Norcliffe Room Micro-Talk Marathon

For fast, high-density knowledge, the Norcliffe Room will host continuous 11-minute micro-talks throughout the afternoon. Don’t miss quick hits on Accessibility First (3:07 PM), Pitching in Asia Without Losing Face (6:07 PM), and Updating Player Experience with Haptics Design (6:18 PM).

🙏 Thank You to Our Sponsors

SLICE 2026 is made possible through the incredible support of our community partners and sponsors. A huge thank you to:

• Xsolla
• Unity
• Epic Games
• WA State Dept of Commerce
• AIE – Academy of Interactive Entertainment
• DigiPen Institute of Technology
• Nameless Deep Motion Capture
• Miraisens
• 11 Bit Studios
• Premack Rogers Downs P.C.
• Seattle Composers Alliance
• Discord

Media Partners:

• Pocket Gamer
• GamesBeat
• Times of Games

Join Us in Celebrating 10 Years of Seattle Indies!

From its humble beginnings to a decade as a non-profit cornerstone for Northwest developers, Seattle Indies couldn’t be prouder to bring you Year 2 of SLICE. See the full lineup of content and speakers and grab your pass at seattleslice.org, come celebrate 10 years of community, and help shape the next decade of game development!