Meag Sargent
Last year’s event at Robinia was such a hit, it ran two hours over.
When Justin Terry was putting together last year’s debut Indie Arcade event, an impromptu showcase of independently developed videogames held at Robinia Courtyard on East Washington Avenue, he learned a proverbial Very Important Lesson.
“People are interested,” says Terry, a developer with Madison’s Human Head Studios. “There was a need, a want, a desire for it.” The free event was packed with game developers and curious consumers, and it went on for two hours longer than expected. The developers bring all the equipment. Guests just need to show up and play.
Last year’s event was planned and staged in less than a month. With significantly more planning time Terry’s been able to be much more deliberate with Indie Arcade II, set for Feb. 15, again at Robinia Courtyard. Terry collected a panel of judges to help him winnow the 70 (!) indie-game submissions down to 11, representing everything from multiplayer battle arenas to throwback titles to a bizarro game with a 100-button controller. The developers need to be in attendance to participate; some are from right here in Madison and others are coming from as far away as Kentucky.
While last year’s event was focused inward — building community among local developers and awareness among locals interested in games — this year is a little different.
“The focus switched from an awareness that game development has happened here to showing people outside Madison that it’s happening here,” says Terry. “It’s selling Madison on a national level.”
Syrenne McNulty, the Madison-based producer of Manifold Garden, a game that lets you break the laws of gravity to explore a trippy, M.C. Escher-like world, agrees with this year’s vox populi approach. “Reaching an audience beyond developers not only helps raise awareness of the games from a commercial standpoint, it reinforces to the Midwest community that you don’t need to be on a coast or at a large company to be part of a game development community,” she says.
Terry’s excited about this year’s lineup, including titles like Manifold Garden and Moon Fields, a sword-and sorcery-themed brawler that also appeared at last year’s Arcade event.
Those games are still looking to build an audience. Some of last year’s showcase games have already found one. Quiplash 2, a game developed by Chicago-based Jackbox Games, is now a regular feature on The Jimmy Fallon Show. And attendees enjoyed it when Madison-based Flippfly Studios let players control their popular game Race The Sun with a balance board.
Terry’s hoping Indie Arcade follows a similar trajectory to BitBash, the popular Chicago-based alternative games festival. BitBash augments a single major event with smaller, themed popup arcade events throughout the year. Terry would love to do the same. It would give him a venue to showcase, for example, all the multiplayer battle game submissions he had to turn away from Indie Arcade II. And hey, Robinia Courtyard’s already on board.
“If the logistics are arranged, there’s no reason not to keep doing this,” says Terry, who suggests a $10 donation to offset costs (excess funds will be donated to a local STEM charity). “There’s always the potential for more of these events. And many of the people who come don’t want to worry about game development. They just want to see cool stuff.”
