Popular franchise games like Pokemon GO are great, but let us not forget the humble indie game. Indie games and the developers that create them are some of the best, most wildly imaginative offerings that gamers will ever come across, and they deserve to be celebrated, cultivated, and highlighted just as much as the big name titles. There are already outlets available for developers to showcase their work, like the indie corner you can now find on the Play Store, but it never hurts to have more opportunities for indie game developers to put their name out there and give their games a chance to be seen, heard, and experienced. To that end, Google has put together the Google Play Indie Games Festival.
Just like it sounds, the Indie Games Festival will be a place where developers can go and show off their latest and greatest indie games that are either already on Google Play or on their way to being finished and published for the world to enjoy. The festival takes place on September 24th, 2016, and it will be hosted in San Francisco and held at the Terra Gallery located at 511 Harrison St. While the festival doesn’t happen for more than a couple of months, Google is making it known that developers have the opportunity to submit their game to be showcased as of today, however, developers will only have until August 14th to submit their games so they’ll want to put them in as soon as they possibly can.
Aside from having their game showcased which will surely gain them some much needed recognition and spotlight, indie game developers will also have the opportunity to win some pretty cool prizes, which include things like free tickets to Google I/O 2017, as well as Tango devices, and support from a Google ad campaign for their game to help it receive even more time in the spotlight. If developers are interested in submitting their game for the festival, there are a few requirements of note. First, Google is only accepting submissions from developers based in the U.S. and Canada, and the full time staff of the development team must be 15 people or less. Google also notes that games will either need to have been published on or after January 1st of this year, or be published by December 31st at the end of the year to be considered eligible. Announcements for the indie games which will be showcased at the festival are to be held at the end of next month.