Google is putting its considerable weight behind the indie gaming scene, hosting a special Google Play Indie Games Festival in San Francisco in fall. “It’s an vast platform that we have, and along with that is an opportunity to better support the indie games community”.
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Google is hoping to lure more indie game developers to its platforms with an upcoming festival in San Francisco.
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.
Competing as a game developer on the Google Play Store can be a tough proposition, especially as we see more and more professional game developers leave their big studios to start or join studios dedicated to mobile games. Google even puts the Google Play logo on the announcement banner for the Indie Games Festival.
One thing most large app stores suffer from is discoverability, or to be more specific, the lack of discoverability for indie developers.
Developers who want to enter their games for consideration should do so by August 14th, after which submissions will be closed.
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Games must have been released in 2016 or be published by the end of the year. The company also isn’t just looking for mobile games – Google is encouraging developers to submit titles for both Tango and its Cardboard virtual reality platform. “We’re starting with North America”, Moledina says, “but we could [hold festivals] in other regions to focus on local developers who are more comfortable pitching in their own language and can highlight games that make sense for their countries”. Prizes include Tango devices, I/O 2017 tickets, ad support for their games on Google’s networks, and other goodies. Submissions are open right now and will be accepted up until August 14th.
