Independent Games Summit

The Independent Games Festival China (IGF China) serves to promote the development of independent games, showcase the best-of-breed products and foster collaboration among the Chinese game development community. During these tough economic times, the Independent Games Summit will facilitate the sharing of best practices and the improvement of business models. Additionally, this summit strives to create business opportunities in order to help original Chinese games flourish not only in design and technology, but also in content and more.

The Independent Games Summit will be held in conjunction with the 3rd Annual Independent Games Festival China taking place at GDC China 2011. Visit www.igf.com for more information of Independent Game Festival.

IGF China 2011 Awards Ceremony

When: Saturday, November 12, 19:00-20:00
Where: 2F, Western Hall No.2, Shanghai Exhibition Center

Independent Games Summit Schedule

	Sunday, November 13
	Time	Session
	9:15-10:15	Maximizing Risk: The Building of Bastion Amir Rao (Studio Director \| Supergiant Games)
	10:20-11:20	Commercial and Creative Opportunities for Small Companies, Small Teams and Solo Developers Adam Saltsman (Co-founder \| Semi Secret Software)
	11:25-12:25	Products Development Strategy of Indie Studios Dongxu He (Co-founder \| Gamegou)
	12:25-12:45	LUNCH
	12:45-13:45	The Evolving Role of a Publisher in the Mobile Games Market (Sponsored by Chillingo) Levi Buchanan (Senior Manager of Developer Relations \| Chillingo)
	13:45-14:45	Brewing your Own Game Engine - the Pros and Cons of Using Open Source Software to Rapidly Develop Cross-platform Indie Games and Tools Ye Feng (Co-founder & CTO \| Coconut Island Studio)
	14:50-15:50	Video Games as a Medium for Entertainment & Artistic Expression Jenova Chen (Co-founder & Creative Director \| thatgamecompany)
	15:50-16:10	COFFEE BREAK
	16:10-17:10	From Eden to 4am: My journey from Games to Interactive Art and Sound Baiyon (Tomohisa Kuramitsu) (Multimedia Artist)
	17:15-18:15	Perhaps a Time of Miracles was at Hand: The Business & Development of #Sworcery Nathan Vella (Co-founder & President \| Capybara Games (Capy))

Independent Games Summit Sessions

The Evolving Role of a Publisher in the Mobile Games Market

Levi Buchanan
Senior Manager of Developer Relations | Chillingo

Is the traditional publishing model dead when it comes to mobile games? While many people would say yes, Chillingo is one of the few publishers to have found great success on the App Store and other digital marketplaces. With titles such as Angry Birds and Cut the Rope under its belt, as well as numerous other number-one hits, the publisher has found a system that's been proven to work time and time again. This presentation will cover a wide range of topics including what a publisher can offer, and what it means to be independent in this day and age.

Commercial and Creative Opportunities for Small Companies, Small Teams and Solo Developers

Adam Saltsman
Co-Founder | Semi Secret Software

Independent game maker Adam 'Atomic' Saltsman surveys both the commercial and creative opportunities for small teams and solo developers. Adam will help explain the commercial realities of different platforms at the moment, before exploring underserved possibility spaces for games that are a good fit for small creative collaborations.

From Eden to 4am: My journey from Games to Interactive Art and Sound

Baiyon
Multimedia Artist

Since the release of PixelJunk™ Eden in 2008, independent artist Baiyon has been working together with studio Q-Games towards a new kind of audio visual composer. The soon scheduled for release PixelJunk™ 4am is something truly experimental and unlike anything before it. However treading new territory has forced Baiyon to employ some unconventional methods while directing 4am, in order to achieve its truly unique content. So how did all the parts in 4am come together? The visuals are directed by sound, which is in turn impacted by the player, but how are these all generated? Unique projects often require a unique approach to direction. Listen to Baiyon explain just how this amazing software was conceived and created using a performance video of 4am in action! Gain an insight into 4am's direction and how unique problems were overcome by working together with Q-Games.

Video Games as a Medium for Entertainment & Artistic Expression

Jenova Chen
Co-Founder & Creative Director | thatgamecompany

Video game is one of the most commercially successful form of entertainment among the emerging new media aka interactive media. While any media is potentially artistic. For a long period of time video games are treated more like a software or technology industry. Majority of video games have been treated as a product for profit. In this talk you will learn to see and analyze video games from the perspective of a maturing entertainment medium and an art form that is capable of delivering substantial experiences, feelings and messages. And hopefully this unique perspective could inspire you in creating more uinque games in the future.

Perhaps a Time of Miracles was at Hand: The Business & Development of #Sworcery

Nathan Vella
Co-Founder & President | Capybara Games (Capy)

Sometimes the best decisions are the ones that appear to be the worst on paper. From the beginning, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP was a woefully risky project that required new approaches to both business & development. This talk will outline and explain the choices made by the team that helped one of the App Store’s weirdest games become a critical and financial success. Specifically, the audience will learn how the team handled ‘truly collaborative’ development, the process of developing a PR ‘voice’ to promote the game, and how the team mitigated business risk by being as risky as possible.

Maximizing Risk: The Building of Bastion

Amir Rao
Studio Director | Supergiant Games

In 2009, Amir Rao and Gavin Simon quit their jobs at EA to found Supergiant Games in the living room of a house in San Jose, California. Twenty months later, with a team of seven, Supergiant Games released its debut action role-playing title, Bastion, to critical acclaim and commercial success. This session explores how Supergiant Games formed, grew and created an award-winning downloadable game without taking any funding. It discusses the prototyping process, the production methodology and the conclusions reached from taking the high-risk endeavor of starting your own studio with your own money. This session is intended for anyone who wants to start or alter their own studio to maximize their independence.

Brewing Your Own Game Engine - The Pros & Cons of Using Open Source Software to Rapidly Develop Cross-Platform Indie Games and Tools

Ye Feng
Co-founder & CTO | Coconut Island Studio

While developing real world games, developers need handy tools to support content creation and gameplay iteration after the initial prototype. In this talk, the audience will get an idea on how to choose between homebrew and middleware in a real world indie game project, and what has been achieved in the first four months. Powered by open source technologies, topics addressed will include: improved component based object model in the engine interface, dynamic language and serialization, content pipeline tools, easy code patching, user content creation and in-game editor. Also some common problems in development, such as performance and debug issues are discussed. Finally some tips will be given on using indie-friendly tools which can make your development life easier.

Product Development Strategy of Indie Studios

Dongxu He
Co-founder | Gamegou

Indie studios can no longer solely rely on "creative ideas" to survive the increasingly competitive gaming industry. Developing a good product requires a balanced mix of innovation, tenacity & good business sense. From the makers of the successful mobile games Watermelon! and Soccer Stealers, Gamegou's co-founder Dongxu He will offer valuable insights on efficient game development and share his strategy on how to succeed in the ever-changing mobile games industry.

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