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[benbradley]

Greetings! I'd like to start a thread about IndieCade. I've seen that there are a few other posts already started on IndieCade from former years, they don't really answer my questions too well.

Basically I'm thinking of entering this year. Does anyone have any advice or experiences to share? If you have entered before why do you think you did or didn't get a place? What state was your demo, was it polished? If you have attended one what do you make of it?

Indiecade Europe is an hour from me on the train so if I got a place I'd easily be able to visit from my home every day, so it seems like madness not to enter. My game is 3 months of 15 developed and only starting to resemble the game I am aiming to release. I will have a lot of work to do to enter by the 1st of June, but hopefully having a milestone to aim for will make me work harder.

[Destral]

I too am thinking of entering this year, and would be interested in the feedback of people who have entered previous Indiecades. Anyone?

[dsilvers]

Hiya Kumar!

So last year I submitted The Longest Night to Indiecade and my thoughts are this:

Pros:
- Cheap. I don't know what the submission cost is this year but last year I think it was $35. Very doable and good for sending in multiple games if you've got 'em.
- Efficient. I had no problems uploading the game to their server, though I hear a lot of people did.

Cons:
- No feedback. You are either in or you are out, without explanation. This can especially hurt if your game isn't polished and you want to know what you can improve.
- Never listed unless you make it. Unlike IGF, who posts up everybody who submits, whether they win or not, IndieCade only lists their finalists/winners. In my opinion, this is the worst part. IGF lets everyone see what everyone submitted. IndieCade has a very closed-door feel.
- Weird e-mails. A lot of "you must do this" and "if you don't do this you will hear from us" kind of stuff. Not for the feint of heart.

Ben, to answer your question, the game was done and polished strictly for IndieCade. All bugs out, awesome lo-rez graphics, and artsy style gameplay. Unfortunately it just didn't make it and, as I mentioned above, no explanation why. IGF cleared up that confusion, and the general consensus was that it was not anyone's cup of tea. So basically, these competitions set me back $130 with nothing to show for it besides better programming ability. I guess that counts for something, though.

[RyanA]

Pros:
- Cheap. I don't know what the submission cost is this year but last year I think it was $35. Very doable and good for sending in multiple games if you've got 'em.
- Efficient. I had no problems uploading the game to their server, though I hear a lot of people did.

I just submitted to IndieCade 2010 and these comments are right on. It's $35 if submitted before May 1, $45 if submitted in May. Submitting and paying went smoothly.

[Sairon]

We submit our game in the last minute pretty much. Wouldn't it have been for the extended deadline we would've missed it even existed.

[Rostiger]

Cons:
- No feedback. You are either in or you are out, without explanation. This can especially hurt if your game isn't polished and you want to know what you can improve.

This is too bad really. The judging forms have many different categories that are explained in every detail. You have to give 0-10 points for each category to get the overall score.
All this data could be valuable information for the developers that get denied. On the other hand without further explanations the numbers might still be interpreted wrong.
My guess is they decided against it because of the amount of games submitted and the additional work going along with giving feedback to every developer. Anyway, it would still be good for developers to get some feedback of why they were rejected.

[benbradley]

I got a mail today saying I didn't get in. I don't feel surprised as the version I submitted was like 20% done when I sent it so it's probably for the best, as I might re-enter next year.

Anyway on the not-getting-feedback issue. The email I got says:

This year we have implemented a new comments system, we will be following up with all comments left by judges for the games shortly. Not every judge was able to leave a comment on every game they evaluated, so if your game does not receive a comment, we apologize.

Doesn't fit with Clemens experience but seems like good news.

[EMcNeill]

I got the same email.   

They also specifically said at the start that "Rejection notices will be accompanied with feedback from the jurors." So I'm hoping hard to actually get that feedback.

[M]

Did anyone go to IndieCade?

[JamesPopStar]

I was there; had a really kick-ass time meeting everybody and playing some games. It was most interesting to me that IndieCade is taking on the definition of what constitutes "indie games" equally in the sense of electronic entertainment, to real world games... and even things that land somewhere in between.

B.U.T.T.O.N. really struck a chord with me. I'd love to make a homemade controller specifically for playing that game.

[Lau]

I was there, had a blast.

hey, thanks for playing B.U.T.T.O.N. I'll try to upload some pictures of our custom controller.

/Lau

[Sairon]

Did anyone get any feedback? We mailed asking for some a good while back without success. In fact I'm doubting most of them even played our game, as from what we could see there was only 1 guy ( their web developer ) who had followed the installation instructions. He was the only one who had achieved a score on the first level which is 10 seconds long and almost impossible to fail on.

[speeder]

My teacher got her game nominated (Cargo Delivery), and that is it...

No feedback, no interest besides a post in DIY gamer, no win, nothing...

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Did anyone get any feedback? We mailed asking for some a good while back without success. In fact I'm doubting most of them even played our game, as from what we could see there was only 1 guy ( their web developer ) who had followed the installation instructions. He was the only one who had achieved a score on the first level which is 10 seconds long and almost impossible to fail on.

this isn't much different from the IGF though; i remember that thread where farbs tracked the plays of his IGF build of his game (captain forever or captain whatever) and found out something like: only one judge played the game, and only for five minutes. similarly, a few months ago i got an email from an IGF judge who said they couldn't open the zip with my game inside it (even though i had tested it); i uploaded a new version and told them to respond to me if this one didn't work, but never got a reply (i hope they actually did play the game and not just disqualified it because they couldn't get the zip to open).

anyway, now that indiecade has started offering feedback i may submit to it; one the main reason to submit to game contests is the feedback, and it's strange that they didn't used to give feedback. is the deadline still may 1?

edit: deadline seems to be may 31; i also see that the price has gone up to $45, not $35

[bento_smile]

this isn't much different from the IGF though; i remember that thread where farbs tracked the plays of his IGF build of his game (captain forever or captain whatever) and found out something like: only one judge played the game, and only for five minutes. similarly, a few months ago i got an email from an IGF judge who said they couldn't open the zip with my game inside it (even though i had tested it); i uploaded a new version and told them to respond to me if this one didn't work, but never got a reply (i hope they actually did play the game and not just disqualified it because they couldn't get the zip to open).

Oh what  that sucks. Stuff like that makes me think these paid competitions are a con. (Have entered other non-games compos in the past; lost, won and come close, but never had to pay!)

I am just being grumpy today.

[Sairon]

Yeah it's a bit of a bummer, especially as I think indiecade was rather expensive. Doubly so if our suspicions are correct that they don't even evaluate a good chunk of the games.

[benbradley]

I had an exchange of emails with Indiecade because someone couldn't get my game to run on their machine. In the end it was reassigned to another judge so it certainly seems like there was an effort being made to play my game.

I didn't get any feedback from IGF or Indiecade so far. When you're paying to enter and there's a promise of feedback, it seems wrong to me that it isn't fulfilled. Presumably the judges don't get paid (anyone know?) so that might make it hard to enforce them to give feedback.

In terms of playing the games, I think there may be some lazy judging but I can't imagine it's a case that nobody plays your game at all. I doubt people (often indies) sign up to judge just to waste other people's time. Maybe they have the best intentions but leave it to the last minute and get busy, but all your judges ignoring their responsibilities I find unlikely.