IndieCade was an unbelievable experience. As first time presenters showing brand new IP, we had a lot of butterflies going into the show. It would have been crushing if our demo fell flat considering the long hours of preparation. We worked around the clock to tighten up our build, assemble enough presentable media for our booth, and buy/setup the equipment we needed to present. Thankfully, the show went great and Icon: Disc Jam got a wonderful reception!
Armed with my living room TV and a bunch of Disc Jam swag we headed to Culver to meet the team from Epic. The support we received from the Unreal Engine staff was critical to the success of our demo. They had us covered in every way which freed us up to demo the game and meet the IndieCade crowd.
All of our pre-show jitters melted away as demos began and people were immediately picking up Disc Jam’s core mechanics. The level of execution we saw from new players instantly reinforced our focus on accessibility. We were also delighted to find the skill gap to be wide enough that poor, average, and excellent players distinctly separated themselves upon learning how to play. Entering the show, we had no way of knowing whether we executed these core tenets of our design philosophy. We left IndieCade with renewed excitement that casual and hard core gamers alike are interested in the type of games we want to make.
We even threw together an impromtu tournament on Saturday with the winner taking home some High Horse gear!
After 3 long days of pitching the game, Jay and I were exhausted, a little sunburnt, but mostly just exhilarated that people actually liked what we were showing. Overall, the show was a massive success. We made excellent contacts, hung out with some incredibly talented developers, and ultimately learned a great deal about how to present our game. BIG THANKS to Epic without whom we never could have pulled it off.
Shortly after IndieCade we were thrilled to find out that Icon: Disc Jam made it through Steam Greenlight! This means we can use Steam’s network backend for matchmaking, invites, and friends lists. More importantly, it means we can distribute builds to the community! We’ll be rolling out the pre-alpha in phases using our mailing list so be sure to sign up if you haven’t already.