Schedule

The backstory of Second Wind's escape from corporate shackles, and how game studios can navigate an even more challenging independent games media world.

What's it like funding games? This talk looks into what it's like running Outersloth, an indie game fund created from the success of the game Among Us. See what happens when you submit a game and real case studies of why certain games got signed, their pitch decks, and the concerns they addressed. This isn't a talk about how to make the perfect pitch - this is all about showing you the real decisions and process that happen behind the scenes!

This session will cover the inner workings and processes behind the inaugural edition of the Kiln, including goals and objectives for the ambitious program. The inside look will be followed by a rapid-fire introduction of the first 5 projects.

This talk will cover what it means to self-publish your games, focusing on practicalities and best practices. Using examples from our work at Landfall, I'll break down what's worked for us, what hasn't, and how developers can approach self-publishing sustainably.

Recent shifts in the game industry have shown us that small teams can make big games – Team Cherry (Hollow Knight), Aggro Crab and Landfall (PEAK), and semiworks (R.E.P.O), have outsold and outgrossed many of their AAA counterparts in 2025. The key to success for these indie studios? Having the right team composition and business acumen to capitalize on emergent opportunities for indie game development and self-publishing. In this lecture, Kristian Roberts (CEO, Nordicity) guides aspiring and emergent game studios – and the partners who support them – through the skill sets and roles needed to create sustainable game studios in an increasingly accessible but competitive market. Kristian will explain how integrating marketing, community management, and business intelligence practices from the very formation of a studio can be the fundamental difference between success and failure.

Insight and retrospect from one indie dev, who went from studio "golden boy", to almost leaving game development forever, to releasing the biggest, most pivotal game of his career.

Contracts can be daunting, dense or just plain aggressive. Together we'll dispel the lurking shadows by starting with the basics (what is a contract really?) and then branching out into specific things to look out for when publishing your game.

Agentic AI engineering is here, but many of the hyped tools and techniques aren't geared towards what games can (and can't) already do well. Kyle wades through the cruft, and will show you specific ways you can make your game legible to AI agents to drive better development outcomes.

Learn how to master the basics of Steam sales and bundles and have these work for you at launch and beyond.

A candid, darkly funny journey through 14 years of freelance game art while learning to adapt, survive, and face the impostor within... without losing yourself.

Why do certain gameplay moments stick with players, get shared, and define a game? In this talk, Cory breaks down how Aarimous & Thornity designed standout moments in A Game About Feeding A Black Hole through pacing, anticipation, novelty, clarity, and payoff. Using examples from the game, he shows how memorable moments can be deliberately designed and not left to chance.