Team Coco & Co. was at The Independent Game Jam (TIGJam) this year.
If you’re an Indie Game nerd, you would have loved this event. The event housed around 50 indie game developers at the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View. Some people had experience and some people were complete newbies. It was a little intimidating going into the game jam. There are all these people that, if you know who they are, they’re indie game superheroes. The first time I saw them, I was totally geeking out. Then you get to know them and really, they’re just regular people like you and me.
Our first day, a stranger sat down across from me, shook my hand and introduced himself as Ron. It wasn’t until later that day that I realized I just shook the hand of Ron Carmel of 2DBoy, the creators of World of Goo.
Other superstars included former ETC Alums, Kyle Gabler, and Kyle Gray. Derek Yu, the creator of Spelunky was also there.
Anyways, we set up shop, we got to work and it was a very productive 4 days. We were able to test our game with some fun people and everyone enjoyed our game once they figured out the mechanics.
Our advisors, Jiyoung and Carl stopped by Friday afternoon to check it out. They stayed for a bit, talked with some people, took some pictures and even got to play a pre-XBLA version of Spelunky before they left.
Aside from the great atmosphere, there were some fun events that happened throughout the jam.
First off, there was a movie being shot while we were Indie Game, the Movie is set to come out sometime next year. Our team was right next to where people were interviewing all these indie developers so you might actually get to see our screens, backs or even faces in the background of the movie.
There were a few nights where we had a single elimination tournament for all to see. The third night was a Madhouse tournament in which Paulwei got into the finals and lost pretty badly. The fourth night was a Nidhogg tournament where Chris got into the finals and lost. These small losses will bring a big win in the near future (fingers crossed).
Every night there were different talks from different developers about what’s on their minds. Scott Anderson talked about getting more people into games. Derek Yu had the same message about being all inclusive and never burning bridges. These were all very off the cuff talks that made it great to hear from all these different people about the industry that they love.
Believe me, making indie games is definitely a labor of love.
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