Gamers of all ages will have an opportunity to take in some underground competition this Friday, with the possibility of winning some much-coveted prizes and getting to support the indie game scene in Calgary.
Starting at 5 p.m. on April 19, the Calgary Game Developers Association (CGDA) along with the Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) will be hosting a games tournament and talk as part of the film festival.
The goal of the Indie Game Bash is to connect the game development community in Calgary, and gamers of all interests and ages, to the wider international independent gaming scene.
“Partnerning with CUFF is a no-brainer… the best way to watch some movies, is to watch it in the theatre. The sort of movies that come up on CUFF, have to be watched in an audience,” said Vieko Franetovic, Director of the CGDA.
The same, he said, went for the selection of two games: Kung Fu Kickball by WhaleFood Games, and Nidhogg II by Messhof, which bring back the classic bygone era of playing video games together on a couch or at an arcade, on to a Globe Cinema big screen.
“If you like competing, this is just down your alley. If you grew up around the time that I grew up, when multiplayer games were played on the couch or in an arcade, you know that it was nerve-wracking to have a crowd behind you watching your turn to play Street Fighter, or any of those,” Franetovic said.
“If you’re not competitive, well, it’s a great experience to have for the first time. Last year, the crowd didn’t get rowdy… I mean, we are Calgary after all. But we did get some excitement, and the wonderful thing about indie games is that they’re super accessible.”
The competition will pit 32 people selected from attendees (sign-ups begin at 5 p.m. sharp to be considered) in a 32-person elimination round, followed by two-player quarter-finals, then a two-player semi-final, and a one-on-one deathmatch grand finale.
“We like to keep it as fair as possible. So if you want to sign up and compete, you have to be on location. All you need to enter is your ticket—tickets are $10, so it’s inexpensive. There’s plenty of room, even if you don’t get to compete, there’s plenty of room to attend and watch,” he said.
The competition winner will get their choice of an XBox Series X or a PlayStation 5, and attendees will be entered into a draw for a Oculus Quest VR headset courtesy of Bow Valley College.
Making a space for game development in Calgary
Franetovic said that this would be the second year in a row that the CGDA has held the Indie Game Bash, after a hiatus of several years.
The event was an easy choice to bring back given the previous years success at CUFF, he said.
“We saw an opportunity last year to do it on a big screen, so we jumped at it, and quickly put together a tournament, invited some of our friends from out of town, like the developers of the games that we presented last year,” Franetovic said.
“We have folks that have made video games talking about the reason behind making a game, a multiplayer game, and focusing on games that you play with friends together.”
The developers of Kung Fu Kickball will be travelling to Calgary to speak at the tournament, with opportunities for mingling with those same developers from 5 to 5:30 p.m., and a formal Q&A session about game development from 5:30 to 6 p.m.
“Like many other events that we run ourselves… our focus is to bring opportunities to our members. So having folks that have published games and having them specifically in this area, it’s exciting,” Franetovic said.
He said that making multiplayer games is something that every indie developer wants to make, but few get to because of the added complexity involved.
“Even if they’re just local, you have to consider that you’re getting inputs from two, three, four different controllers—sometimes even more than that. Once you start to get into the actual net code, and you’re coding things that are going to be multiplayer in different places, it becomes even more difficult,” Franetovic said.
“So there’s a very limited number of multiplayer co-op, or competitive in the games that exist.”
He said that last year he teased the WhaleFood Games developers, who are friends of his, about not being in the game bash.
“Last year, I was like, ‘hey, Towerfall and Samurai Gun are on the screen. It could have been you.’ These are people from our community/ Indie developers, we’re all over the world, but we are a small community,” Franetovic said.
“We all know each other, and we all support each other wherever we can. These are longtime friends of ours, and we’re just happy that we can get them into town, introduce them to our community, and more than anything, we get to play their games on the big screen.”
Tickets for the Indie Game Bash can be purchased at www.indiegamebash.com.
