White Nights is hosting the Indie Game Cup for the tenth time. This is an indie games competition held as part of a business conference. Yesterday, June 18, the organizing committee named the projects that entered the second round of the competition. About the projects and those who will judge them — in our publication.
Why are we discussing only the second round?
The competition is held according to a simple scheme. A couple of months before the conference, the collection of projects is launched. It ends a few weeks before the event. It is usually submitted under a hundred applications. The organizers of White Nights highlight the best projects among them. They focus on the quality of the project and its readiness for release. Then the selection is passed to the jury. This is called the second round.
Which games are on the shortlist?
Someday You’ll Return
Czechs from CBE software are preparing for the release of a first-person adventure game Someday You’ll Return. For them, this is far from the first project, but so far the most ambitious.
TERRORHYTHM
Russian small studio EvilCoGames is creating its second game. The project is called TERRORHYTHM. This is a musical bitendup in cyberpunk style. The developers hope that it will go better than their adventure Star Story: The Horizon Escape.
Wonder Cat
Developer OMG Studios continues to master the cat theme. Simultaneously with the role-playing cat simulator Max and Maya: Cat simulator, the studio is preparing a platformer about the struggle of a cat with giant mushrooms.
Dante’s Infernya
Four students from Finland are developing a game about how to piss off a hipster. It’s also about a cat whose goal is to break all the things in the room. This upsets his bearded fashionable host very much.
Flipping Filip
Tehran Deedema Games is preparing a humorous Flipping Filip quest about the super hero Philip. This is one of two projects that the team is currently preparing for launch.
Frozen Flame
Moscow Magisterion has brought Frozen Flame fantasy survival to early access. In the game, the user will have to explore the world of the icy wastelands, fight giant boars, craft and team up with other players to defeat a giant dragon.
Diesel Guns
A small team from the capital of Ingushetia is developing a game about car battles. It’s called Diesel Guns. The authors claim that they draw inspiration from titles such as Twisted Metal, Interstate 76 and Vigilante 8.
Paleo: Rising Town
Belarusian FuryLion, specializing in outsourcing, is now personally interested in entering mobile platforms. Her debut will be Paleo: Rising Town, reminiscent of games in the spirit of 2048.
Grow Beets
Engaged in consulting and development of Internet projects (including the introduction of 1C-Bitrix), Internet-Expert LLC is actively trying itself in game development. Grow Beets is her colorful clicker about growing beets.
Tacticool
The Russian-Finnish Panzerdog has been creating its debut Tacticool project for several years now. This is a multiplayer mobile action movie, reminiscent of both Guns of Boom and Counter-Strike with a third-person view.
Farm and Click — Idle Hell Clicker
Moscow Red Machine offered a new look at clickers. Farm and Click is a humorous project about the management of hell and pulling souls out of sinners.
Grass Cutter
Nikolai Usachev’s sticky puzzle about cutting grass and dangerous experiments with revived lawns is called Grass Cutter. The author is currently working on a mobile version of the game.
Meow Motors
Russian ArtVostok is known for outsourcing to Prime World and WarThunder. At the moment, she is creating her own game. Also about cats (apparently, this is a trend today). It is called Meow Motors. This is arcade racing.
Get Over It PvP
St. Petersburg GreenButtonGames is preparing a game with unusual mechanics. This is a mobile platformer in which the user moves the hero with a hammer.
Hydropunk
The Minsk Hydropunk Team is developing an isometric slasher of the same name and is looking for an investor for it. While the project is at a very early stage of development, but it is already playable and looks decent.
Which VR games were shortlisted?
Only five projects were included in the selection of virtual reality games. It’s about:
- FARHOME by DevCube Studio;
- Sky Brawl by Rarebird;
- The Knights VR by Octobox Interactive;
- Adoption by Fair Games Studio;
- The Tavern of Magic by Gnamics.
Who will judge?
There are ten judges. These are mainly representatives of large companies and platforms. Although there are exceptions.
- Andrey Zimenko is the CEO of Wargaming Moscow.
- Miley Chen (Miley Chen) — bizdev NetEase.
- Ilya Eremeev — Executive producer Mail.ru Games Ventures.
- Natalie Portier is the executive director of Appodeal.
- Mike Hines is an Amazon evangelist.
- Alexey Savchenko is an Unreal Engine licensing manager at Epic Games.
- Alexander Shlygin is a solution manager at Unity.
- Tatiana Timoshenko is the Director of Licensing at G5 Games.
- Ruslan Gerasim is an analyst at Nevosoft.
- Alexander Semenov is the publishing editor App2Top.ru .