Mark June 6 in your calendars: that’s the date set for Indie Live Expo 2020, a livestream to share information about upcoming indie games from around the world, and a celebration of the indie scene.
The showcase will kick off at 8pm JST (9pm AEST / 11pm NZST / 4am PDT), and will be broadcast in English, Japanese, and Chinese. The Indie Live Expo Board is working to add more languages, too, with a goal of getting a million people to tune in.
People around the world are currently cut off from one another due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Game industry shows and events have been canceled, and we’ve been deprived of invaluable opportunities to congregate and communicate with each other directly. However, we believe that now more than ever is the time to promote friendship, fellowship, and enthusiasm through the medium of video games.
Indie Live Expo Board
As well as announcements and information about new and upcoming games, there’ll be presentations on a selection of indie masterpieces, “carefully selected recommendations”, and game development contest running alongside the event.
There’ll also be special messages from game developers with close ties to the indie scene, including ZUN (creator of Touhou Project), SWERY (CEO of White Owls), Toby Fox (creator of Undertale), and Nino Kazuya (founder of TYPE-MOON studio BB).
A range of different indie developers and publishers from around the world are already confirmed as contributors to Indie Live Expo 2020, including:
- 11 bit studios
- Brace Yourself Games
- Caramel Column Inc.
- Coconut Island
- DeskWorks!
- DMM Games
- Flyhigh Works
- GameTomo
- Indie Nova
- ID@Xbox
- Nigoro
- Orange Cube
- Petit Depotto
- TYPE-MOON studio BB
- X.D.
Sponsors confirmed so far include Unity, Why So Serious?, Playism, DLSite, Game Market, and room6.
The Indie Live Expo Board is still looking for contributors, sponsors, and streamers who want to simultaneously broadcast the showcase with their own commentary. You can get in touch with the organisers through the Indie Live Expo website if you wish to get involved.
Indies are probably the hardest hit by the cancellation of events like E3, GDC, and Tokyo Game Show, necessary as those cancellations are. It’s great to see an event like Indie Live Expo stepping up to create a bit of a spotlight for indie games.
Correction: This article previously stated incorrectly that Yoshida Shuhei would be taking part in Indie Live Expo 2020. He is not, and the article has been updated to reflect that.
Note: Japanese names in this article use the Japanese name order—that is, family name first, followed by given name(s).
