The Indie Game Magazine February 2015 | Issue 46 | Page 12

Cubris, which won a prize for innovation, we had other great games
like Castles of Caragaba (a castle building game that won best art)
and Ore: The Mining Game which won best game. Honestly, we’ve
had a great line up of diverse games, many of which have, since
the previous festival, been published (e.g. BEARD, These French
Fries are Terrible Hot Dogs, Stack & Attack, and many more...)
IGM: In your mind, what makes indie games stand out amongst
the more mainstream AAA titles?
DS: The lack of 2’s and 3’s... and 4’s and 5’s and HD-Remixes and all
that jazz. Indie developers tend to be more concerned with doing
something new than re-treading old ground, which keeps the games
from the community fresh, innovative, and risky. It also helps us
build communities around what we do as teams, as opposed to
forcing our fans to be devoted to a particular IP.
AT: Absolutely! For me it’s really about innovation and community.
The latter is one of the reasons that I’m so excited to be part of
this festival. It’s just great to give the general public a chance to sit
down with the game designers themselves and talk about games.
IGM: You both have had success funding projects on Kickstarter.
Do you have any tips for developers organizing their own crowdfunding campaign, based on what worked for you?
DS: Plan and announce your campaigns well ahead of time. Choose
a format that’ll work best for you. Kickstarter and IndieGogo aren’t
your only options. These days I am less interested in those than
I am in Early Access. Being able to deliver the game instantly, get
feedback, apply it, and watch the game grow over time is a magical
feeling. Early Access is still a young format with plenty of room to
experiment, and sure it isn’t for everyone or every game. If you
plan it right, though, there is a lot you can do with it, and it’s great
for building a community.
AT: For me as a board and card game designer, Kickstarter really is

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