What is IGDG?

Independent Game Developers Guild, IGDG, is founded by **Bae Sang Hyun.** It is an non-profit international organization established on September 12, 2022 to promote auteur games and protect the rights and interests of indie game auteurs.

What is IGDGF?

Independent Game Developers Guild Festival, IGDGF, is an indie game festival focused on auteur, and also hosted by Bae Sang Hyun.

The event will be held from Feb. 18 to 19 in Chungmuro, Seoul, where Korea's media culture began. With a total of 36 games on exhibition, including two ‘People's Game’.

We prepared various programs such as talk session, awards, and 'People's Game Jam’.

• Venue location of 2023 IGDGF

  Gallery Earth, 1F, 2-1, Changgyeonggung-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

• Exhibition time

  Feb. 18th 1 PM ~ 7 PM

  Feb. 19th 11 AM ~ 5 PM

• Ticket price

  12,000 Korean won (Payment can only be made by cash and account transfer.)

Programs of IGDGF

• Exhibition

  A total of 36 games, 16 from Korea and 20 from overseas, will be exhibited at the event. 9 overseas teams will proceed exhibition remotely without coming to Korea. Interpreters are going to be deployed to break down the language barrier. And some developers will sell their game's goods at the festival.

Exhibitors list

• Talk Session

  On the stage in the exhibition venue, there will be sessions for developers talking about games on various topics, take questions from audience, and broaden their awareness of the culture of game. Sessions will be streamed simultaneously to **IGDG official Twitch channel** and to A MAZE. / SPACE with English interpretation.

  Here are the sessions.

• People’s Game

  A world where game development is not necessarily the preserve of only experts will come.

  Anyone with a pen can draw and write. Through the progress of AI and the popularization of development programs will lead to the day when anyone can be game developer easily.

  We planned to make this future into reality, and developed a two game that started with an idea from a backers of the event. Both games will be exhibited at IGDGF.

  And we planned experimental performance called ‘People’s Game Jam’ at the IGDGF venue. It will show to the audience how game develop is progressed.

• Game Key Draw

  100 first-come can draw the code of the games that participated in 2023 IGDGF!

• Awards

  At the end of the festval, an honorable IGDGF Awards ceremony will be held.

  The judge is consisted of two rounds. 1st rounds was selected by IGDG's game developers. And the final round judge will be proceeded by veterans representing game industry.

  The final judge committee members will conduct a discussion to select the final winner of IGDGF Awards.

  • Category

    Golden Forsythia Award	The name was given to express the strong vitality and hope of independent developers. It's awarded to the best game of the festival.
    Golden Haechi Award	It is an honorary award that developers dedicate directly to developer.
    Best Direction	This award is for the director of the work who directed the game well overall.
    Best Game Design	This award is given to the work that showed the best game design.
    Best Progress	This award is given to a work that advances the concept of the game.
    Best Narrative	This award is given to a work that showed the best story.
    Best Audio Design	This award is given to the best sound design and mixing.
    Best Score and Music	This award is given to the best music.
    Best Art	This award is given to the best art.
    Best Performance	This award is for the actor of the best performance.
    Best Multiplayer	This award is given to the best multiplayer game.
    Best Social Influence	This award is given to the game that conveys the most beautiful meaning to society, and the world.

  • Final Judge Committee Members

Shuhei Yoshida

Shuhei Yoshida, a 30-plus-year Sony veteran and renowned software developer, has been with the PlayStation group since the project's inception more than 25 years ago. Yoshida joined Sony Corporation in 1986 where he was involved in the corporate strategy group, as well as coordinating the PC business. He was one of the initial members of the PlayStation project in February 1993, where he held various high-profile positions in both the product development and third party relations arenas. He was appointed Vice President, Product Development, Sony Computer Entertainment America in April 2000, Sr.Vice President in February 2007, and then President of SCE Worldwide Studios (current SIE PlayStation Studios) in May 2008. Yoshida has overseen development of many global best-selling franchises, such as God of War®, Gran Turismo®, Hot Shots Golf®, inFAMOUS™, Journey™, Killzone®, LittleBigPlanet™, MLB: The Show™, SingStar®, The Last of Us™, and Uncharted. In Nov. 2019, Yoshida left his role at WWS and became Head of Indies Initiative where he will focus on nurturing external independent creators to ensure they have the tools, technology, and services to reach PlayStation’s large community of gamers successfully.

Thorsten S. Wiedemann

Thorsten S. Wiedemann is founder and artistic director of A MAZE.. He produces and curates under this international label festivals, exhibitions and workshops on the intersection of games, games culture, digital arts and playful media. With "A MAZE. / Berlin" he created one international festivals to present arthouse games, playful media and alternative games culture. He generates new controversial formats (e.g. A MAZE. Magazine, A MAZE. Pop-ups, A MAZE. / SPACE, A MAZE. Train Jam) and gives room for experimentation and exchange. Thorsten established since 2012 the A MAZE. Awards, which goes artistic games in six categories. His focus is on the interdisciplinary and diverse discourse about the medium of the 21. century and in filling the gaps between playful media, art and technology. He also spend during his Disconnected performance 48hrs in virtual reality! Currently he lives and works in Berlin.