At this year's IndieCade, we had six hours of showtime - three hours on Friday afternoon, and three hours on Saturday morning.  We fit six games into those times, which means that we were able to serve about 20 people with a daily dose of serious fun. Pretty much everyone enjoyed the game (as you can see from the photos below). Most of them were impressed by the fact that we'd created an honestly fun serious/educational game. Which is great!   [gallery link="file" ids="989,988,990,987,994,995"] We spent most of the rest of the time at IndieCade exploring the games on display. Not that there weren't serious things going on with the professional side of the event, but after all the work that went into our IndieCade show, and the rather intense networking at IndieXchange (the pre-festival developer day), we felt like we deserved some fun. A quick shout-out to the most fun and memorable games that we played: (acknowledging that we only had time to play about 10% of the games on show)
  • Joggernauts: A colorful, creative, and fun party/platform game.
  • Cantankerous Cats: A quick-but-intense card game with a rather silly theme.
  • Operator: Dr. Strangelove meets Portal.
  • In Tune: A surprisingly thought-provoking game about intimacy and consent. I'd be curious to play more ... but only if it were in a place not in the public eye.
  • Maze of Heart: A killer Kinect app. I think not yet available for general purchase / play :(
  • Typoman: A game with a great premise. Not sure if the fun would hold up for an entire playthrough, but great fun for a game tasting.
  • Fire and Flora: (Yes, a little self-serving, but I think we've got some right to be proud :)
And then a special thanks to Remy, and the folks of Classroom Aquatic, for featuring Fire and Flora in their in-game quiz. It was super-cool to have people come up and say, "Hey! We saw you in Classroom Aquatic!" What's next for Fire and Flora? As of this moment, the game is about 80% finished. It needs a couple more iterations to fix the last few balance issues. It also needs a visual redesign. Much as we'd like to do that, and as much potential as there is in this game, we haven't yet found a good market for it. And we've really only got the peoplepower to work on one game at a time. This means that we're going to continue focusing on The Puzzle of Life. The Puzzle is aimed more at an elementary-aged audience, which turns out to be a much larger market. The Puzzle also has much more potential for expansions, modding, and community-building. So, stay tuned! We're continuing to playtest the Puzzle in classrooms around Southern California (so far, to great success). And we're still aiming for a Puzzle Kickstarter in Spring or Summer of '16. So, there's lots of good new stuff, coming up just about every day. Lastly, if you're a fan of serious games, please take a look at our Patreon campaign, and share it with your friends. By becoming a Patron, you can join our quest, and help to build a better world through play.