The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, and innovation in video game development by CMP Media, later known as UBM Technology Group, IGF is now owned by Informa after UBM's acquisition.
Jane Jensen is an American video game designer and author. She is mostly known as the creator of the Gabriel Knight series of adventure games, and also co-founded Oberon Media and Pinkerton Road video game development companies. Jensen also writes under the name Eli Easton.
Key is a Japanese visual novel studio known for making dramatic and plot-oriented titles. It was formed on July 21, 1998, as a brand under the publisher Visual Arts, and is located in Kita, Osaka.
Insaniquarium is a 2001 virtual pets simulator video game, developed by Flying Bear Entertainment and published by PopCap Games and MumboJumbo. Before PopCap Games's involvement, the game was a web-based Java game released in 2001. The game was made downloadable by PopCap Games in 2004 and was ported to mobile devices in 2006 and 2008 by Glu Mobile and Astraware respectively. Insaniquarium has the player maintain a tank full of fish while protecting it from alien attacks.
Aspyr Media, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded by Michael Rogers and Ted Staloch in Austin, Texas. Originally founded to bring top gaming titles to macOS, the company, since 2005, has become a publisher and developer of entertainment for multiple gaming platforms.
Cute Knight is a casual life simulation role-playing video game with many possible endings and careers featuring a single female character. Gameplay is similar to the Japanese Princess Maker with a more traditionally Western first-person perspective dungeons.
Shinji Orito is a Japanese musical composer originally from Hyōgo, Japan working for the visual novel brand Key under VisualArt's. Before forming Key, Orito worked for another software company named Leaf where he contributed to four games. After leaving Leaf, Orito transferred to another company named Tactics where he had a hand in the creation of three games for that company: Dōsei, Moon, and One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e. After forming Key, Orito has put much work into such famous titles as Kanon, Air and Clannad. Orito has been influenced by the famous Japanese composers Joe Hisaishi and Yuzo Koshiro.
Magome Togoshi is a Japanese video game composer for visual novel studios. He began work as a music arranger in 1999, where he started working for the visual novel studio Key under VisualArt's to produce music for Kanon. Between then and 2006, Togoshi composed music for four more titles by Key, along with other games produced by game brands also under VisualArt's. In October 2006, Togoshi resigned from Key and VisualArt's. He continues working with other visual novel developers.
Vanillaware Ltd. is a Japanese video game developer based in Osaka. An independent company, it was founded in 2002 under the name Puraguru by George Kamitani, a game developer who had previously worked at Capcom and Atlus, and directed Princess Crown (1997) for the Sega Saturn. Beginning as a small studio developing Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion for Enix, in 2004 the company moved to Osaka, Kansai, and changed its name. Kamitani wanted Vanillaware to create successor projects to Princess Crown, beginning with Odin Sphere.
Amanita Design is a Czech independent video game developing company founded in 2003 by Jakub Dvorský and headquartered in Brno, Czech Republic. The company has created award-winning games including Machinarium, the Samorost series and Botanicula, as well as educational and advertising minigames and animations, all using Adobe Flash. Clients include BBC, Nike and The Polyphonic Spree.
Date Warp is a science fiction visual novel video game developed by Spiky Caterpillar and Hanako Games, and published by Hanako Games for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Linux in 2010. The game uses anime-style graphics and is written in English and tells a story of a young Indian-American college female student who goes on a date and disappears.
Sakevisual is a developer and publisher of interactive story games such as visual novels and otome games, well known for their otome game RE: Alistair++. Their games are for Windows, macOS and Linux. Sakevisual is a partner of Hanako Games, Winter Wolves and Tycoon Games.
Nicalis, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Santa Ana, California. The company focuses primarily on indie games and has developed and published both original games as well as ports of existing games. Nicalis was founded in 2007 by Tyrone Rodriguez, a game designer and former game journalist. In 2017, Nicalis announced that they had acquired SuperVillain Studios and Cowboy Color.
Christine Love is a Canadian independent visual novel writer best known for her original works Digital: A Love Story; don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story; Analogue: A Hate Story; and Ladykiller in a Bind. Love began creating visual novels while in university, making a few small games, visual novels, and pieces of written fiction before coming into prominence with the release of Digital in 2010. She went on to work on Love and Order, a dating simulation by Italian video game designer Celso Riva, as well as don't take it personally, both released in 2011. Her first commercial project on which she was the primary developer is Analogue, released in February 2012; Love dropped out of her English degree during its development, and is currently a full-time game developer. She released an expansion to the game, titled Hate Plus, in 2013. In October 2016, she released Ladykiller in a Bind. Her latest project is Get in the Car, Loser!, a road trip role-playing game that was released on 21 September 2021.
Long Live the Queen is a simulation role-playing video game developed by Hanako Games and Spiky Caterpillar, published by Hanako Games. The story of the game follows a young princess who is training to become queen after the death of her mother. The objective of the game is to keep the princess alive for 40 weeks until she turns 15 and is crowned. The game was released on June 2, 2012 for Windows, Mac OS and Linux. The game uses anime-style graphics and is written in English.
The Royal Trap is a visual novel developed and published by Hanako Games on February 23, 2013, for Windows, Mac OS and Linux. The story of the game follows a young companion who has to take care of her prince, Oscar. The game uses anime-style graphics and is written in English. On June 15, 2013, the DVD version of The Royal Trap was released, which also contains a HD version of the game, as well as exclusive concept sketches. It was re-released in April 2015 for Steam with new background art, a higher resolution, and some expanded content. The Steam release also added a subtitle, "The Confines of the Crown"; in 2017, the game on Steam was changed to be advertised as only The Confines of the Crown without "The Royal Trap."
Simogo is a Swedish independent video game developer based in Malmö. The company was founded in 2010 and is best known for creating games for mobile devices, including Year Walk and Device 6. Its name comes from the name of its founders Simon (SIM), and Gordon (GO); the 'O' from the Swedish word "och" meaning "and".
Black Closet is a mystery visual novel, strategy RPG and life simulation game developed and published by Hanako Games and released on September 16, 2015 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux on the digital distribution service Steam.
Knights and Bikes is a cooperative action-adventure game inspired by The Goonies and Secret of Mana. It is created by Foam Sword, a British indie game development company made up of former Media Molecule staff.
