Early in 2012, a group of independent game developers gathered around a table at Lucky’s Lounge, deep in the heart of Boston. Below the comfortable confines of the Boucoup Loft in the middle of Boston’s Innovation District, shared passions for an effort to bring the fruits of independent development coalesced into plans for a Festival, free to the public. Ideas led to plans, plans to formal strategies, and the Boston Festival of Indie Games was born. Without experience in organizing events of this caliber, the sky was the limit and naivete was an asset.
The BostonFIG team kicked off their inaugural event on the campus of MIT on September 22, 2012, anticipating 2-300 people but bringing supplies for 1,000. They were floored when the attendance surged to twice that! Not to be caught unaware again, the BostonFIG team is preparing for a bigger, better, faster, and more exciting FIG 2013.
The best part of BostonFIG isn’t just the conventionally thought of demographic for an indie game festival - 25-35 year old men playing video games. No, BostonFIG is much, much more. The event is for all kinds of games - video games, board games, tabletop games, even RPG’s and live action gaming. The demographic is so much more - take a quick look at their media gallery to see men, women, and children ranging from six to sixty. The charm of Boston FIG can be seen in shots of inveterate gamers helping to cultivate the nascent gaming interests of the younger attendees.
Boston FIG is unapologetically about the love of independent games and game developers. More so than a huge event like PAX could ever have, Boston FIG has a local charm about it. There aren’t people flying into Boston to attend FIG, there are no huge budgets blown out to raise forty foot banners of the best new free-to-play micro-transaction experience. The people you can and will meet come from Randolph, or Braintree, Peabody, or Burlington. The indie community is strong in Boston, and it is growing. You will be missing out if you pass on such a fantastic event.
Unfortunately, bigger and better costs money, and money isn’t something indie developers tend to have in spades. In order to provide this event to the public for free (a feat so incredibly awesome I feel the need to restate… FREE FESTIVAL!) they need to raise a little bit of capital to pay for the space and supplies.
Supporting members and volunteers for BostonFIG 2013 include a number of excellent game developers like Fire Hose Games, Dejobaan Games, Subatomic Studios, and even more. For remarkably small donation amounts on the Boston FIG Kickstarter Page you can score some sweet swag, including but not limited to complete indie games to keep.
I sat with Caleb Garner of the Public Relations staff for BostonFIG 2013 to discuss the upcoming event. You can hear that interview right here:
BostonFIG 2013, will be on September 14th from 10AM to 10PM at MIT in Cambridge, MA.
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