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BIC Festival aspires to be an international event. Our goal is to introduce indie games from Korea to international developers, while introducing global trends to Korean indie game developers. Our speaker line-up is highlighted first by Kelly Wallick, the founder of Indie Megabooth, an organization that has been showcasing independent games at major gaming events including PAX, GDC, and Gamescom since 2014. Second, Jake Kazdal, founder of the Kyoto-based studio 17-BIT and an active member of the Japan Independent Games Aggregate (JIGA), will share his experience and inspiration for creating independent games.
Kelly Wallick
Founder, Indie Megabooth
Chairman, IGF
Kelly Wallick is the founder and President of the Indie MEGABOOTH – a showcase that brings indie games into the heart of conferences previously dominated by AAA budgets and an initiative that works to create support networks for small development teams. She’s involved in local community building along with creating cross community networks and acts as an advocate for indie developers with platform holders, distributors, publishers and press. The MEGABOOTH’s current focus is on expanding community support efforts and addressing discoverability issues for indie games.
Youngchae Kim
Founder, OddOne Games
Youngchae Kim dreamed of being a game developer since he was 17. After graduating from university in 2005, his first game, “Return from AfterLife,” won three independent game awards. He worked at Softon and Nexon as a game programmer, but suddenly quit when he missed the freedom of being independent. Reuniting with his team members from 2005, he founded OddOneGames in 2012. After three years of development without income, they released the beta version of “Tree of Life” on Steam in 2015. Tree of Life is a Sandbox MMORPG where players freely build worlds and live out virtual lives. It is widely beloved by players across the world.
Marc Flury
Founder, Drool
Marc Flury began his career as a game programmer at the Boston-based Harmonix studio in 2005. For six years, he helped create hit franchises like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Dance Central. He was the lead programmer on The Beatles: Rock Band, Dance Central, and Dance Central 2. Four years ago, Marc moved to Seoul and co-founded the indie studio Drool with Brian Gibson, a game artist and musician. They are currently developing Thumper, the world's first rhythm violence game.
Jake Kazdal
Founder, 17-BIT
Jake Kazdal has been involved in the game industry since he was a Gameplay Counselor at Nintendo’s NES hotline in 1989. After Nintendo he went on to work at Irem, and Enix during the Super Nintendo years, followed by Animation College, then has been in production as an Artist/Animator/Production Designer/Concept Artist. He started 17-BIT in Seattle in 2009 and has been Lead Artist, Creative Director and Project Director ever since. 17-BIT’s first title was the critically-acclaimed “Skulls of the Shogun” which has shipped on Xbox 360, Windows, Playstation 4, iOS and Android. 17-BIT just launched their next title “Galak-Z” for Playstation 4, and its coming to Windows later this year.
TI Chang
Senior Developer Advocate, Google
TI Chang is a Google’s Developer Advocate based in Korea, working with game developers to improve gaming experiences in Android and Google Play. Before joining Google, he was the research director at Com2uS and leaded the development of mobile games and the mobile gaming platform.
Hyunse Chang
Senior Associate, Business Development, Google Play Apps & Games team
Hyunse works for the Google Play team as a Business Development Manager in Korea. He works with developers and helps them to be successful on Play both domestically and globally. Before joining Google, he worked in the global business department in Com2uS.