Gamescom might be the largest gaming expo in the world, but that doesn’t mean everyone gets to go or show their game. With the event hosted in Cologne, Germany, the price to travel to and book space at the event, and to advertise a game during its big announcements stream, can be steep. According to the official website, a 30-second trailer in Gamescom Opening Night Live costs 115,000 euros ($127,671) — and that’s just the starting point, on top of other costs. The total costs involved aren’t always that high, since there are editorial slots available for significant announcements and “wildcard” slots available for independent teams. But generally speaking, it’s expensive.
In response to the cost barrier, indie developers have started a new social media trend where they share what they’re working on. As a result, X is filled with talk of wonderful indie games that aren’t a part of Gamescom, but you should totally check out.
The trend works more or less the same each time someone posts. A developer tweets with the text, “Gamescom trailer is more than 100k dollars, so here is,” and then they add a GIF, image, or clip of a game. Some games in the trend, like the phenomenal 1000xResist, have been released and you can go play now. However, a lot of the tweets show off neat works in progress. Scroll on to soak up the good work happening.
