Indie Video Game Festival Bit Bash Returns This Weekend

By Justin Freeman in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 18, 2015 9:04PM

Photo via Bit Bash Tumblr

The local video game festival Bit Bash grew out of frustration and necessity. In 2014, the video game industry news site Gamasutra ran a salary survey and discovered that video game developers in the Midwest make the least amount of money in the country, and that the average salary for developers in Illinois is around $14,000 less than equivalent developers in California and about $5,000 less than developers in New York.

This news did not sit well with Jamie Sanchez. “[Video game developers] shouldn't have to move to California. We have resources right here and we invite them to be part of this community.” Sanchez told Polygon in 2014. “There's a need in Chicago to get the public interested. Involved. Educated on some level about indie games."

Shortly after, Sanchez and her colleagues of local video game developers threw the first Bit Bash.

Bit Bash focuses on indie games, and it’s kind of similar to a festival of indie bands. For example, what you’d see at CMJ may or may not have financial backing, but those are some of the most promising and interesting bands of the moment. The same goes for indie game festivals like Bit Bash, with its focus on promising and interesting games developed in Chicago.

The last two events have sold out, and Bit Bash returns this Saturday three times larger than before with over 50 games. One of the more promising games is Lea Schonfelder’s examination of gendered double standards in regards to sexuality, Ute. Shape of the World, an exploration game where you wander around a surreal landscape that grows around you while haunting ambient music plays, is another one that shows promise. We’re also interested in Butt Sniffin Pugs, a multiplayer game where you and a friend control cute cartoon pugs with pug butt controllers, with the entire goal of sniffing each other's cartoon butts and getting into misadventures. Also on our radar is the School of the Art Institute showcase, where we'll see what game development students have been working on.

A portion of tickets sold will benefit Chicago Loot Drop—a nerd culture collective that supports both the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital—and Child’s Play, a nonprofit that sends video games and toys to recovering children in hospitals as well as domestic violence shelters around the world.

Bit Bash is this Saturday, Aug. 22, at Threadless, 1260 W. Madison, from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m.; tickets are $20 online and $25 at the door.