“BIC Festival 2020”, waiting for rookie developers with a challenging spirit
“BIC Festival 2020-Untact (Zero contact) Live”, Rookie (student) Division exhibition game application opens

- BIC Festival 2020, Rookie Division exhibition game application open until 3PM, July 14th
- The student developers’ new ideas and creativity are expected to vitalize the gaming market
- More marketing opportunities expected since event will be hosted online with “GeForce Now”

--Busan, Korea -- July 1, 2020 - Busan Metropolitan City (Acting Mayor Sung-Wan Byeon), Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency (President & CEO In-Sook Lee), and Busan Indie Connect Festival Organizing Committee (Executive Chairman Tae-Geon Seo) announced that BIC (Busan Indie Connect) Festival 2020 is accepting game applications for The Rookie (student) Division.

The Rookie Division is a new category started last year to support indie game developers who can lead the future of the industry by offering impartial judging. BIC Committee expects the Rookie Division to vitalize the gaming market with students’ new ideas and creativity.

Last year, Ratropolis by Casselgames won the “Rising Star” award in the Rookie Division and astonished everyone by ranking 1st in the STEAM Top Sellers chart.

This year, the Rookie Division is waiting for applications from indie game developers with the same challenging spirit. The applications are accepted for 2 weeks from July 1st to July 14th at 3 PM. Any individual or team comprising of students (including 2020 senior project teams), or unemployed youths 25 and under (born after 1996) can apply through the BIC official website; graduate students are not eligible.

Since BIC Festival 2020 will be hosted online, BIC Committee expects more marketing opportunities for developers and their games. Moreover, in cooperation with LG Uplus, some titles will be linked to STEAM through the Cloud gaming service “GeForce Now”, allowing developers to communicate with serious gamers and gain more feedback.

Despite its short history, BIC festival has achieved new milestones every year and has become a global indie gaming festival. The organization designs the festival in an exhibition form that has elicited a great response from both developers and visitors because it allows both parties to easily communicate. Since the convention will be hosted online this year, preserving this critical form of communication is a priority.

Tae-Geon Seo, Executive Chairman of the Busan Indie Connect Festival Organizing Committee said, “The Committee is working hard to bring a sense of real-world excitement to online hosting by carefully planning the exhibition. Since the event will be held online this year, we will be able to overcome the physical limitations of hosting at a single location and present the game titles to more gamers and various people in the gaming industry.”

“We are watching out for the issue of uniformity in gaming platforms and genres while the festival is growing, and hope to receive a lot of applications since the organization is trying a lot to support the challenging and innovative ideas of Rookie developers’ to bring diversity to gaming.” said In-Sook Lee, the President & CEO of Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency.

BIC Festival 2020 will be held from Oct 19th - Oct 25th; the exhibition website will be released at a later date.

About Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency
Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency operates the Busan Global Game Center to promote the Busan game industry with the support of Busan Metropolitan City, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Korea Creative Content Agency. Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency hosts the BIC Festival every year with Busan Indie Connect Festival Organizing Committee, to find and promote local indie games with potential. -The end-