Indie Rodeo 2026: A Great Leap Forward for the Calgary Game Development Scene

A week has passed since the very first major Calgary-based games conference wrapped up, so I want to share my thoughts about how it went.

All photos were taken by me or publicly available at the Indie Rodeo gallery.

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Jason Della Rocca speaking at Indie Rodeo.

The Value

For a $75 CAD early-bird pass, the value of Indie Rodeo cannot be overstated. I had not been expecting fully catered meals across both days, nor the free booze offered via tickets (which also extended to the afterparty). The pass literally paid for itself with the food & drink alone before even taking the actual content of the conference into account, which is crazy.

I've been to GDC once before and MIGS twice, both of which are MUCH more expensive to get into (though to be fair, I never paid full price for either due to them being through work and school, respectively). While they are obviously much bigger events and still very worthwhile in their own way, Indie Rodeo gave me the most bang-for-buck I've experienced from an event...maybe ever?

The Talks

There were around 13 different presentations by various industry leaders, publishers, and game creators sharing their stories. Overall, the quality of the speakers was really good, so I hope they keep that bar for next year! But instead of boring everyone with all my developer-focused notes (I might compile those in a separate post later), I'm just going to share my top three takeaways.

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Audience at the Platform presentation stage.

Audiences Are Not Demographics (or Stereotypes)

This was very interesting to hear since it contradicts previous things I was taught. Of course, demographics can matter in some cases, but in our current day "women over 35" or "Europeans" are not real audiences - they probably have very little in common that matters.

Instead, we should think of audiences as communities of interest and/or affinity groups. "Cozy gamers", "sci-fi nerds", or even "friends catching up on a multiplayer game" all paint a much more accurate picture of who you're marketing to.

The Publisher Reality

Long gone are the days where you could pitch a paper prototype, plan, or "concept" of a game to an investor and get them on board. Publishers are signing less and less each year on average, and even having a functional prototype is rarely enough anymore.

What's needed now to even have a chance is a full vertical slice - a small but very polished (i.e. close to final, shippable quality) section of your game to show. They want to see what you can accomplish, and how their money can get "more of that."

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Jason Della Rocca discussing the math of Steam revenue for publishers.

Making Gameplay Moments Stick

When it comes to game design, this was the most interesting talk by far. One of the co-developers of the hit A Game About Feeding A Black Hole, gave insights into the tests they did regarding player psyche and what strategies got players to feel the most excited or stick around the longest.

Teasing things that are so far out of the player's reach gives them an idea of scope and plants a seed of desire, and you slowly get them there by giving them something new to do approximately every one minute.

Giving a pause between a lull state and a manic state (e.g. a 3s countdown before starting a challenge) gives them a moment to analyze geospatial relationships. Why is that important? Because analysis leads to scanning for patterns, which leads to planning strategies, which makes them lose track of time. "Stickiness" at its finest!

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The indie showcase room. There were around 12 teams setup altogether, including me.

The Showcase

Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to try the other teams' demos that were set up alongside me. Next year I'll make sure I play more of them, but for now, I'll just give a brief paragraph about the ones I watched or recognized. I'll talk about my experience with the showcase at the end.

Sin & Sorrow by The Foundation.

Sin & Sorrow

While I didn't try their latest demo, I've been loosely following the progress made on this hack 'n' slash for about a year now. It's come a really long way and I'm proud of Russel's team at The Foundation. They found a great art style that reminds me of a manga or that one Wii game, MadWorld.

Cursed Possessions

This game was setup directly to my right, so I saw people playing it occasionally. It's like a horror/puzzle hybrid where you are a museum curator working on, you guessed it, cursed artifacts. The gameplay I saw seemed pretty entertaining, you had to rotate the 3D model of the artifact and pick which tool you wanted to use for the situation. It reminded me a bit of A Mortician's Tale; satisfying to watch your work pay off in a semi-realistic scenario.

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Cursed Possessions was setup next to my booth.

The Nice Axe Games booth for Kali & Ko.

Kali & Ko.

I didn't play it at this event, but I have playtested the first level of this cute co-op adventure game before. You play as two cats in a top-down, 3D action puzzle game. Nice Axe Games has done a good job with all the abilities and polish, and the unique mechanic of being able to swap which item you have equipped with your partner to solve certain puzzles or defeat the boss is pretty fun.

Coldia

This was the only one I actually sat down and played for a few minutes. It's a silly RPG Maker game featuring a cast of characters based on the creator's own friend group, and the setting is based on a neighbourhood in Calgary (I think it was Inglewood). Very wholesome. The creator was also giving out physical CDs of the soundtrack, which was both funny and awesome (as someone who still likes CDs)!

My Experience

Showcase & Conference

I was lucky enough to be offered one of the showcase slots, so I got there early to set up my equipment. Unfortunately, the new game I'm working on wasn't ready to demo, so I used the opportunity to get more eyes on Boyfiend & Ghoulfriend instead.

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My booth setup for Boyfiend & Ghoulfriend.

I didn't have a pop-up banner or anything, and the cards I ordered for print weren't ready until the next day. Definitely something I'll plan to get done well in advance for next year, as the booths that got the most traction were the ones with big banners to draw the eye.

Because I was showcasing and wanted to stay with my booth while players were there, I ended up missing a few of the presentations, but I had already expected that going in.

What I didn't expect to see was two of the speakers, Victoria Tran (InnerSloth) and Andrea Ng (Devolver Digital), playing together. It was a wild experience for me and my little first game, and when I heard these two women squeal with joy and surprise upon learning they could kiss each other in the game, the elation I felt was priceless.

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Besides the showcase, I also ended up seeing a bunch of the students I had during my first teaching semester. It was great to catch up, and I was happy to see them getting out to these kind of events. Every person that shows up helps prove that we have a thriving and eager game dev community here!

I still managed to attend most of the talks, especially on Saturday since we packed up our booths and equipment before it was all over. I certainly absorbed a lot of great information, and I can't wait to see who they bring in next year.

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The overflow crowd was still able to watch on a screen in the west hall. That's me on the right!

Afterparty

The afterparty was at a place called Elephant & Castle, which I hadn't been to before. The whole place was booked for us (with free food & alcohol - again, insane value), which made it a fantastic opportunity to do some networking.

I had some great conversations and good laughs while making new connections. I've even scheduled a follow-up meeting with someone I met there!

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The afterparty at Elephant & Castle.

Final Thoughts

I'd call the first Indie Rodeo a smashing success. The quality of the talks was phenomenal, and everyone was kept well-catered at a location that felt very safe and welcoming.

I can only hope that the province and city take notice of the success and noise generated by this conference, so they can take further steps in investing in the future of games in Calgary.

See you all next year!