Indie Video Game Fest

Indie Video Game Fest is an annual one-day event that brings together gamers, developers, and video game industry insiders to play, discuss, and celebrate independent video games from across the DMV area.

As part of the event, we host exciting guest speakers from the video game industry. These talks focus on the creation of video games, the video game industry, and what working in it is like. Previous speakers include Jason Schreier, Chris Bratt, and Jake Solomon. 

2026 Indie Video Game Fest

Join us on Saturday, June 6, from 10 am – 4 pm at the Central Library.
 

Exhibitor's Hall & Demonstrations

Central Hall, 1st Floor and Creative Arts, 2nd Floor 

• 11 am – 4 pm: Live game demonstrations & interactive exhibits: explore over 30 independent video games

Presentation Schedule

Wheeler Auditorium, 3rd Floor

• 10 am: So you wanna be a game dev? Hosted by Andrea Saravia Pérez, Rick Williams, and Daniel Silber
• 12 pm: Building a Whole New World? Best Inclusive Design Practices in Visual Media with Dr. Sarah Slingluff 
  Dr. Slinguff is a scholar of Islamic art history and video games whose work focuses on design pedagogy to guide developers and educators in creating inclusive, historically grounded games. She has consulted on several titles, most notably Assassin's Creed Mirage. 
• 2 pm: Keynote Talk: Memoir Games, with game developer Emma Kidwell in conversation with award-winning video essayist Jacob Geller

Keynote Talk

This year, we are pleased to welcome game writer and narrative designer Emma Kidwell. 

Game developer Emma Kidwell discusses what memoir is, and how making personal games is both a powerful artistic statement and a tool for narrative designers to trust their intuition when designing a story that resonates with people. Emma has worked on many games such as Civilization VII and Marvel's Midnight Suns, along with several indie projects including Hindsight .

She will be in conversation with award-winning video essayist Jacob Geller. 

Jacob Geller is an award-winning video essayist who examines the intersecting worlds of video games, politics, art, and storytelling. He is also the author of How a Game Lives and upcoming book You're Not Overthinking It. 

Join us for this exciting celebration of indie video games! We can't wait to see you there!