Promotional poster for the Busan Indie Wave Conference [Provided by Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency]
Promotional poster for the Busan Indie Wave Conference [Provided by Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency]

An indie game conference tied to Busan Indie Connect Festival 2026 (BIC 2026), South Korea's largest indie game festival, will be held in August.

The Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency said Monday that the Busan Indie Wave Conference will take place Aug. 14 at Hall 2 of Exhibition Hall 1 at Bexco. The event aims to explore sustainable growth strategies for indie games — titles developed by small studios taking on the global market with a single idea — and is being organized as part of a regional game industry development project supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Korea Creative Content Agency, the city of Busan and the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency.

For an indie game to grow into a global hit, developers must navigate three major challenges: IP expansion, technological innovation and shifting market trends. The conference will use those three themes as its framework, offering practical strategies for indie games to move beyond fleeting success and achieve lasting growth.

The program will feature presentation and panel sessions bringing together representatives from major domestic and international game companies, indie developers and overseas industry experts to share hands-on knowledge. Key speakers include Kim Yong-ha, head of the IO Division at Nexon Games; Ariel Manzur, co-founder of the Godot Engine; and Shuhei Yoshida, former president of SIE Worldwide Studios and current head of Yosp.

Lee Jae-deok, acting president of the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency, said he hopes the conference "will serve as a venue for sharing cases and strategies that provide real, practical help to indie developers in entering the market and expanding their reach to users."


kaf2002@heraldcorp.com