“Made With Houdini” Games and VR at IndieCade 2017

On October 6th through 8th, hundreds of game developers, designers, artists, and game fans gathered in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles to celebrate IndieCade 2017. Started 10 years ago, IndieCade is an annual festival that showcases the best and most innovative indie video games, board games, card games, and VR experiences being created today.

The festival is open to the public, giving everyone an opportunity to play indie games, attend talks, and participate in events with both creators of new games, as well as legends from across the industry. For the 3rd year in a row SideFX sponsored IndieCade and ran a booth that showcased “made with Houdini” indie video games and VR from all over the world.

Here’s a recap of the indie games and VR experiences we showed at our booth this year:

Planet Alpha - Planet Alpha ApS - Copenhagen, Denmark - Planet Alpha was one of the crowd favorites at this year’s IndieCade. Players controlled an astronaut explorer in a strange alien world and they were usually amazed by the game’s unique art style and visuals. Planet Alpha is being developed using Houdini, Unreal Engine, and a few other tools.

Suki & The Shadow Klaw - Feline Arts - Guadalajara, Mexico - Suki & The Shadow Klaw is an adventure platformer game that is being built mainly with Houdini and Unity. Players control a cute dragon character named Suki as they navigate their way through a variety of dangerous worlds.

Ary and the Secret of Seasons - eXiin - Brussels, Belgium - Ary and the Secret of Seasons is a third person adventure game where the player controls  a girl named Ary and solves puzzles using special powers that are based on different seasons. Most of the game assets, including characters and their animations, are created in Houdini and then imported into Unity. People who played this game at the IndieCade booth enjoyed the cartoony art style, fun gameplay, and exciting combat.  

I’m Titanium - Storm Game Studio - Kamianske, Ukraine - I’m Titanium is a top-down space shooter game where the player must fight off waves of enemy spaceships. The spaceships, lasers, and explosions are made in Houdini and then brought into Unreal Engine to build the final game. Players enjoyed the highly customizable ships, procedural level design, and fast paced action.  

Marshmallow Melee - TriHelix - SF Bay Area, USA - Marshmallow Melee is a VR game where the player controls cute little marshmallow characters and fights them against similarly cute enemies. The game is built for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift using Houdini, Unity, and some other tools. Marshmallow Melee was a crowd favorite at the SideFX booth, with some players coming back multiple times to play it again and again.

Castle Defender VR - SideFX Game Interns - Santa Monica, USA - Castle Defender VR is a virtual reality game that was made by several SideFX game interns during their internships. The player must defend their castle from the attacking pirates by throwing out knights, archers, bombs, and healing potions. All of the game assets, including characters and animation, were created in Houdini and then used in Unity to build the final game for HTC Vive.