HISTORY
In 2010, Jake Birkett and Alex Vostrov planned their first meetup for local game devs at a Yaletown bar. There were so many attendees that the venue couldn’t accommodate everyone, so people spilled out onto the sidewalk. Thus, the Vancouver Indie Game Developers group was born.
EARLY BEGINNINGS
As the group gained momentum and hosted monthly events with speakers, they began to assemble a dedicated group of volunteers who were also full-time game devs.
This included Alain-Daniel Bourdages, Kimberly Voll, and Ola Rogula.
FULL INDIE
A few months into the group’s inception, they decided to create their logo and branding with the help of Su Skerl and Jason Elliot. “Vancouver Indie Game Developers” was renamed “Full Indie,” which is far more succinct.
FULL INDIE SUMMIT
Full Indie would go on to run game demo nights at the Vancouver Film School and game jams at the Centre for Digital Media. Even though founder Birkett left Vancouver in 2012, the nonprofit remained strong, and held its first annual Full Indie Summit in 2013.
In 2016, founder Vostrov handed over the presidency to Maurice Grela. On top of running regular monthly meetups and the annual summit, Full Indie collaborated with Hand Eye Society in 2017 to run the Game Curious initiative at the Richmond Public Library. Weekly drop-in arcades featured local games and their creators. This was followed by a six-week game-making program, where participants learned how to create their own video game.
After a five-year hiatus, originally starting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Grela passed on the presidency to Aryo Nazaradeh who continued the meetups in 2023. In 2024, the Full Indie Summit returned at Emily Carr University with positive reception.
In 2018, Full Indie joined forces with VanCAF to host the Comics <3 Games showcase. This allowed indies to share their games at the comic festival and reach a wider audience.
What will Full Indie do next? Check out our volunteer positions to join us on our next adventure.