With calendars cleaned by the continued lockdown, one other two digital games occasions have introduced plans to fill within the hole with showcases on Steam for the general public to play demos and listen to builders. Valve and Geoff Keighley’s official Steam Game Festival will return in June, and it’s in all probability no coincidence they’re claiming dates beforehand held by E3. And the Polish games convention, Digital Dragons will take its Indie Showcase to Steam in May, now that the bodily occasion is postponed. I do hope occasion organisers will proceed to carry digital showcases for everybody even after in-person occasions resume.
The Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition will run June 9-12th, providing “time-limited demos or short playable experiences” for upcoming games, devs chatting, and so forth. Like earlier Steam Game Festivals, however now taking place within the week E3 was as a result of fill. This is wholly separate to E3, to be clear, simply conveniently claiming its spot. E3’s organisers don’t plan to hold an official online alternative, although it appears many publishers will nonetheless go forward with bulletins and such on their very own livestreams.
Valve’s summer festival page has helpful choices for the general public to enroll in reminders, in addition to for builders to enroll to participate. Keighley mentioned on Twitter that “The Festival will also expand to more platforms,” although it’s not but clear what which means.
The first Steam Game Festival was held in December 2019 alongside Geoff Keighley’s Game Awards, then it returned in March to fill the void left by GDC’s postponement.
As for Digital Dragons, the games convention will take its annual indie games pageant and awards to Steam because the Digital Dragons Indie Celebration on May 13-15th. Working with Valve and the Polish publishers, Walkabout Games, the organisers plan to focus on fifty indie games on a particular Steam web page with demos, streams, interviews, and awards. Interested devs can join over here.
Having had no plans to attend both E3 or Digital Dragons myself, yup, cool, I’ll try and play the games in these. Some builders have spoken to us about losing community vibes from cancelled events and this could’t actually assist with that, however the digital occasions will definitely nonetheless be welcome.
