BIC 2026 Opens in Busan With Record 856 Submissions
The record submission count and expanded conference lineup signal BIC's growing pull as a global indie showcase, with Japan represented among the top award finalists.
Reporting from 1 source: 4Gamer.net.
Busan Indie Connect Festival 2026 opened August 14 at BEXCO Hall 2, running three days with a business day and two festival days. The event drew a record 856 submissions from 57 countries, up about 44 percent from last year's 592. Around 180 works from 41 countries were selected. The conference featured keynote talks by Nexon Games' Kim Yong-ha and yosp CEO Shuhei Yoshida. Grand Prix finalists include Japan's Finding Polka.
The offline portion of Busan Indie Connect Festival 2026 opened at BEXCO Hall 2 in Busan, South Korea, on August 14. The event runs three days, with the first day reserved for business and the festival days open to the general public on August 15 and 16. An online festival began August 7 and continues through August 28.
This year's theme is "Buff Your Indie Spirit." The exhibition floor is divided by development stage rather than genre or country, with four zones: DEMO, BETA, COMING SOON, and RELEASED. Many titles are having their first public showing at the event.
The concurrent Busan Indie Wave Conference, held for the second year, opened with a keynote by Kim Yong-ha, executive project director at Nexon Games, who spoke on building immersive worlds. Shuhei Yoshida, CEO of yosp, joined a session on how publishers view indie games. The BIC AWARDS 2026 Grand Prix finalists were also announced, including Finding Polka by Japan's lidlocks.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.