IndieCity Updates!
As you may have noticed, earlier today we put out some changes to the site. Rather than forcing you to scour the site looking for bits which might have changed, we thought we’d compile a short list for you.
Here are the main changes we’ve made, along with handy pictures/descriptive text/help etc. where it might be necessary:
- You can now see the status of your project while in any of the project setup pages.
- There are now “required” markers on fields that are required for your game to be released on IndieCity.
A Month Into Our New Approval Process!
Wow, the last few weeks have flown by! A month ago today we started our new CAP system, detailed in our previous blog post, so it seems it’s probably about time to see how it’s going and what we can do to help make it even better for testers and developers.
Want to Be a Games Tester and Get Games for Free? Join Our New Community Approval Process!
It’s that time of year for Spring cleaning, so we’re looking over all of our systems to see what needs improving where. As part of this, we’ve decided that our CAP (Community Approval Process) system could get even better if we gave it a bit of a polish. With this in mind we’ve put together a new system that will improve things, not only for developers but also for the CAP testers.
Instead of relying on a dedicated few individuals to review ALL the games (around 500 titles on the Store so far!), we’re going to open up the system to more people while streamlining the process.
There are two main reasons for this:
- Compatibility: we know from chatting to developers that trying to work out minimum specs for games when you’re the sole developer on your game is tricky, so this approach will allow devs to get more feedback on what systems their games will run on.
- Efficiency: by having more people available, and streamlining the process, it will be more efficient and should only take at most 30 minutes to review an app or game.
This is how the new system will work:
- You sign up to become a CAP (Community Approval Process) tester.
- When a new game is submitted, we will email a small number of you with a link to the claim the game, and a checklist that needs filling in so we can tell whether the game should be approved for the main Store or not.
- You review the game, fill in the online form, and submit your answers. It shouldn’t take more than 30minutes of your time, and depending on the game could take as little as 5!
- The game you tested is yours to keep, and we’ll keep track of and provide you with stats on the games you’ve tested for IndieCity.
- The developer will then receive a report of any specific feedback given by testers.
As well as getting games for free (and often before their official release) having a CV that shows that you’ve officially reviewed games on IndieCity could help give you the edge if you’re interested in getting into the games industry as a tester.
Ready to sign up? Register here to get started.
Thank you for your support! 
New IndieCity Client for Windows!
We’ve just pushed out a new version of the Windows Client, and since it’s a fairly big change we figured you might want a bit of an overview of what’s changed, and where things have moved to!
The most obvious change is the UI, which will be familiar to you if you’ve used the Pi Store.
You can now view the IndieCity Store through the Client, as well as having quick, in-Client access to the forum and your developer area.
The library area has been modified to make it easier to filter down and find what you’re looking for in a library which might now contain applications, developer tools, etc., as well as games.
New Year Update!
Hi guys,
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break!
We’re back in the office now and I thought that, given we’ve just started a new year, it’s probably at a good point to give you a bit of an update about what we’ve been doing, and what we’re planning on doing next!
Pi Store
Hopefully you’ve all seen the Pi Store by now, but if not – just before Christmas we launched a store (with the Raspberry Pi Foundation) specifically for the Raspberry Pi, allowing people to distribute tutorials, games, applications, etc. for the Pi.
The Pi Store has seen some incredible traffic since its launch, and we’ve had a lot of really useful feedback which we’re using to improve the Pi Store, and IndieCity itself.
Linux Client
Just prior to launching the Pi Store we asked for volunteers to help us test our upcoming Linux Client as well, and saw a huge number of people step forwards, which we are so grateful for! We’ve had a couple of unexpected delays to the next build for testing, but hope to have something sent to those kind people who offered to help within the next couple of weeks.
Tip Jar
Something else we implemented late last year that you might have missed is a tip jar feature, allowing people to reward developers for their products. If you want to enable the tip jar for your project, go to the “pricing” tab of your project setup and check the box near the bottom of the page.
Next Up!
So what’s next? Well, we’ll be fixing up some of the issues that have cropped up within the Pi Store, pushing out a new version of the Windows Client (bringing it more up to date with the Pi Store, and the upcoming Linux Client), and pushing forward with getting the Linux Client ready for people to use!
Once the Linux Client is ready to be used, we’ll start focusing more on getting Mac support worked out.
If there’s anything we’ve not mentioned that you think we should be looking at, please let us know by email, by posting on the forum, by commenting here, or through IRC!
IndieCity Launches the Official Pi Store! (And Some Other Updates!)
Hi guys!
We’re super-excited to announce today that we’re running the official Raspberry Pi Store, open now! The official Raspberry Pi blog post about it is up now, so you can go read their take after this! 
The Raspberry Pi is something we’ve long been interested in as a cheap computer that allows anyone and everyone to start creating content, and we’re thrilled that the Raspberry Pi Foundation wanted us to create a store for all sorts of Pi content, from games to apps to tutorials to assets for use in content that can then go back on the Store!
Developers already registered with IndieCity will find the ability to add a Pi SKU under their “platforms/installers” section of their game setup.
New users can sign up through the IndieCity webpage, or enter via the Pi Store front page, or download the Pi Store on their Pi, either by running the new version of Raspbian which includes the Pi Store, or by apt-get installing it. If you need any help, or just want to hang around and chat Pi we’re available over in #PiStore on Freenode, so come say hi!
This is a fantastic step for us towards our ultimate aim for IndieCity to be a place where developers can show off all their content, regardless of platform. We’re most of the way towards having a Linux Client, and soon after that hope to have a Mac OS Client, but developers will also be able to list items that can’t be distributed on IndieCity (for example iOS apps).
We’ve been saying from the start that we want IndieCity to be the place for discovery of indie games, so opening up to non-Windows content is a major part of that!
Linux
Speaking of Linux… thank you very much to those of you who emailed to volunteer to help us test the Client! We have quite an extensive list of testers now, covering a fairly eclectic range of distros which is fantastic! It’s not too late if you want to help though, as it’s looking likely that the next build that needs testing will be after Christmas, so if you fancied helping us test, please email Enquiries@IndieCity.com including details about your system.
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