OPENING NIGHT PARTY
Date/Time: Wednesday, April 15th, 6:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Place: Columbia Museum of Art’s Boyd Plaza, 1515 Main Street, Columbia, SC 29202
General Admission: Free
Start with Grit Man, the life-sized pacman-inspired game, provided by the lovely folks of Indie Bits, accessible to everyone (with 25¢). There’s also a shipping container movie theatre known as the Mini Cine that we’ve shipped directly to smack-dab in the middle of the courtyard, looping otherworldly Future Perfect programming all day and night, provided by MIRC and artist Ben Tiven. There’ll be a cash bar provided by The Whig, and we’ll have food and drink in all its variety, from gracious providers San Jose (the taco truck), Mimie’s International, Sweet Cream, Island Noodles and the Wurst Wagon. There’ll be a section purely devoted to Indie Bits glory, with projected video games made for their competition for you to try out.
SHOWCASE
Date/Time: Thursday, April 16th - Saturday, April 18th, 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm daily
Place: The Skyline Room at the Tapp’s Arts Center, 1644 Main Street, Columbia, SC 29201
General Admission: Free
Indie Bits is a celebration of independent gaming and interactive media designed to foster collaboration between developers and enthusiasts, academics and artists interested in games and gaming technologies. The showcase of games from across the Southeast will be located in the Skyline Room at the TAPP’s Art Center – with additional video game installations sprinkled amongst your favorite Indie Grits events as well as various opportunities to get involved on the pixelated front.
BIG FRIENDLY GATHERING
Date/Time: Friday, April 17th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Place: The Skyline Room at the Tapp’s Arts Center, 1644 Main Street, Columbia, SC 29201
General Admission: Free
The one and only Indie Bits Big Friendly Gathering™. Everyone together in one place to talk about our favorite thing—games! There will be a keynote from Jon McElroy of Funomena, on "Failure as a Practice." Immediately after will be a Q&A session with Jon McElroy, John Hodgson from Blizzard Entertainment, and Danny Oakes from IDV (Speed Tree).
GAME DESIGN WORKSHOP
Date/Time: Saturday, April 18th, 9:00 am – 11:00 am
Place: Teen Center at the Richland County Public Library, 1431 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC 29201
Ages 13 and up: Free
Current game designer, researcher, and doctoral student at USC, William Hoskins will teach the basics of game design in a hands on demonstration! Learn programming, asset creation, and the essentials for making your own video game. Bring your own computer and he will provide the rest.
TOUGH NUTS TOURNAMENT
Date/Time: Saturday, April 18th, 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Place: The Skyline Room at the Tapp’s Arts Center, 1644 Main Street, Columbia, SC 29201
Entry Fee: $5
General Admission: Free
TNT's "Game Over"—hosted by Boombox Guy JJ himself—is part video game tournament, part game show, and spectacle! Do you feel you're one of the best at a game from Atari, NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, Playstation, Playstation 2, XBOX, XBOX 360? Pick one of our available games and go head-to-head with the best players around in a single elimination tournament. Each round both contestants play their selected game and if you can beat them at their own game you can win prizes, fame, and even the TNT Title Belt! This tournament is free to attend, and costs a paltry $5 to participate in.
