Chicago Indie Game Showcase 2026
Chicago Indie Game Showcase is back for its third year, at the Ravenswood Event Center! CIGS is a one-day convention focusing on videogames and independent art produced within Chicago and the greater Midwestern area, including game demos, local artist displays, and guest speakers. Check out local indie games, tabletop rpgs, hang out with local devs and artists, and a bunch more. We're lighting up our biggest CIGS yet, including an Artist Alley, Tabletop RPG and Miniature games, and a couple as yet unveiled collaborations. So far we have sold out of tickets every year, so we recommend grabbing yours early!
Unfamiliar with CIGS or Indie City Games? Check out our trailer here for a rundown on who we are and what we do.
- Showfloor Passes include access to all games and artist alley
- VIP Passes includes additional access to our guest speakers (schedule forthcoming)
Event Schedule: - 12:00 pm - Event opens for VIP Passes
- 2:00 pm - Event opens for Showfloor passes
- 8:00 pm - Event Ends
- Speaker times will be updated as we get closer to the event
CIGS will also have a bar supplied by Ravenswood Event Center, and we are once again partnering with Hidden Light Tattoo for those of you who want a side of ink with your games!
Children 10 and under receive FREE Showfloor passes.
Our schedule will continue to update as we announce additional games, speakers, and featured artists. Come check out a plethora of games and art across multiple floors and explore the Chicago indie game scene.
Ravenswood Event Center is located at 4021 North Ravenswood Avenue, Chicago, IL 60613. Please note that this year it will be occurring during the Ravenswood Art Walk, with a good chunk of local streets blocked off. Plan accordingly!
Venue is wheelchair accessible via elevator.
Thank you to our sponsors for making this event possible: Big Sir Games, Chicago Game Lab, Dark Meadow, and Hypertyper 2000
Please note that due to limited space, Speaker access is for VIP pass holders only!
Guest Speakers
Please note that speaker access requires a VIP pass! These help us compensate speakers for their time and make this part of the event possible. Speakers for this year are:
C. Spike Trotman
Kickstarter Is Easy, Actually, And I'll Prove It
Spike was a Kickstarter early adopter, running her first project the year the site launched. She's gone on successfully run over 50 crowdfunds, to the tune of over 5.5 million dollars. She also loves the sound of her own voice! SO, c'mon down and listen to her talk about how you should structure your crowdfund and why, whether it's your first time planning a KS project, you're looking for advice to rework a failure-to-fund, or you're 100 projects deep and just wanna swap protips.
http://www.ironcircus.com/
https://www.instagram.com/ironcircus/
https://bsky.app/profile/ironcircuscomics.bsky.social
Megan Carnes
Musically Conveying the Structured Chaos of Tarot Readings
In this talk, game designer and composer Megan Carnes will dive into how she balanced the inherent structure necessary to make good music with the randomness of tarot readings in her upcoming tarot music game Divinuet. The larger points about how to decide how many rules to impose to balance out randomness will be relevant to all disciplines, and no music or audio knowledge is necessary to attend!
https://www.megancarnesmusic.com/
https://taplink.cc/freshfromthecoven
Anna Anthropy
Your TTRPG is Too Long
Anna is a game designer with over fifteen years of experience in the industry, whose work spans digital games and tabletop games. She has written over six books on game design and spent nine years teaching game design at the undergraduate level.
Her work centers themes of disability, queer romance, kink, and DIY game development and publishing.
https://cyborgurl.neocities.org/
Megan Varde
Bugsnax Biomes: The Official Art Book Talk
Get an in-depth look at the biomes that make up Snaktooth Island (and beyond) with concepts, in-progress work, and commentary from Young Horses Lead Environment Artist Megan Varde.
https://bsky.app/profile/mvardeparty.bsky.social
https://younghorsesgames.com/
Bilal Yassine & Robert DiSalle (aka Glass Arcade)
Figuring Out How to Actually Make Something
In our game studio, we're both the Art Guy. And the Code Guy. And the Writer Guy...
We started as two friends who just wanted to make a game together with no idea what to make. But after one doodle here, one song there, a whole world started to materialize. We'll talk about stumbling into inspiration, working as a team, and what to do when you don't know what you want or where to go.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3035870/Dream_Runner/
CIGS tickets are non-refundable.
Got questions? Reach out at contact@indiecitygames.org
Location
Ravenswood Event Center, 60613