IndieCade 2024 Night Games at The Music Center in Los Angeles – Indie Game Reviewer – The Best Indie Games

Oh What A Night

IGR has covered IndieCade for years, and this year, we were so happy to attend the Night Games in person again!

Held in collaboration with the Los Angeles Music Center, Night Games is a chance to play games under the stars. There was music, glowing lights, plenty of squishy sofas and bean bag chairs, and lots of games. The sense of wonder, childlike fun, and the chance to let down your hair and be silly permeated the atmosphere.

Check out the full 2024 lineup of games to play.

Dive In

You can’t be shy at Night Games; you have to be bold and ask to play, often with total strangers.

Playing together in person breaks down barriers. Pretty soon, you are shouting and laughing at your ludicrous attempts, cheering on other players and offering to take pictures for them.

My friend and I tried as many games as we could. Night Games filled up fast, and the lineups got longer and longer, but we had gotten there early and fueled up with food and drinks, so we were fortified and ready to play.

Jungle Jym by jwhop was a series of multiplayer sports-like games with a whimsical twist. Turtle Tag and Beet Down were my favorites. In Beet Down, which is an all-out beetle wrestling match, each player controls their own drum track, which makes every wrestling match a unique percussive experience.

Sloppy Forgeries by Playful Systems LLC had a long line, but watching it was fascinating. Players choose a classic painting like Van Gogh’s Starry Night or Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. They then have three minutes to recreate their version of the masterpiece.

At the end, the game scores each attempt for accuracy, and the winner is declared. You have a mouse, a color palette, and different thicknesses for fine detail. It’s such a simple concept but made for some very serious attempts and much hilarity. My friend and I attempted the Mona Lisa, and he won! I think mine was a tad too abstract.

The game that wowed us the most attracted a lot of attention because it required a seesaw with built-in controllers and separate screens for each player.

Back Off Me Booty, developed by a team of student game devs from the University of Utah, is a two-player game that can be played with or without the seesaw. In it, you play as a team of pirates attempting to keep your ship of pirate treasure out of the hands of other pirates or various sea monsters. You must work as a team on the seesaw to tackle enemies attacking you on both sides of the ship.

We lined up for an hour for the chance to play, and it was so much fun to see everyone playing. They even had some pirate hats for participants to wear.

We were just about to board the ship when the People’s Choice Award was announced from the Night Games Stage — it was for Back Off Me Booty! The game devs ran up to accept their award and then came right back so we could try out the award-winning game!

It did not disappoint. We wildly careened up and down and defended our ship from the Kraken and rival pirates. We also got a killer leg and “booty” workout. I want to get one for my living room.

An Embarrassment of Riches

We left feeling slightly giddy, like kids who had been let loose in a toy store. Night Games is a rare opportunity to play with neighbors and enjoy letting loose. You don’t have to worry about looking silly because that’s the point. It’s precisely the sort of shenanigans that imaginative playtime pioneer Bernie DeKoven (whom IndieCade named an award after) would have hoped for and helped to foster.

These are trying times, but a good game makes you remember joy, cooperation, letting go, curiosity, discovery, community, even if only for a little while, and Night Games understands the assignment.

Thank you to IndieCade and the Music Center for putting on such a great event, and congratulations to all the game developers who brought the magic! I’m already looking forward to next year!

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