ECGC celebrates a record attendance at its tenth annual event

The East Coast Game Conference (ECGC) saw a record attendance at its tenth annual event this month. The conference, which was held from April 17-19 was supported by almost 100 exhibitors and saw 20% attendance growth.

“We couldn’t be happier with the feedback we’ve received from speakers, exhibitors and attendees,” said Troy Knight, ECGC co-founder and CEO at BLDG-25, “Our mission is to connect industry thought leaders with professionals, educators and aspiring developers, and to inspire those making games and using real-time technology to advance the state of the art across many industries.”

ECGC has partnered with Casual Connect to bring the Casual Connect Indie Prize competition to the event, in which participating independent developers are judged while at the expo. The number of participating developers doubled in size from 2017 to 2018, and the ECGC 2018 Indie Prize winner is Super Gravity Ball, from developer Upside Down Bird. Their gravity-manipulating title will be present at next month’s Casual Connect Europe in London, as part of the initiative.

For the first time, the award also offers cash prizes to the winners. Awarding $1,000 (£716) for first place, $500 (£358) for second place and $200 (£143) for third place.

The event attracted a wide range of speakers, such as award-winning game designer and artist Brenda Romero and Indie MEGABOOTH founder Kelly Wallick. The keynote speakers featured leading artificial intelligence and computer graphics expert Dr. Paul Kruszewski, as well as Epic Games director of publishing strategy and creator of the Steam Spy data reporting platform Sergey Galyonkin.

The next ECGC will be held from April 16-18 2019 at the Raleigh Convention Centre.