Glasgow’s independent game festival: an anarchic showcase of Scotland’s thriving virtual world

A Tamagotchi seance, macabre cartoon horror and an arty shmup: this new festival spotlights a fertile Scottish games scene beyond Rockstar North

Walking through the doors of this boutique video game festival, you are immediately greeted by a bullet hell shoot-em-up with a painterly twist. In ZOE Begone!, you dodge and unleash attacks at blistering speed before the game erupts into a euphoric shower of pointillist colour, dazzling the eyes and punishing the thumbs. Next to it sits Left Upon Read; at first glance, a dark-fantasy Quake clone, but one that gives you the bizarre task of checking text messages on a smartphone as you slice your way through a dungeon. These are subversive games, taking well-worn design tropes and breaking them in witty, playful ways.

Rule-breaking is a major theme of Glasgow independent game festival, the latest iteration of an event previously known as Southside games festival. It took place last weekend at Civic House, nestled in the shadow of the M8, the concrete eyesore that carves through Glasgow and connects the city with the wider central belt. On display are more eccentric and smaller-budget games than those you see on shelves, all made by developers who either live within Glasgow or a short train ride away. Co-founder Joe Bain sees such works as part of the “wider cultural landscape” of games, and sought to create a space treating them as such. It’s a far cry from trade fairs such as Gamescom where, beyond the boisterous public halls, the machinations of the games industry can feel as if they’re moving in capital-driven lockstep.