Some of the biggest names in indie games are teaming up to put on a 'no fluff' showcase of new game announcements

French indie studio Evil Empire, which has spent the last five years working on expansions for roguelike sensation Dead Cells, prides itself on being a «triple I» developer: independent, but still big enough to make «world-class» games. Evil Empire likes the label so much, in fact, that it's spent the past few months organizing a new showcase with some other indie superstars, including the developers of Slay the Spire, Darkest Dungeon, Vampire Survivors, and Terraria. The Triple-I Initiative will be streaming on April 10 and will show off more than 30 games.

«We did collaborations with many indie studios [for Dead Cells]: Slay the Spire, Risk of Rain, Terraria,» Evil Empire's marketing director Bérenger Dupré told me in an interview at last week's Game Developers Conference. «It was a cool experience taking those games and putting them into Dead Cells, but we were always wondering if there was a way to collaborate with our indie friends outside of games.»

When Evil Empire started getting ready to announce its next game, the team thought there was an opportunity for a showcase that sat somewhere between the triple-A announcements of The Game Awards and more niche events like, say, the Wholesome Direct. A few months later, they'd managed to bring together enough indie developers to fill a 45 minute event. «Back-to-back trailers, no hosts or sponsorships, no extra fluff,» Dupré said.

"[Evil Empire] were clear that they had a threshold for the type of announcement that they wanted: they wanted to deliver something really punchy and surprising, and we love surprising," said Chris Bourassa, co-founder of Darkest Dungeon developer Red Hook Studios. Bourassa said that the Red Hook team hustled to get something ready to show for the April 10th event. 

Casey Yano, co-founder of Slay the Spire team Mega Crit, said they were trying to decide how to announce their next game when the Triple-I Initiative came up. «We [thought], maybe these guys need our help, and I want to make