Hosted by Seongnam City and jointly organised by the Seongnam Industry Promotion Agency and the Korea Mobile Game Association, the 2026 Indiecraft Networking Day took place on June 19 at the Gravity Seoul Pangyo Autograph Collection Space Volume.

The event brought together indie developers and industry insiders from 72 selected studios, including 52 from the domestic/community category and 20 from the challenger category. Major industry players like One Store, Nexon, NCSoft, and Netmarble were in attendance, with sponsors such as Dove Runner, UModeler, AnchorNode, Creation Workshop, Anders Interactive, and TNK Factory joining the fray.

The agenda was split between an Indiecraft project briefing, a series of expert semi-conferences, and the crowning of the 2026 Indiecraft TOP developers.

Eight lectures anchored the semi-conference. Highlights included: ▲ Gentle Maniac CEO Bok Gyu-dong's 'World Building - Fusing Settings to Craft a Universe', TNK Factory Team Lead Jung Hoon's 'Mobile Gaming Trends and the Rise of Reward Marketing', UModeler CEO Hwang Jae-sik's 'Creating Game Assets Solo with AI', Must Games CEO Kang Baek-ju's 'Game Development with Local LLMs', and Warp Space CTO Choi Young's 'AI Companion SLM Strategy'.

A standout special session by attorney Baek Gyeong-tae of Law Firm Shinwon, titled 'Copyright Stories in the AI Era', offered practical strategies for protecting intellectual property. Additionally, 1HP Studio CEO Lee Jung-hoon and Team Leftova CEO Choi Seung-hyuk—both crowd-pleasers among the judging panel—shared their development journeys and thoughts on the selection.

The TOP developer ceremony saw these two teams take the stage. Team Leftova was honoured in the challenger category for 'Lemy', an action-adventure title set in the afterlife featuring a unique mouse-driven control scheme. Meanwhile, 1HP Studio took the spotlight in the domestic/community category for 'Inari', a high-speed action platformer rooted in Eastern fantasy.

Seongnam Industry Promotion Agency President Lee Ju-yeon remarked, "What started as a modest contest with 26 companies in 2017 has blossomed into this grand event nine years later. You, the 72 developers selected from 417 applicants, are the protagonists of this change. We aim to be the springboard for those facing the walls of funding and distribution. With commercialisation support, export consultations, GXG exhibitions, and AI data analysis lectures prepared, we are committed to ensuring your passion leads to global success."

Co-organising committee chair Hwang Sung-ik added, "I am thrilled we concluded the Networking Day with such enthusiastic participation. This semi-conference was packed with practical, immediately applicable insights on AI, world-building, and copyright. We are determined to manage our remaining support programmes with the same rigour to drive the growth of these developers."

Further details can be found on the official Indiecraft website.