IndieCade submissions have opened for the year so I want to share my experience with them last year and perhaps save some bright-eyed devs some money.
I submitted just after the early bird price lapsed last year, which coincided with an awareness push targeting us indie devs. It cost me $161.99AUD which is not a small amount for their target market.
The submission required a bunch of descriptions/fluff, 4 keys, and a 10 minute gameplay video in case the game didn't get played. The FAQ stated that not all games would be played, but at least the submitted material would be reviewed carefully. Hah!
After 2 months the unsuccessful submission emails rolled out while none of those keys had been redeemed and the gameplay video had 0 views. For what they charge this struck me as really poor form. But wait! It gets worse!
The key detail that had swayed my decision to submit initially (even knowing the game might not get played) was that it seemed to say that submissions would be included in the Steam festival. But at some point that tidbit vanished from the website. Many devs were confused and had reached out so a "clarification" email got sent out saying that only subscription members would actually be included. I'm not sure if it was just poorly worded and led to confusion or if it really did say that, either way not good.
But hold on, they charge a subscription fee to get in their Steam fest? That's against Steam's TOS. But IndieCade has been getting away with it for years now, lets take a look at how.
They have 3 tiers of membership, only the highest one listed at $249/yr or $20/mo qualify for "opportunities for festival inclusion". Worded just vaguely enough to get away with it I guess? I know for sure that Steam is aware of the situation so I don't know why it's allowed to continue, but that's a different issue. Lets zero in on a sneaky detail, that of 'or $20/mo'. Because I've had a look through their sign up process and it only seems to allow the yearly option, and you only find this out at the end. If the monthly option really exists it's quite hidden, and if it doesn't then it's a trick to get devs to begin the signup process only to discover at the end that all that effort filling out details is now wasted unless they go with the more expensive "option".
This highest tier is also the only way to get feedback on your submission. Making it the only way to confirm that they actually looked at anything you sent them in a situation where it appears that they did not.
Circling back to unsuccessful submissions. When this happens you are told that your game will be listed on their website as an 'ongoing presence', but this never materialised. You're also told that they'll be posted about it on social media, which also never materialised.
Anywaaaaay! Based on my experience with them I would warn smaller devs to be very careful getting involved. There are things here that I view as predatory and misleading.
