IGDC 2026 looks to put India’s indie game studios on the global gaming map

Chennai is set to become India’s gaming capital for four days this week, with the India Game Developer Conference (IGDC). The 18th edition of the summit, heralded as a pioneering event in India’s gaming community and organised by the Game Developers Association of India (GDAI), will be held at the Chennai Trade Centre from October 28 to 31.

This time, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) is powering the event, with gaming giants Nazara Technologies, KRAFTON India and Tencent supporting it.

Ahead of IGDC 2026, ELCOT managing director B Vishnu Chandran stressed how the animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics sector is “central to Tamil Nadu’s vision for the creative economy”. He also highlighted how the state wanted Indian and global companies to “invest, collaborate and build from Tamil Nadu”.

GDAI expects more than 10,000 attendees and over 90 speakers at the event, with the first two days being a B2B summit with developers, publishers, investors and technology firms.

This time, however, the gaming event opens the final two days for what is called the IGDC Playground, where members of the public can try original games from Indian studios and meet their creators.

This edition of IGDC is also going to be heavily focused on indies. IGDC said it looks to showcase 60 Indian indie developers and studios, and use its Investor–Publisher Connect to arrange meetings with 32 participating organisations, including global publishers such as Devolver Digital, Voodoo and Miniclip, as well as Indian firms and investors.

India’s gaming sector is projected to generate $2.4 billion in revenue by 2029, with more than 550 million gamers. But Indian game development remains a relatively young cultural and creative industry, even as studios increasingly draw on regional cultural heritage to create distinctive games.

IGDC hopes to close that very gap by helping small teams move beyond making games towards building sustainable businesses with global reach.

“GDAI has worked to turn individual talent into a national industry, opening business opportunities for studios, training the next generation of developers and working with the government on policies that support game development,” said Sridhar Muppidi, GDAI’s chairperson. “This year, with 60 indie studios on the showcase and two days open to the public, we are taking Indian games to a much wider audience.”

And Tamil Nadu seems to have a clear stake in that outcome with Chennai returning to host after its hit 2025 edition, when the state government signed memoranda of understanding with Nazara Technologies, Lakshya Digital, and Reliance Games.