SENSE OF WONDER NIGHT 2026

Indie Game Project

At TOKYO GAME SHOW, we develop a wide range of indie game initiatives to spotlight the passion and creativity of indie game developers from around the world, and to share the present and future of indie games with visitors.

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"SENSE OF WONDER NIGHT (SOWN) 2026" is a program designed to discover game ideas that evoke a “SENSE OF WONDER”—a feeling that the world has changed just a little the moment you see a game or hear its concept.Developers of the selected
indie game titles (finalists) take the stage to present their projects, sharing their originality and challenges with the audience.The contest will be held at the International Conference Hall on Thursday, September 17th.

The purpose of SOWN

To introduce game with a game design and ideas that are experimental and creative, and that cannot be called conventional or traditional
To raise awareness of the great value of "Sense of Wonder" in games, which may transform the common sense of game, and lead to invigorate the game industry
To provide future opportunities for those who are developing experimental and creative games
To create new domains in the game industry

Five criteria that match SOWN

1
New Sense
A game that realizes a totally new, never-seen-before gaming experience
A game that employs technologies that have not previously been used successfully, such as natural language processing, physics engines, image recognition or gesture control, to present a new kind of experience.
2
New Standard
A game that challenges the common sense of games
A game that pursues new ways of gaming expressions and changes the player's vision of the world after playing and experiencing it.
3
Emergent
A game with emergent features
Ser's activities into the game world by embedding features such as AI interactions and social elements.
4
Motivation
A game that makes people want to play it immediately
A game that makes everyone thinks that they want to enjoy the new experience for themselves and feel that they want to treasure it.
5
Surprise
An amazing game
Any kind of new, eye-grabbing and impressive game!!

Judges

Acknowledgement

The "SENSE OF WONDER NIGHT" event has received a lot of inspiration from the "Experimental Gameplay Workshop" that was started at the Game Developers Conference in 2001. We would like to express our thanks to the many people who helped to make these workshops a success and to all our friends.

Information about
SOWN2025

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