Local Game Harvest showcased video games by local developers, alongside local artists and musicians, celebrating a scene that's been quietly growing in the city for more than a decade. The gathering was the latest edition of Local Game Harvest, the annual showcase that gives Kentuckiana's indie developers a stage to show off what they've built.
A Decade-Old Tradition Keeps Growing
The event is organized by Louisville Makes Games. WHAS11 covered the festival as a showcase for locally made games. Louisville Makes Games describes itself as a nonprofit that supports video game and tabletop developers across the city and surrounding area, according to Voice-Tribune. The group traces its roots back to 2014, when members first got together at hackerspace LVL1 to host a game jam, the same outlet notes.
By the time Spectrum News 1 covered the organization's third annual Local Game Harvest on Nov. 1, 2024, Louisville Makes Games said it had already been operating for more than 10 years. That 2024 event featured 38 games from 26 developers across Kentucky and Indiana, according to the station's reporting. Alex Bezuska, the group's co-director, told Spectrum News 1 that the goal of the event is to show the community the passion of Kentucky's game developers.
Games Range From Card Decks to Fortune-Telling Machines
The showcase has historically covered a wide range of genres and formats. At the 2024 event, developer Jonah Segree described his entry, Fatal Fortune, to Spectrum News 1 as a strategy card game set inside a fortune-telling machine that knows the player's future.
Local Game Harvest runs in partnership with RunJumpDev, and the event features not just video games but local artists and musicians as well, according to RunJumpDev. Louisville Makes Games has also said its broader slate of programming, including game jams, workshops, movie nights and exhibitions, is free and open to the public, per Voice-Tribune.
A Growing Online Footprint
The organization's reach has extended beyond the theater doors in recent years. Its 2025 Local Game Harvest webpage states that it featured 54 games, all by local creators, according to louisvillemakesgames.org.
The Local Game Harvest continues a tradition of bringing attention to homegrown games in Louisville, where Louisville Makes Games has been active for more than a decade.
