Indies on Solana

Building a commercially viable game is already a significant challenge. Building one while simultaneously navigating blockchain infrastructure, wallet integration, and Web3 user experience is considerably harder—and has historically driven many independent developers away from on-chain gaming. Indies on Solana is a community initiative and game residency program that addresses this gap by giving independent game developers the practical support, coliving environment, and ecosystem connections needed to ship real games on the Solana blockchain.

Founded by BK and Zang, operators of a small indie game studio in Vietnam, the project operates under a direct tagline: a community initiative by the Indies for the Indies. Rather than positioning itself as a grant program, accelerator, or investment vehicle, Indies on Solana functions as a peer-support structure—a community hub where working developers help each other ship and grow.

Four Core Principles

The initiative's philosophy is anchored in four principles that distinguish it from speculative or extractive Web3 gaming projects:

Excellent without Web3 — Every game developed under the program must be enjoyable as a standalone experience, independent of any blockchain features. The blockchain layer should add value, not serve as the product.

Players first, always — Player experience takes precedence over tokenomics, speculation, or ecosystem metrics.

In it for the long run — Indies on Solana explicitly rejects short-term extraction in favor of sustainable studios and lasting products.

Open and supportive — Participants share knowledge, connections, and hard-won lessons freely with fellow developers.

The Residency Program

The flagship activity is a 30-day in-person game residency combining a coliving and coworking environment. Season 1 was held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, bringing together five indie studios to ship innovative titles and establish industry partnerships. The cohort model proved the concept: developers working in proximity, sharing daily life and daily feedback, ship faster and build stronger networks than those working in isolation.

Season 2 is scheduled for August 2 through August 29, 2026, at Network School in Forest City, Johor, Malaysia. The cohort is capped at ten teams. Housing, food, and program fees are fully covered; participants pay only a $250 refundable deposit to hold their spot.

Eligibility requirements are intentional. Applicants must arrive with a game already in development—not a blank project—and must commit to the full four weeks. Both solo developers and small teams are eligible.

By the end of the residency, participants are expected to ship a concrete milestone: a minimum viable product, demo, alpha, beta, or full launch. They also gain access to real player testing across hundreds to thousands of Solana Mobile users, connections within the broader crypto gaming ecosystem, and a complimentary Solana Seeker phone to facilitate native mobile development and distribution.

The Underdogs Hackathon

Alongside the residency, Indies on Solana runs the Underdogs Hackathon as a pipeline and community-building mechanism. The first edition ran from September 25 to November 11, 2025, attracting over 50 submitted projects and more than 15 mentors, with a $15,000 prize pool.

The hackathon is explicitly designed to minimize Web3 friction. Participants build real-time, streamer-friendly games using the Airdrop Arcade API suite—a unified technical layer that abstracts blockchain complexity into developer-friendly endpoints. The stack includes real-time multiplayer infrastructure from MagicBlock's Ephemeral Rollups architecture, token-reward integration via BONK, payment processing through GameShift (a Solana Labs developer tool), and the Airdrop Arcade platform developed by VORLD. Developers do not need prior blockchain knowledge to participate; the APIs handle the on-chain mechanics behind the scenes.

Games are judged equally across four criteria: API integration, streamer-friendliness, game design, and polish (each weighted 25%). The Grand Prize is direct entry into the Season 2 residency, creating a structured progression from online hackathon to in-person development cohort. Category awards also recognize technical innovation, audience-engagement design, and community choice.

Mentorship during the hackathon comes from Season 1 alumni, Solana ecosystem experts, and content creators, with scheduled office hours, technical workshops, and 24/7 Discord access throughout the build period.

Distribution and the Solana Mobile Ecosystem

A central argument of Indies on Solana is that the Solana Mobile dApp Store offers indie developers a structurally superior distribution channel compared to conventional app stores. The store charges 0% platform fees, versus Apple's and Google's 15-30% cuts. As of the Season 2 program launch, the dApp Store hosted 317 live games and over 100,000 Seeker phone owners—a crypto-native and engaged audience. Top-rated titles on the store include TokenRun (4.5 stars), STEPN (4.2 stars), and Sol Hopper (4.1 stars).

Residency participants receive a Seeker device as part of the program, removing a hardware barrier to native mobile development and testing.

Tokens and Assets

The hackathon's reward system uses BONK, one of Solana's largest community tokens by market capitalization, for in-game reward distribution through the Airdrop Arcade API. Payment processing leverages GameShift, developed by Solana Labs to simplify wallet integration and asset handling for games. Beyond hackathon reward mechanics, Indies on Solana itself does not issue a token or operate an on-chain treasury; it is a community initiative, not a protocol.

Ecosystem Partners and Community Position

Indies on Solana is embedded in the Solana ecosystem through Superteam Vietnam, which featured the Underdogs Hackathon in its weekly community newsletter and facilitated direct collaboration. The Solana Foundation is listed among hackathon sponsors. Technical partners include MagicBlock, VORLD, and GameShift. The organization's Superteam Earn profile records $3,000 in earnings with one competition win, reflecting participation in Superteam's bounty ecosystem in addition to its role as a program operator.

The initiative is rooted in Vietnam, where both founders operate their studio and where Season 1 was hosted. Its connection to Superteam Vietnam positions it within the broader Southeast Asian Solana developer community.

Security and Audit Status

Indies on Solana does not operate smart contracts or custody funds on-chain. It is an organizational initiative—a program operator, not a protocol. The technical infrastructure participants build with (GameShift, MagicBlock, Airdrop Arcade) is provided by third-party platforms maintained independently of Indies on Solana.

Summary

Indies on Solana is a program operator and peer community for independent game developers building on Solana. Its two primary mechanisms—the seasonal coliving residency and the Underdogs Hackathon—are designed to lower the practical barriers to shipping blockchain games: covering living costs, abstracting Web3 complexity, providing experienced mentorship, and connecting developers to a zero-fee distribution channel. Founded in Vietnam by working indie developers, it takes a practitioner's approach to ecosystem building and measures success by whether real, playable games reach real players on Solana.