Sydney Opera House Holding Free 'Best Of IGF' Exhibition
The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) has brought back its "Best Of The Independent Games Festival" exhibition and is inviting anyone interested in video games to play nine IGF 2009 winners and finalists for free at the Sydney Opera House from August 5-8 (10AM to 10PM).
The independent titles available to play include Q-Games' PixelJunk Eden, Erik Svedang's Blueberry Garden, Rudolf Kremers and Alex May's Eufloria, KranX Productions's Musaic Box, Amanita Design's Machinarium, Nicalis' Night Sky, Digital Eels' Brainpipe, Data Realms' Cortex Command, and Tale of Tales' The Graveyard.
The Best Of The IGF exhibit is running alongside the Sydney Opera House's Graphic event, which will feature reading by celebrated author Neil Gaiman for his unreleased story "The Truth Is A Cave In The Black Mountains" tomorrow night, a screening of Akira with a live score performed by Regurgitator, and more!
You can read more about the IGF exhibit and Graphic on the Sydney Opera House's site.
August 02, 2010
IGF China 2010 Opens Call For Submissions
Organizers of the Independent Games Festival China, which runs in conjunction with the Game Developers Conference China, have officially announced its call for indie game submissions from the pan-Pacific area now through Wednesday, September 15.
Following on its 2009 success, GDC China -- part of the UBM TechWeb network, as is this website -- will continue to host the three main elements of IGF China, including the Independent Games Summit, which provides valuable conference sessions specializing in the challenges of independent game development.
These include the Independent Games Festival Pavilion, an onsite exhibition of the very best in local indie games, and the Independent Games Festival Awards, which honors the work of the talented pool of local independent game developers.
Continue reading "IGF China 2010 Opens Call For Submissions" »
June 28, 2010
2011 Independent Games Festival Opens Submissions, Adds Mobile Category, Expands Experimental Focus
The UBM TechWeb Game Network, organizer of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference events, is pleased to announce that submissions are now open for the 2011 Independent Games Festival -- to be held at GDC 2011 in San Francisco next March.
The longest-running and highest-profile independent video game festival, summit and showcase is now accepting entries to the 13th annual Festival, with deadlines in the Main and Student Showcase categories by October 18th and November 1st respectively, and finalists to be announced on January 2011.
All games selected as finalists will be available in playable form at the IGF Pavilion on the GDC show floor, and will compete for nearly $50,000 in prizes, including the Nuovo Award, Excellence in Design, Art, Best Student Game, the Audience Award and the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Winners will be announced on stage at the high-profile Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday, March 2, 2011, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
The Independent Games Festival Awards are held immediately before the wider Game Developers Choice Awards, and both multi-thousand person attendee award shows are part of the 2011 Game Developers Conference, taking place February 28th-March 4th, 2011. GDC 2011 also includes the 2011 Independent Games Summit, which is entering its fifth year and offers two days of inspiration and practical lectures and rants from the top minds in the independent games world.
Letter From The Chairman: Explaining IGF's Changes For 2011
[Following the announcement of the 2011 Independent Games Festival competition, IGF Chairman Brandon Boyer goes in-depth on the changes made for this year's Festival, examining the ethos for the competition and the major shifts in policy and rules for this year's 13th annual IGF experience.]
The IGF's mandate has been, since its inception, to provide the best showcase of both the evolution and the revolution the indie development community has continually provided, year after year, since the festival's foundation in 1999. And while -- from my outsider's perspective -- it has succeeded at doing so, part of my own mandate as its new chairman is to help the festival itself undergo that same evolution as it grows in terms of both simply size and in importance to the wider game development community.
Over the past month, I've been in discussions with not only the IGF team itself, but with a wide variety of indie developers, to figure out what we can do to make this year's lucky-13th festival even more successful than it has been in the past. What follows, then, is the three main changes -- minor tweaks and major restructuring -- that hopefully will make the new IGF the most inclusive, responsive and fair festival we've put together yet.
And this first step's a doozy...
Continue reading "Letter From The Chairman: Explaining IGF's Changes For 2011" »
June 02, 2010
Message from the IGF Chairman: Brandon.. Who?
[In his first message as IGF Chairman following his appointment, Brandon Boyer talks about his background in games and the indie scene, introducing himself to the community and talking about his plans for the Festival along the way.]
Hey all, Brandon here to say hello for the first time since the announcement of myself as the new chairman. First off, thanks for all the congratulations and digital high-fives you've sent over the past few weeks -- I am, as you can imagine, quite pleased to be part of the organization here.
For those of you that had or have no idea who I am, let me start off with a quick introduction. My involvement with the games industry came after several years in entirely-unrelated Flash and multimedia development before being given an opportunity to contribute to Edge Magazine, where I quickly staked my claim as their resident indie games archeologist.
This was, happily enough, at a time when the indies were truly coming into their own as a scene and a movement, and it was a constant thrill to be among the first to bring word of Cave Story, Cloud and flOw, Narbacular Drop before its re-imagining as Portal, Facade, Alien Hominid, and the dual Kyle's early Experimental Gameplay projects (before they'd go on to create World of Goo and Henry Hatsworth) to a wider audience.
Obviously, the Independent Games Festival itself had much to do with the successes many of them would become, and I've often said that Introversion's unforgettable Darwinia acceptance speech (and the deafening applause that followed) at the 2006 ceremony marked an epochal, line-in-the-sand moment that clearly stated, "It's our time now".
Continue reading "Message from the IGF Chairman: Brandon.. Who?" »
May 12, 2010
Independent Games Festival Names Boyer As Chairman
The UBM TechWeb Game Network, organizers of the yearly Independent Games Festival and Independent Games Summit has announced that scene notable Brandon Boyer has been named Chairman of the IGF, as it continues to expand its role in evangelizing and rewarding the best indie games.
In his new role, Boyer will oversee submission and judging operations, provide community outreach and support, and help shape the structure and continued growth of the IGF -- the longest-running and largest event relating to independent games worldwide.
This follows the event's all-time record 607 game submissions in 2010 across the IGF Main Competition, Student Showcase and IGF Mobile competitions, including high-profile titles like Monaco, Limbo and Super Meat Boy.
The 2010 Independent Games Festival saw thousands of visitors to its Pavilion [picture gallery] and more than 3,000 attend the IGF Awards Show [picture gallery] in March 2010. The associated Independent Games Summit [picture gallery] had nearly 1,000 attendees for its 2010 keynote session on the Indie Fund.
Both events are part of the larger Game Developers Conference, which is returning to San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center Monday, February 28 to Friday, March 4, 2011.
Continue reading "Independent Games Festival Names Boyer As Chairman" »
March 15, 2010
Gallery: 2010 IGF Pavilion, The Nuovo Sessions and Gamma IV
Organizers of this year's Game Developers Conference and Independent Games Festival have been documenting the March 9th-13th San Francisco event in visual form.
In addition to pictures from the Indie Games Summit and from the IGF Awards Ceremony, here's a selection of pictures from the IGF Pavilion on the GDC 2010 show floor, which was open from Thursday, March 11th through Saturday, March 13th to all event attendees.
Also in this set of pictures are several from 'The Nuovo Sessions', a special GDC Main Conference event featuring mini-talks from finalists and honorable mentions for the IGF Nuovo Award for this year, alongside like-minded individuals. The indie-centric Gamma IV showcase and GDC show floor Pavilion are also showcased in pictorial form.
Continue reading "Gallery: 2010 IGF Pavilion, The Nuovo Sessions and Gamma IV" »
March 12, 2010
GDC: Monaco Takes Grand Prize at 12th Annual IGF
Pocketwatch Games' stylish co-op caper, Monaco, was the big winner at the Twelfth Annual Independent Games Festival Awards, which was hosted by the Game Developers Conference 2010 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.
Monaco received the top award at the ceremony, earning the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game, as well as the award for Excellence in Design.
Other IGF award recipients for 2010, as judged by over 170 industry veterans, independent developers and indie-friendly journalists, also include PlayDead's starkly beautiful silhouetted platformer, Limbo, which won the awards for Excellence in Visual Art and Technical Excellence. Closure Team's puzzle platformer, Closure, earned the award for Excellence in Audio.
Noted independent developer Cactus received the inaugural Nuovo Award for his abstract visual puzzle game, Tuning. The Nuovo Award honors "abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which advances the medium and the way we think about games."
Continue reading "GDC: Monaco Takes Grand Prize at 12th Annual IGF" »
Gallery: 12th Annual Independent Games Festival Awards
Organizers of this year's Game Developers Conference and Independent Games Festival have been documenting the March 9th-13th San Francisco event in visual form.
First, here's a look at pictures from the the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival Awards, where Pocketwatch Games' stylish co-op caper Monaco was the big winner of the night, nabbing the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game in front of a crowd of over 3,000 GDC attendees.
Continue reading "Gallery: 12th Annual Independent Games Festival Awards" »
March 10, 2010
Gallery: Independent Games Summit 2010
Organizers of this year's Game Developers Conference and Independent Games Festival have been documenting the March 9th-13th San Francisco event in visual form.
In addition to a gallery of the IGF Awards, here's a look at the scene around the IGF-affiliated Independent Games Summit, which took place on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the five-day event, and included lectures from notables like 2D Boy's Ron Carmel, Tuning's Jonatan "cactus" Söderström, and Thatgamecompany's Robin Hunicke and Kellee Santiago.
Continue reading "Gallery: Independent Games Summit 2010" »
March 05, 2010
2010 Independent Games Festival Awards To Be Streamed Live Online
2010 Independent Games Festival Awards organizers have confirmed that next week's awards shows will be streamed live on GameSpot.com, with TV network G4 also present to capture highlights of the IGF and Game Developers Choice Awards for a GDC special.
The major CBS-owned GameSpot.com website has set up a special Game Developers Conference 2010 landing page for its coverage, and will be exclusively live-streaming the awards, which take place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 6:30 pm PT.
The ceremonies kick off with the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival Awards, this year presented by indie developers Kyle Gabler (World Of Goo) and Erin Robinson (Puzzle Bots), and honoring an outstanding set of finalists from the world of independent games.
With over $40,000 in awards given out, including the prestigious Seumas McNally Grand Prize, the Audience Award, and the 'art game'-centric Nuovo Award, as well as exclusive videos on indie games filmed by comedy troupe Mega64, the event should be a highlight of the awards calendar.
Following the conclusion of the IGF Awards, the live stream will showcase the Game Developers Choice Awards, now in its tenth year, and the leading mainstream game awards voted on by video game creators. Both ceremonies, which take place in North Hall, Hall D, Moscone Convention Center, are open to all Game Developers Conference 2010 pass-holders to attend.
March 03, 2010
GDC 2010 Preview: IGF 2010, Indie Games Summit, Nuovo Sessions...
Game Developers Conference 2010 organizers have confirmed the final set of independent game-specific content, including Ron Carmel on the just-debuted Indie Fund, the Gamma IV party/showcase, and the EGW-replacing Nuovo Sessions game showcase.
The newly confirmed details round off a multitude of independent game-specific content at the March 9th-13th event, held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, including the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival -- featuring over 30 top indie games playable on the GDC Expo floor from Thursday 11th to Saturday 13th, as well as the major IGF Awards on Thursday 11th at 6.30pm.
In addition, the 4th Independent Games Summit on Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th has added and clarified a number of sessions, with 2D Boy's Ron Carmel kicking off the event with 'Indies and Publishers: Fixing a System That Never Worked', now confirmed to discuss the new Indie Fund organization.
Another major new panel, 'Tripping The Art Fantastic', features Spelunky creator Derek Yu, Braid artist David Hellman and Super Meat Boy co-creator Edmund McMillen discussing "how each one of these figures influences the state of game art, from hand painted epics to short form experimental Flash games."
Continue reading "GDC 2010 Preview: IGF 2010, Indie Games Summit, Nuovo Sessions..." »
February 26, 2010
IGF, Direct2Drive Announce Finalists For $10,000 D2D Vision Award
Independent Games Festival organizers and sponsor Direct2Drive have announced the finalists for the D2D Vision Award, with games including HurricaneX2 and Nyxquest competing for a $10,000 cash prize at the IGF Awards on March 11.
Digital game distribution site Direct2Drive, the event's official download partner, set up the Vision Award in 2009 to "honor independent developers whose games present the new ideas and concepts that will help spark innovation in gaming."
The winner, picked from the five finalists -- all indie games from the more than 300 IGF main competition entries -- will be presented live on stage by IGN on-air personality Jessica Chobot at the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival Awards.
The awards themselves take place on Thursday, March 11 during the 2010 Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. The winning team will receive a $10,000 prize from Direct2Drive.
The five finalists for the Direct2Drive Vision Award for this year are:
Continue reading "IGF, Direct2Drive Announce Finalists For $10,000 D2D Vision Award" »
February 20, 2010
Road To The IGF: Coverage Of Independent Games Festival 2010 Finalists
As the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival at Game Developers Conference 2010 rapidly approaches, we're delighted to note that a lot of prominent video game outlets are covering this year's finalists.
In fact, the coverage is coming thick and fast, even before journalists get to chat to creators in-person at the IGF Pavilion, attend the Independent Games Summit, and see who wins at the IGF Awards on March 11th.
In particular, we wanted to highlight the following articles and series from third-party sites, and thank them for their coverage of IGF-honored indie games:
Continue reading "Road To The IGF: Coverage Of Independent Games Festival 2010 Finalists" »
February 08, 2010
2010 IGF Reveals Mobile Category Winners, Audience Voting, Award Hosts
2010 Independent Games Festival organizers have revealed the five IGF Mobile category finalists battling it out for Best Mobile Game at GDC, also debuting the IGF Audience award and revealing the hosts for this year's IGF Awards.
IGF Mobile Category Winners
After announcing finalists and honorable mentions late last month, the 2010 Independent Games Festival Mobile has named the category winners that will show their games at GDC and battle for the Best IGF Mobile Game prize.
After battling it out from a field of 170 top-notch entries, winners thus far include Secret Exit's physics-heavy Stair Dismount for iPhone, Powerhead Games' cunning color-based puzzle game Glow Artisan for DSi, and Tiger Style's acclaimed action game Spider for Apple's handheld.
The category winners for the 2010 IGF Mobile competition -- an event that celebrates excellence in games for the iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone OSes, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and other handheld devices -- are:
Continue reading "2010 IGF Reveals Mobile Category Winners, Audience Voting, Award Hosts" »
February 01, 2010
ACMI, IGF Partner For 'Best Of IGF 2009' Public Showcase
In partnership with the Independent Games Festival's organizers, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne is running a free exhibit featuring a selection of IGF 2009 competition finalists and winners.
The Best of IGF 2009 showcase invites visitors to not just view but also play ten indie games, some even projected on walls (Blueberry Garden, Night Sky, PixelJunk Eden, and Osmos).
ACMI sent over these photos from the show since it opened last December, showing kids and adults exploring the games and their concepts -- the gallery's curators say it's a popular exhibit for both experienced gamers and neophytes. The space also provides a pleasing sonic atmosphere with Osmos and NightSky playing over the speakers in different rooms (other game setups use headphones).
The Best of IGF 2009 showcase runs until February 15th, so you still have time to check it out if you're in the area! You can find more information on the exhibit and see the full list of games on display at ACMI's site. We've included more images of people playing the games in the extended entry:
Continue reading "ACMI, IGF Partner For 'Best Of IGF 2009' Public Showcase" »
January 26, 2010
2010 Independent Games Festival Mobile Reveals Finalists
The 2010 Independent Games Festival Mobile, an event that celebrates excellence in games for Apple's iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone operating systems (OS), Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation Portable, and other handheld devices, has named the finalists for its third annual competition, with a host of outstanding portable titles showcased this year.
This year's IGF Mobile marks a record number of entries with 170 titles submitted for the competition, up nearly 65 percent from last year's total, which itself was double over the previous year. The finalists for IGF Mobile will compete for $5,000 in prizes, including specialized awards for art, design, audio, technical prowess, and iPhone game creation, as well as the IGF Mobile Best Game award.
Some of the notable titles nominated for this year's IGF Mobile Awards include iPhone games such as double nominee, Tiger Style's Spider: The Secret Of Bryce Manor, downloadable games for Nintendo's DSi including Powerhead Games' Glow Artisan, and promising titles from a host of worldwide indie developers, from England's Studio FungFung through Finland's Secret Exit and beyond.
More information on the finalists is available at the official IGF Mobile website.
January 21, 2010
2010 Independent Games Summit Debuts Details
GDC 2010 organizers have revealed an initial set of Independent Games Summit talks for the March event, including notable lectures by Ron Carmel (World Of Goo) and Randy Smith (Spider).
The summit, now in its fourth year and taking place on March 9th-10th during Game Developers Conference 2010 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, features lectures, postmortems and roundtables from some of the most notable independent game creators -- including many former and current Independent Games Festival finalists and winners.
Overall, the 2010 Independent Games Summit "seeks to highlight the brightest and the best of indie development, with discussions ranging from game design philosophy, distribution, business, marketing, and much more." With a final set of lectures to be announced soon, a number of major talks have been revealed on the Summit homepage. Highlights include the following:
- Indies and Publishers: Fixing a System That Never Worked
In IGS 2010's kickoff talk, 2D Boy co-founder Ron Carmel (World Of Goo) will discuss "the problems with the current model (a tenant farming ecosystem built upon a weak security model), contrast how Valve and Microsoft deal with developers, and propose that creating more transparency in the game industry will give rise to a healthy model for developers and publishers/distributors to work together."
Continue reading "2010 Independent Games Summit Debuts Details" »
January 18, 2010
2010 IGF Reveals Student Showcase Winners
The Independent Games Festival, the popular industry event highlighting and awarding the talents of independent game developers, has announced the winners of the 2010 IGF Student Showcase, which recognizes outstanding indie game development taking place on school and university campuses around the world.
This year's set of ten Student Showcase winners include titles such as Utrecht School of the Arts & USC's virtual paper-folding puzzle game Paper Cakes, DePaul University's first-person 'sound visualization' title Devil's Tuning Fork, and Chalmers University's ingenious card-shuffling platform game Continuity.
These ten games will go on to compete for the Best Student Game Prize, announced on stage at the Independent Games Festival Awards, held Thursday, March 11, 2010, in San Francisco at Game Developers Conference 2010.
The Student Showcase-winning games -- all of which will also be playable at the IGF Pavilion on the GDC 2010 show floor -- were chosen from a remarkable field of entries by an opt-in subset of the more than 150 notable game industry figures judging the IGF Main Competition.
The full list of this year's winners is as follows:
Continue reading "2010 IGF Reveals Student Showcase Winners" »
January 08, 2010
IGF Student Showcase Winners Announcement Delayed One Week
Just a quick note that the Independent Games Festival will be announcing the ten 2010 IGF Student Showcase winners on Monday, January 18th, as opposed to Monday, January 11th, as we'd previously intended.
While judging has largely concluded, we're still working out technical kinks with a minority of the entries, which are present in increased numbers this year thanks to the almost 200 Student Showcase entrants.
We'd like to give those few IGF Student entries that still aren't working properly a chance to upload final compatibility fixes, hence the delay. Watch for the announcement on the 18th, and an IGF Mobile finalist announcement which is still scheduled for the 22nd.
Independent Games Festival 2010 Announces Main Competition Finalists
The Independent Games Festival has announced the Main Competition finalists for the twelfth annual presentation of its prestigious awards, celebrating the most innovative creations to come out of the independent game development community this year.
Nearly $50,000 in prizes in various categories, including the $20,000 Seamus McNally Grand Prize will be awarded on stage at the Independent Games Festival Awards on March 11, 2010 during the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The record-setting 306 Main Competition entries represent a 35% increase over last year's record 226 entries, many of them striking new titles from leading indie developers.
This year's finalists are led by multiple nominations for several notable games, including three nominations for innovative light-centric puzzle platformer Closure, Krystian Majewski's gestural photographic adventure game Trauma, and Ratloop Asia's cinematic avian action title Rocketbirds: Revolution!.
There were two nominations each -- including a Grand Prize nomination -- for Pocketwatch Games' stylish co-op heist game Monaco, Hello Games' polished stunt motorbike title Joe Danger, and Team Meat's cartoon-gory 2D action title Super Meat Boy!.
To ensure the highest-quality judging for the IGF, more than 150 leading indie and mainstream game industry figures -- from 2D Boy's Ron Carmel through Spore's Soren Johnson to ThatGameCompany's Kellee Santiago and beyond -- were recruited to choose finalists via a carefully constructed empirical process.
The Festival is particularly keen to give constructive, written feedback to Main Competition entrants -- even if they did not place as a finalist. As a result, over 1500 written, anonymized judge comments will be passed along to entrants in the next few days, an important part of deriving value and takeaway from entering the IGF.
In addition, for the first year, the IGF's Nuovo Award, intended to "honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which advances the medium and the way we think about games", was judged by a separate, smaller juried panel of notable game and art world figures. These spanned previous IGF Nuovo winner Jason Rohrer (Passage), Area/Code's Frank Lantz, N+ co-creator Mare Sheppard, EA division head and art-game creator Rod Humble, and more.
The jury for the $2,500 Nuovo Award, which allows more esoteric 'art games' to compete on their own terms alongside longer-form indie titles, has released a statement about the chosen Nuovo finalists, including several 'honorable mentions', on the official IGF website.
The finalists for the 2010 Independent Games Festival are:
Continue reading "Independent Games Festival 2010 Announces Main Competition Finalists" »
January 07, 2010
In-Depth: Demystifying the IGF Judging Process
[In this informational piece, indie game creator and Independent Games Festival judge Jens Bergensten (Harvest: Massive Encounter) discusses the process of judging the IGF to help entrants understand what their game goes through, with personal views from two other 2010 IGF judges and IGF Chairman Simon Carless.]
This year I had the great privilege to take part in Independent Games Festival as a judge, getting a chance to evaluate the best independent games that have been recently released or that are still in development. (The finalists for the Main Competition were recently announced.) This task has been really fun, even though it took a little more of my time than I had thought.
I wanted to share my experience from this because when we participated in IGF in 2008 and 2009, the process was somewhat of a black box. Your game was dropped into the box and wasn't seen again until three months later, when an e-mail with commiserations and a few judge comments told you relatively little about the process the titles went through.
Of course, this isn't that different to most competitions out there (even judge comments are rare in other contests), but we had no idea what had happened in that time. And we obviously wanted more information and idea of how this was decided, since IGF is among the most important events for small game start-ups like ours.
So I wrote this article with the permission of the IGF organizers, based on my experience of being on both "sides", without ever getting the luxury of a nomination.
Continue reading "In-Depth: Demystifying the IGF Judging Process" »
January 03, 2010
2010 IGF Nuovo Jury Releases Finalists Statement
Alongside the announcement of 2010 Independent Games Festival finalists, the IGF Nuovo Award jury has revealed its finalists for the $2,500 award, which is intended to "honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which advances the medium and the way we think about games."
The Award, which was won (when called the Innovation/Nuovo Award) by Jason Rohrer's acclaimed abstract multiplayer title Between in 2009, allows more esoteric 'art games' to compete on their own terms alongside longer-form indie titles. For the 2010 Independent Games Festival, the IGF Main Competition judges, numbering over 160 in total, recommended games entered into the IGF Main Competition this year to be considered for this award.
But a separate panel of notable game and art world figures -- spanning previous IGF winner Rohrer, Area/Code's Frank Lantz, N+ co-creator Mare Sheppard, EA division head and art-game creator Rod Humble, and more, have decided the finalists (and will decide the winner) for the Nuovo Award in discussion-based, juried form -- mirroring similar, artistically important awards in other industries. All five Nuovo finalists will exhibit their games at GDC 2010 in San Francisco in the IGF Pavilion, and a Nuovo Award winner will be revealed at the IGF Awards Ceremony on the evening of March 11th, 2010.
The Nuovo Jury's finalist statement discussing and justifying their picks - also adding a number of 'honorable mentions' for games that were just outside the finalist selection, but had fascinating characteristics - reads as follows:
Continue reading "2010 IGF Nuovo Jury Releases Finalists Statement" »
December 09, 2009
IGF Mobile Announces Record Entries For 2010 Competition
IGF Mobile organizers have revealed record entries for the third annual handheld indie game contest, with 172 games entered in total, a 65% increase on last year's competition.
This follows a similarly all-time high number of submissions for IGF's Main and Student competitions, and means over 650 entries in total for the leading independent game competition.
This year's competition -- the sister event to the main Independent Games Festival -- is showcasing independently-developed handheld games for all mobile devices including Apple's iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone OSes, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and other handheld devices.
The full list of 172 entries for 2010's IGF Mobile, including a number of interesting and previously unannounced titles, is now available to view on the competition's official website, along with more specifics on the competition's prizes and upcoming announcements.
December 08, 2009
2010 IGF Announces Jury For Nuovo Award
Organizers of the 2010 Independent Games Festival have revealed jurors for the $2,500 Nuovo Award, which is intended to honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which "advances the medium and the way we think about games."
The IGF's Nuovo Award, which was won (when called the Innovation/Nuovo Award) by Jason Rohrer's acclaimed abstract multiplayer title Between in 2009, allows more esoteric 'art games' to compete on their own terms alongside longer-form indie titles.
For the 2010 Independent Games Festival, the IGF Main Competition judges, numbering over 160 in total, will recommend games entered into the IGF Main Competition this year to be considered for this award.
But a separate panel of notable game and art world figures will decide the finalists and winner for the Nuovo Award in juried form, mirroring similar, artistically important awards in other industries.
Organizers have now announced the full jury for the award, which will be given out during the Independent Games Festival Awards on the evening of Thursday, March 11th, 2010 during Game Developers Conference 2010.
It consists of the following individuals:
Continue reading "2010 IGF Announces Jury For Nuovo Award" »
IGF, ACMI Partner For Independent Games Festival Showcase
IGF organizers have announced a third collaboration with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne to show a 'Best Of The Independent Games Festival' exhibition through February 2010.
The major Melbourne, Australia institution, located in Federation Square, is beginning the exhibition starting Tuesday, 8th December 2009. The exhibit features a selection of playable finalists from the most recent 2009 Independent Games Festival competition
The exhibition is open from 10am to 6pm, admission is free, and the 'Best Of The Independent Games Festival' exhibit will run until the 14th of February 2010. Interested parties can watch the exhibition trailer on ACMI's official site, and visit the 'Best of the Independent Games Festival 2009' information site for info on specific games being shown.
December 01, 2009
Exhausted From IGF? Why Not Enter Gamma 4 @ GDC 2010?
We're imagining that most of you are pretty tired from submitting your game to IGF this year. But if you're looking to make a smaller experimental game project that can also get you to GDC, our friends at Kokoromi have just announced the GDC 2010-affiliated Gamma 4 - with game makers challenged to make "innovative, experimental new games played with just one button".
You have until January 29th, 2010 to make a short one-button game, and the chosen games will be playable for all in a dedicated Gamma booth on the Game Developers Conference Expo floor, and showcased at a special gathering after the Indie Games Summit on March 10th. In addition, game creators who are selected for presentation at Gamma 4 will also be awarded GDC 2010 All-Access passes. There's more information on entry guidelines at the official Gamma 4 website.
November 18, 2009
IGF 2010 Reveals Record Student Entry Numbers
Following record Main Competition entries, organizers of the 2010 Independent Games Festival -- the leading worldwide independent games showcase -- have revealed 193 Student Showcase entries, a record 33% more entries than last year.
After this year's 12th Annual IGF Main Competition -- just one of the three IGF competitions taking place this year -- amassed 306 game entries, information on the almost 200 Student Showcase entries is now available on the official IGF website.
Previous notable IGF Student Showcase honorees have included DigiPen's Narbacular Drop (evolved into Valve's acclaimed Portal), USC's The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom (now signed by 2K Games for XBLA), Hogeschool van de Kunsten's The Blob (made into a console title by THQ as De Blob), and early USC/ThatGameCompany (Flower) title Cloud.
This year's IGF Student Showcase entries will be judged by an opt-in subset of the more than 160 notable game industry judges, before the student-specific finalists are announced in mid-January 2010.
Ten Student Showcase winners will be given all-access GDC 2010 tickets to show their games at the show, as well as $500 towards travel costs. The overall Best Student Game will be awarded $2500 at the IGF ceremony during Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco next March.
Finally, IGF 2010 organizers are reminding that entries to the IGF Mobile competition -- encompassing iPhone, mobile phone, PSP, DS, Android and other handheld games -- are due by December 1st, 2009.
November 04, 2009
IGF Mobile 2010 Reminds On December 1st Entry Deadline
Following record entries for IGF's Main and Student competition, IGF Mobile organizers are reminding of a December 1st deadline for the third annual festival honoring handheld indie games.
This year's competition -- the sister event to the main Independent Games Festival -- will again feature independently-developed handheld games for all mobile devices including Apple's iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone OSes, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and other handheld devices.
More information on the imminent deadline and competition is available via the Gamasutra article on the subject and the official IGF Mobile website.
November 02, 2009
2010 Independent Games Festival Gets Record Main Competition Entries
The organizers of the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival -- the longest-running and largest festival relating to independent games worldwide -- are proud to announce record entry numbers for IGF 2010's Main Competition, for which entries closed last night.
This year's Main Competition -- just one of the three IGF competitions taking place this year -- amassed 306 game entries, many of them new titles from leading indie developers.
Information, screenshots and videos on each of the IGF Main Competition entries are now available on IGF.com. This total entry tally comprises 35% more games than last year's record 226 Main Competition entries, itself a 30% increase on the previous year -- showing the continuing popularity of independent games and the IGF.
This year's IGF entries will be checked and distributed to the more than 150 notable industry judges for evaluation, before finalists are announced in January 2010 and winners awarded at the IGF ceremony during Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco next March.
IGF 2010 organizers are reminding that games are due for submission in the free to enter Student Showcase category by November 15th, 2009, and entries to the IGF Mobile competition -- encompassing iPhone, mobile phone, PSP, DS, Android and other handheld games -- are due by December 1st, 2009.
