GDC China organizers have announced the finalists for IGF China, and have highlighted a series of talks for the Independent Games Summit, including talks by former IGF nominees Thirty Flights of Loving and Retro/Grade.

UBM Tech Game Network's GDC China, now in its sixth year, has moved up to September this year, running from the 15th to the 17th at the Shanghai International Convention Center in Shanghai, China. The event will be co-located with Cloud Connect China.

With over 250 entries this year, IGF China saw almost a 60% increase from 2012's event. The eight main competition finalists and five student finalists are as follows:

Main Competition:

Coated - Muhammad A.Moniem (China)
Dusty Revenge - PD Design Studio Pte Ltd (Singapore)
Eagle & Chicken - Geeeu company, Inc. (China)
Framed - Loveshack Entertainment (Australia)
Mr Pumpkin's Adventure - PUMPKIN Network Technology Development Ltd. (China)
One Upon Light - SUTD Game Lab (Singapore)
Save The Dummy - Sandyloisa (India)
Strange Adventure - Xie Chuang (China)

Student Competition:

Descension - Depths of De'mae - DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore (Singapore)
Enuma Elish - Octave Field (Taiwan)
Ink Warrior - NJU software - Hexopus (China)
Mineland - China Academy of Art (China)
Nao Can Gong Yu - Zeng Wanting / Xu Yalian / Lin Xuan(Taiwan)
Virtus Per Verba: First Person Shouter - The Anti-Socialites (Australia)

All finalists will be playable during GDC China in the IGF Pavilion. The six main competition winners and one student winner will be announced at the IGF China Awards Ceremony on September 16th.

Also of note is the growing Independent Games Summit lineup for GDC China, which - as the rest of the show - will be simultaneously translated into Chinese and English language for delegates:

- Brendon Chung of Blendo Games will present 'The Making of Thirty Flights of Loving,' in which he will explore the writing, character development, and environmental storytelling behind the 2013 IGF Excellence in Narrative nominee.

- 2009 Design and Audio IGF nominee Matt Gilgenbach (Retro/Grade) will discuss 'Obsessive-Compulsive Development: A Difficult Indie Journey.' In examining over four years of grueling crunch, Gilgenbach will revisit what went wrong on the project and in his personal life, and will describe his new, healthier approach to development.

- Cong Yun CEO Bai Dongli will offer advice to indie studios looking to build their own analytics teams in 'The Value in Analyzing Game Data.' Dongli will show how studios are establishing and monitoring common data points, analyzing data in an effort to identify problems within a product, and finding new ways to fit data analysts into game operations teams.

- Ninja Robot Dinosaur Entertainment's Shane Neville will explain how the team designed an IAP system that generated 30% of his game's revenue without using any of the free-to-play tricks that have given IAP a bad reputation in 'Shellrazer - Designing In-App-Purchase Without Losing Your Soul.'

- Hotsauce Interactive's Georg Backer compares his indie (Catcha Catcha Aliens!) and triple-A experiences (Black & White, The Movies, Fable 1, 2 & 3) in 'Walking the Road from AAA to Indie... and Beyond.' With over a decade of lessons to learn from, Backer's tips will cover design, development, platforms, publishing, marketing, and selling, for teams of all budget sizes.

Those interested in attending either the IGF awards ceremony or the Independent Games Summit can do so by registering for a pass on the official GDC China website.

For all the latest information on GDC China, visit the show's website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

Posted by John Polson at 4:26 PM | Permalink

Hello everyone, and welcome back for the 2014 Independent Games Festival, our 16th annual ceremony celebrating the best in independent games. As you've no doubt seen by now, we've just opened this year's call for submissions, beginning the process that will culminate in the awards show Wednesday, March 19, 2014 during Game Developers Conference 2014, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

As we kick off this year's festival, I'd like to take a few moments to again explain some of the changes & enhancements we're making this year, and reiterate some of the new policies that will be carried over. So, let's start with the latter and remind everyone of last year's biggest change:

Previous IGF finalists will not be allowed to re-enter the same game to this year's festival.

A reminder of a rule that went into effect in 2013 - if at any point in the past you have been a finalist in either the Main or Student category, you will not be allowed to re-enter that same game into this year's Main or Student festival. This provision includes former Student Showcase games attempting to now enter the Main category. We're maintaining this rule with the belief that it keeps our annual showcase as fresh, exciting and diverse as possible. If you have previously entered a game that did not become a finalist in either Student or Main, you are free to re-enter that game this year.

From this year forward, we are removing the Technical Excellence category.

We've received a lot of feedback from jurists, entrants and the community at large and agree that while this once was an important category -- which recognized the best and most innovative use of homegrown technology. But the rise of widespread, affordable middleware has, if not leveled the playing field, then at least given many equal footing from which to begin. While there are still obviously innovative and enormously creative uses of all middleware and homegrown technologies, we believe that other award categories will showcase games whose technology serves their gameplay, and agree with many that it's time to retire the category.

The minimum number of finalists in each category will be raised from five to six.

Because we've removed the Technical Excellence category, we are free to expand the number of finalists we can include in the rest of our categories -- Visual Art, Audio, Design, Narrative & the Seumas McNally Grand Prize -- which we hope will ensure a broader and more diverse range of games will come out of each. Our Student Showcase and Nuovo Awards will remain steady at eight finalists each. (We'll still also name Honorable Mentions for each award.)

Those are the most notable changes for this year's festival as we officially open submissions for IGF 2014. This year's submissions will close on October 19th (for our Main Competition) and October 31st (for our Student Competition). The official rules for each are available here.

If you have any questions about any of the detailed changes above, please don't hesitate to drop us an email at chairman@igf.com to discuss this further. Hope you're all having a great year, and looking forward to seeing what you're all preparing for this year's Festival!

Posted by Full Administrator at 2:52 PM | Permalink

Submissions are now officially open for the 2014 Independent Games Festival, the signature competition for indie games, to be held for a 16th year during GDC 2014 in San Francisco next March. This directly follows a record-breaking year which saw nearly 900 entries for the 2013 event, including top prizewinners like FTL: Faster Than Light, Cart Life, and Kentucky Route Zero.

The deadlines for the Main and Student Showcase categories for the 16th IGF are October 19th and October 31st, 2013 respectively, with finalists announced in January 2014. Finalists' games will once again be playable at the packed IGF Pavilion on the Game Developers Conference 2014 Expo Floor, and will compete for nearly $60,000 in prizes.

These plaudits include the Excellence in Visual Art, Audio, Design, and Narrative Awards, which will have an expanded amount of six finalists each, with the winner getting $3,000 in each category. There will also be an expanded six finalists for the $30,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

This year also sees the return of the Best Student Game award, with eight finalists ($3,000 prize), and the special Nuovo Award ($5,000, eight finalists) will again honor 'abstract, shortform, and unconventional' games. Finally, the IGF Audience Award ($3,000) will be decided by a public vote from all of the Main Competition finalists.

The Independent Games Festival is the longest-running and highest profile independent video game festival, summit and showcase. It has served as a springboard for several games that have gone on to become critical and cultural hits. Previous IGF prize winners from the past 16 years include Spelunky, Fez, Minecraft, Limbo, World of Goo, Braid, Castle Crashers, Everyday Shooter and many more of the game industry's breakthrough independent titles.

Winners will be announced on stage at the high-profile Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday, March 19, 2014, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with the IGF Pavilion open from March 19-21, and the sister Independent Games Summit event taking place on March 17 and 18.

The Independent Games Festival is a part of the 2014 Game Developers Conference, which will be held from March 17 - March 21, 2014 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. IGF continues to be the largest annual gathering of independent video game developers, showcasing top talent across the industry and keeping a pulse on the future of independent games.

"During the past 16 years, we've had the pleasure of recognizing some of best talent in the independent games community, and look forward to continuing that tradition with IGF 2014," said IGF Chairman Brandon Boyer.

"Each year, the games of the IGF have upped the ante in truly innovative ways, creating unique entertainment experiences that can only be told through the medium of games. We are very excited to see what this year's competitors have in store."

Submissions to the competition are now open to all independent game developers; important dates for IGF 2014 are as follows:

o August 8, 2013 - Submissions are Open
o October 19, 2013 - Submission Deadline, Main Competition
o October 31, 2013 - Submission Deadline, Student Competition
o January 7, 2014 - Finalists Announced, Main Competition
o January 13, 2014 - Finalists Announced, Student Competition
o March 17 - March 21, 2014 - Game Developers Conference 2014
o March 17 - March 18, 2014 - Independent Games Summit @ GDC 2014
o March 19 - March 21, 2014 - IGF Pavilion @ GDC 2014
o March 19, 2014 - IGF Awards Ceremony (Winners Announced!)

For a complete list of information on the 2014 Independent Games Festival, including submission specifics and frequently asked questions, please visit the official Independent Games Festival website.

Posted by John Polson at 10:00 AM | Permalink