Final reminder: IGF China deadline is July 19 for pan-Pacific indie game submissions
Organizers are putting out a last call for submissions towards the Independent Games Festival China - which will take place alongside this September's GDC China in Shanghai - with pan-Pacific game entries due Friday, July 19.
Following its success from previous years, GDC China will once again host all three main elements of IGF China, including the Indie Games Summit, the IGF Pavilion, and the prestigious IGF China Awards. The Awards are split into both Main and Student competitions and will honor the many talented developers in the pan-Pacific area.
Last year's event saw 159 high-quality entries from regions including Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Serbia, Montenegro, and more.
More details on the IGF China awards, including a run down of the judges for the event, the categories and their cash prizes, are available here.
July 10, 2013
Indie Games Summit at GDC Europe debuts line-up
Organizers have announced several notable new talks for next month's Independent Games Summit at GDC Europe in Cologne, including creating the text-based hit, Steve Jackson's Sorcery!; building the Indie Megabooth's presence at PAX and in the press; and porting Canabalt and Super Crate Box to the Commodore 64 - also revealing a new extra with the reduced-price Indie Games Summit Pass.
These talks are part of GDC Europe 2013's Independent Games Summit (IGS), a sister event to the IGS which takes place during the IGF. GDC Europe's IGS will be held Tuesday, August 20th, during the three-day conference at Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany - just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event.
These likely to be popular talks are accessible via the reduced-price Independent Games Summit pass for the show, but are also available for all GDC Europe passholders.
Organizers are also announcing that the Indie Games Summit Pass will now include a two-day pass to the Gamescom event itself, including attendance during the business day on Wednesday, August 21st - a significant additional perk.
The breakdown of the newly added talks, part of an extensive line-up for the day, are as follows:
Continue reading "Indie Games Summit at GDC Europe debuts line-up" »
June 28, 2013
Reminder: IGF China deadline is July 19 for pan-Pacific indie game submissions
Organizers are reminding that the deadline is approaching for the Independent Games Festival China - which will take place alongside this September's GDC China in Shanghai - and is accepting indie game entries from the pan-Pacific area until July 19.
Following its success from previous years, GDC China will once again host all three main elements of IGF China, including the Indie Games Summit, the IGF Pavilion, and the prestigious IGF China Awards. The Awards are split into both Main and Student competitions and will honor the many talented developers in the pan-Pacific area.
Last year's event saw 159 high-quality entries from regions including Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Serbia, Montenegro, and more.
More details on the IGF China awards, including a run down of the judges for the event, the categories and their cash prizes, are available here.
April 24, 2013
IGF China seeking pan-Pacific indie game submissions for 2013 event
The Independent Games Festival China - which will take place alongside this September's GDC China in Shanghai - has opened its call for submissions and is accepting indie game entries from the pan-Pacific area from now through July 19.
Following its success from previous years, GDC China will once again host all three main elements of IGF China, including the Indie Games Summit, the IGF Pavilion, and the prestigious IGF China Awards.
Now in its fifth year, the IGF Summit at GDC China will feature sessions from some of the world's top developers, while the IGF Pavilion will showcase some of the region's best independent and student games.
And of course the IGF China Awards - which are split into both Main and Student competitions - will honor the many talented developers in the pan-Pacific area.
Last year's event saw 159 high-quality entries from regions including Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Serbia, Montenegro, and more.
Last year's recipients included the Best Game winner, the retro-inspired puzzler Cubetractor, and abstract action Best Student Game winner, Fish - and other previously honored games (from 2011 and before) include acclaimed strategy title FTL: Faster Than Light and unconventional retro game Pixel May Cry.
Continue reading "IGF China seeking pan-Pacific indie game submissions for 2013 event" »
March 28, 2013
IGF 2013 winners led by Cart Life and FTL: Faster Than Light
Cart Life, Richard Hofmeier's realistic, sometimes heart-breaking game about food cart workers trying to achieve their dreams, earned the Seumas McNally Award for Best Independent Game and its associated $30,000 cash prize this evening at the 15th Annual Independent Games Festival, hosted by the Game Developers Conference (GDC) at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.
In addition to winning the Grand Prize, Cart Life also won the Best Narrative Award and the Nuovo Award for abstract and unconventional games, an impressive sweep for a sometimes deliberately obtuse title that was relatively underappreciated before the IGF Awards season.
The other IGF multi-award winner for the evening was acclaimed space strategy title FTL: Faster Than Light by Subset Games. FTL was helped to prominence by an IGF China nomination early in its development and was honored with both the Excellence in Design Award and the Audience Award.
Other IGF award recipients for 2013 include Tomorrow Corporation's quirky title about burning objects in an 'entertainment fireplace,' Little Inferno, which won the Technical Excellence Award. Surreal magical realist adventure game Kentucky Route Zero by Cardboard Computer won the Excellence in Visual Art award for its beautifully designed environments, and Jeppe Carlsen's beat-based platformer 140 won the Excellence in Audio Award.
Finally, the Best Student Game was awarded to the third-person, high-speed skating game that celebrates Twitter and cell phone culture, Zineth, by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, picked from another strong set of student game finalists.
All finalists and winners for this year's competition are playable at the Game Developers Conference at the IGF Pavilion on the GDC Expo Floor in San Francisco's Moscone Center through Friday, March 29.
The IGF awarded the following games as winners of its 15th Annual Awards:
Continue reading "IGF 2013 winners led by Cart Life and FTL: Faster Than Light" »
March 21, 2013
Your indie guide to IGF 2013: a GDC primer
The week-long 2013 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco's Moscone Center, which hosts both the Independent Games Festival and related Summit, begins Monday, March 25, and we're listing a thorough indie to-do list, highlighting some of the can't miss indie-related events happening every day.
The week begins with the two-day Indie Games Summit (Monday, March 25 and Tuesday, March 26), which is packed with sessions on some of the latest and greatest titles released. Attendees will want to build their own GDC schedule to avoid missing any of these talks.
Postmortems of several hit indie games will include the fake-science puzzler SpaceChem, spacecraft crew sim and RTS FTL: Faster Than Light, the stealth-redefining action game Mark of the Ninja, and the reverse shmup and rhythm hybrid Retro/Grade.
Other notable lectures include crowdfunding tips for indies, designing the mystery behind the episodic Kentucky Route Zero, and the game idea-spawning Twitter account PeterMolydeux and its corresponding Molyjam.
Finally, the ever-popular Indie Soapbox session returns, allowing several devs 5 minutes to rant about indie game development. The lineup includes: Renaud Bedard (FEZ), Bennett Foddy (QWOP), Chris Hecker (SpyParty), Rami Ismail (Super Crate Box), Noel Llopis (Casey's Contraptions), Tim Rogers (Ziggurat), David Rosen (Lugaru), Emily Short (Galatea), Rich Vreeland (FEZ OST), and Matthew Wegner (Aztez).
Continue reading "Your indie guide to IGF 2013: a GDC primer" »
March 13, 2013
'Road to the IGF' Pt. 2: more stories behind this year's top indie games
Gamasutra's Road to the IGF continues to highlight every 2013 Independent Games Festival finalist - and here's the second batch of interviews, including Little Inferno, FTL, Inrusion 2 and Spaceteam.
All finalists will be playable at an expanded IGF Pavilion on the Game Developers Conference 2013 Expo floor from March 27-29, 2013, at San Francisco's Moscone Center.
This year's 'Road to the IGF' series continues with interviews on games such as the "spaceship simulation roguelike-like" FTL by Subset Games, the one-step-a-day VESPER.5 by Michael Brough, and the multi-generational family history game 7 Grand Steps by Mousechief.
This second helping of highlights from this year's finalists are as follows:
Continue reading "'Road to the IGF' Pt. 2: more stories behind this year's top indie games" »
February 19, 2013
IGF 2013 Audience Award Opens Voting
Game Developers Conference organizers have announced that Audience Award voting for the Independent Games Festival (IGF) Main Competition Awards is now open through March 1, 2013 at 5PM ET.
Winners of IGF 2013 will be announced Wednesday, March 27 during the 2013 Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
Anyone who would like to vote for the IGF Audience Award can visit the links below, enter the name of the game they'd like to vote for, and a valid email address. Voters will then receive an email to confirm their vote. Certain rules for voting do apply. More information on Audience Award voting can be found at the below link:
Voters may only select their Audience Award nominees from the list of the Independent Games Festival Main Competition Awards.
The IGF Awards are a major celebration of the best in indie gaming. Each year, its ceremony recognizes and celebrates the creativity, artistry and technical genius of the finest developers and games created in the last year.
The Independent Games Festival Awards will take place starting at 6:30pm PT on Wednesday, March 27. Fans can watch the show live on Twitch.tv or GameSpot.com.
GDC 2013 takes place March 25-29, 2013; more information about the conference and available passes can be found on the official GDC 2013 website.
February 7, 2013
'Road to the IGF' Pt.1: the stories behind this year's top indie games
Gamasutra's 'Road to the IGF' series is in the process of highlighting every 2013 Independent Games Festival finalist - and here's the first batch of interviews, including Kentucky Route Zero, Cart Life and Incredipede.
All finalists will be playable at an expanded IGF Pavilion on the Game Developers Conference 2013 Expo floor from March 27-29, 2013, at San Francisco's Moscone Center.
This year, the 'Road to the IGF' series has already shared stories of innovation in indie gaming such as Q-Games' Move-controlled audio experiment PixelJunk 4AM, Blendo Games' 10-minute long adventure Thirty Flights of Loving, and more.
The full highlights so far from this year's finalists are as follows:
- Simogo discusses its haunting and intentionally-mysterious Visual Art nominee Year Walk, a divergence from the studio's familiar, cute tone.
- Cardboard Computer reveals the inspiration for Kentucky Route Zero, and why it's glad that the game's Kickstarter came before the big crowd-funding boom.
Continue reading "'Road to the IGF' Pt.1: the stories behind this year's top indie games" »
January 21, 2013
2013 Independent Games Festival announces Student Showcase winners
The Independent Games Festival has announced the eight Student Showcase winners for the fifteenth annual presentation of its prestigious awards, celebrating the brightest and most innovative creations to come out of universities and games programs from around the world in the past year.
This year's showcase of top student talent include the first-person meta-videogame ATUM, from the Netherlands' NHTV IGAD, the similarly meta-game-ified pen & paper RPG Knights of Pen & Paper, from Brazil's Instituto de Ensino Superior de Brasilia & Universidade de Brasilia, and the Jet Set Radio-esque Zineth, a game which "celebrates speed, movement & Twitter", from students of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
In total, this year's Student Competition took in over 300 game entries across all platforms -- PC, console and mobile -- from a wide diversity of the world's most prestigious universities and games programs making the Student IGF one of the world's largest showcases of student talent.
All of the Student Showcase winners announced today will be playable on the Expo show floor at the 27th Game Developers Conference, to be held in San Francisco starting March 25th, 2013. Each team will receive a $1,000 prize for being selected into the Showcase, and are finalists for an additional $3,000 prize for Best Student Game, to be revealed during the Independent Games Festival Awards on March 27th.
The full list of Student Showcase winners for the 2013 Independent Games Festival, along with 'honorable mentions' to those top-quality games that didn't quite make it to finalist status, are as follows:
Continue reading "2013 Independent Games Festival announces Student Showcase winners" »
January 11, 2013
IGF 2013 Student Showcase Nominations Coming January 22nd
Due to an error on our official rules page, which showed two separate dates -- each incorrect -- for the announcement of the nominees for this year's IGF Student Showcase, a quick update on the correct timing.
Our body of nearly 250 judges are currently evaluating all of the over 300 entrants into this year's Student competition, and we will be releasing the names of the winning games on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013.
This year, the show will select a total of eight student teams, all of which will receive the opportunity to show off their games at the IGF Pavilion at GDC 2013 in March. All teams in the IGF Student Showcase will also be eligible to receive an enhanced $1,000 cash prize.
In addition, the IGF student finalists will also compete for the IGF Best Student Game Award. The recipient will be revealed during GDC's prestigious IGF Awards ceremony, and the winning game will receive an additional cash prize of $3,000.
The award ceremony will take place Wednesday, March 27, 2013, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and the IGF Pavilion will remain open from March 27-29. The sister Independent Games Summit event, meanwhile, will be held on March 25 and 26.
All of the Independent Games Festival events take place as part of the 2013 Game Developers Conference, which is held March 25th - March 29th, 2013 in San Francisco, and the IGF continues as the most vital showcase of independent game talent across the wide spectrum of artistically- and commercially-aimed development.
January 7, 2013
2013 Independent Games Festival Announces Main Competition Finalists
The Independent Games Festival (IGF) juries are announcing the Main Competition finalists for its historic 15th annual awards - nominating nearly 30 outstanding independent game titles to come out of the worldwide community in the past year.
This year's finalists for the most prestigious independent video game awards and showcase were each picked by a discipline-specific set of expert juries, following playthroughs and recommendations of the 580+ IGF entries from over 200 top independent game experts.
Some of the multiple-nominated games for this year's extremely diverse Festival include Cardboard Computer's 'magical realist adventure game' Kentucky Route Zero, Subset Games' spaceship sim 'Roguelike-like' FTL, and Richard Hofmeier's stark, dense street vendor simulator Cart Life.
The first-ever Excellence in Narrative Award is also showcasing unique titles such as Blendo Games' quirky 'first-person short story' Thirty Flights Of Loving, Auntie Pixelante's autobiographical game about a trans woman undergoing HRT, Dys4ia, and The Fullbright Company's abandoned house mystery Gone Home.
The Nuovo Award, once again honoring 'abstract... and unconventional game development' of all kinds, also saw many standout games competing for its $5,000 prize, including Sleeping Beast's irreverent local co-op sci-fi smartphone game Spaceteam, Michael Brough's 'one move a day for 100 days' VESPER.5,and Mousechief's multi-generational family history title 7 Grand Steps.
The full list of finalists for the 2013 Independent Games Festival, with jury-picked "honorable mentions" to those top-quality games that didn't quite make it to finalist status, is as follows:
Continue reading "2013 Independent Games Festival Announces Main Competition Finalists" »
December 17, 2012
IGF 2013 highlights Visual Art, Audio Award jurors
Organizers of the 2013 Independent Games Festival are pleased to announce the latest additions to its discipline-specific jury panels that will determine the finalists and winner of its various awards.
The jury announcements for this year are beginning with some of the industry professionals, independent game notables and former IGF award winners that will make up its Excellence in Visual Art and Excellence in Audio Awards.
The latest jury rundown following prior announcements of its Nuovo and debut Narrative Award jurists, as well as this year's Design and Technical Excellence juries.
The Excellence in Visual Art Award
The Visual Art award is a category which seeks to highlight the innovation and quality in visuals for indie games.
Prior finalists and winners of the IGF Visual Art award have been entrants which featured impressive displays of the craft of games, including The Behemoth's vibrant cartoon-ish beat-em-up Castle Crashers, Polytron's 2D/3D "trixel"-based puzzle platformer Fez, Amanita Design's hand-painted adventure game Machinarium, Playdead's equal parts soft and stark monochromatic puzzler Limbo, and thechineseroom's ambient first-person exploration game Dear Esther.
The jury consists of the following:
- Grant Duncan (founding member & artist on Hello Games' IGF finalist Joe Danger)
- Jen Zee (Supergiant Games art director on games including Bastion)
- Jakub Dvorsky (founder, Amanita Design, creators of multiple IGF award winning games like Samorost, Machinarium & Botanicula)
- Ben Esposito (independent artist & designer, most recently level designer of The Unfinished Swan)
- Sara Gross (independent illustrator and artist on games like Oregon Whale)
- Beth Maher (illustrator, designer and developer of games like Kreayshawn: the Game)
- Steven Burgess (former designer of Frontier's LostWinds, now working with Hello Games on the iOS version of Joe Danger)
- Kelly Smith (artist & animator at Capy on games including Critter Crunch & Clash of Heroes)
- Richard Hogg (artist on Honeyslug games including Poto & Cabenga, Frobisher Says & IGF finalist Hohokum)
- Patrick Smith (as 'Vectorpark', creator of games & interactive toys like Windosill, Feed the Head & Levers)
Continue reading "IGF 2013 highlights Visual Art, Audio Award jurors" »
December 10, 2012
IGF 2013 highlights initial Design, Technical Award jurors
Organizers of the 2013 Independent Games Festival are pleased to announce the latest additions to its discipline-specific jury panels that will determine the finalists and winner of its various awards.
The jury announcements for this year are beginning with some of the industry professionals, independent game notables and former IGF award winners that will make up its Excellence in Design and Technical Achievement Awards, as well as high-profile additions to its Nuovo and Narrative awards, the first members of which were recently announced.
Former Journey producer and designer and current Funomena co-founder Robin Hunicke will be joining both the Nuovo and Narrative juries. Also joining the Narrative jury is Telltale writer and designer Sean Vanaman, notable for his work co-writing the recent award-winning Walking Dead adventure series. And the Nuovo Award jury will also see the inclusion of designer, curator and Kokoromi art collective co-founder Heather Kelley and Lea Schoenfelder, creator of former IGF finalist Ulitsa Dimitrova.
While the juries continue to be assembled in advance of the kick-off of our next phase of the finalist selection process, we're happy to announce the following confirmed jurists.
The Excellence in Design Award
The Excellence in Design award is a category which seeks to highlight the innovation and quality of the underlying blueprint of each entered game -- component parts like its mechanic design, level design, and difficulty balancing.
Prior finalists and winners of the IGF Excellence in Design Award have included 2D Boy's cartoon construction puzzler World of Goo, Pocketwatch Games' abstracted multiplayer heist game Monaco, QCF's rogue-like puzzler Desktop Dungeons and procedurally-generated platformer Spelunky.
The confirmed jury to date consists of the following:
Continue reading "IGF 2013 highlights initial Design, Technical Award jurors" »
December 6, 2012
IGF, Valve to offer Steam distribution agreements to all 2013 Main Competition finalists
The organizers of the Independent Games Festival, the leading showcase for independent video games worldwide, have announced a new agreement with Valve for IGF 2013.
All IGF Main Competition finalists for this year's event will receive the opportunity to accept a distribution agreement for Steam, a leading platform for distribution in today's burgeoning independent gaming market.
This means every single Main Competition finalist in each of the jury-voted categories - the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Excellence In Design, Excellence In Art, Excellence In Narrative, Technical Excellence, Excellence in Audio, and even the Nuovo Award - can work directly with Steam to bring their titles to PC, Mac and Linux.
This agreement comes as the 2013 Independent Games Festival rolls out its new, cutting-edge judging website back-end - including a dedicated mobile judge app, social-style discussion tools for games, and the ability for judges and contestants to easily connect to resolve technical problems.
With over 200 distinguished judges discussing and recommending titles for named, discipline-specific juries in each of the seven main categories, IGF 2013 will announce its finalists in January 2013, and award winners at Game Developers Conference 2013 in San Francisco this March.
Finalists and winners of the Independent Games Festival since its 1999 debut have included landmark indie games such as Braid, World of Goo, Super Meat Boy, Portal predecessor Narbacular Drop, Minecraft, and a host of other seminal titles. Valve joins other supporters of the 2013 IGF including media sponsors Gamasutra and Game Developer magazine, as well as Platinum Sponsor Microsoft Studios and Platinum Student Showcase Sponsor DigiPen.
December 4, 2012
IGF 2013 debuts initial Nuovo, Narrative Award jurors
Organizers of the 2013 Independent Games Festival are pleased to announce the first discipline-specific jury panels that will determine the finalists and winner of its various awards.
The jury announcements for this year are beginning with some of the industry professionals, independent game notables and former IGF award winners that make up its Nuovo award, as well as its first ever Excellence in Narrative Award.
While the juries are still being assembled in advance of the kick-off of our next phase of the finalist selection process, we're happy to announce the following confirmed jurists.
The Excellence in Narrative Award
The following jurists are among those chosen to lead the IGF's debut Excellence in Narrative award, which is intended to recognize innovation, quality, and impressiveness of storytelling in a game, including, but not limited to, scenario, plot construction, story, and dialogue.
The Excellence in Narrative jury will include the following:
Continue reading "IGF 2013 debuts initial Nuovo, Narrative Award jurors" »
November 19, 2012
IGF 2013 Adds 'Excellence in Narrative' Category
[Independent Games Festival chairman Brandon Boyer is interrupting this year's Festival for a brief but important announcement.]
Hello everybody, and welcome to a special IGF 2013 mid-stream announcement that, after much careful consideration and discussion, we decided was a necessity:
We're adding a new category to this year's festival, Excellence in Narrative.
This may not come as too much of a shock, because it's something that judges, entrants, and the general public have been asking for for quite some time now. Our initial decision to not add the category was not one we took lightly.
It was the subject of many rounds of internal discussion on both the necessity and logistics of adding a category devoted to recognizing narrative innovation, especially as we were making strides to remove categories and pare the festival down to a few core essentials.
But as judging kicked off in early October, it was clear that there was something special about this year's lineup of games in particular that made the absence of a Narrative category especially conspicuous. And so, because so many of our judges have said there are so many games in this year's festival that they specifically want to recognize for their world and their story, we are giving them an avenue to do so.
We'll be defining this new Excellence in Narrative category in much the same way our sister festival, the Game Developers Choice Awards, does: it's a category to recognize "innovation, quality, and impressiveness of storytelling in a game, including, but not limited to, scenario, plot construction, story, dialogue, and other major factors."
Continue reading "IGF 2013 Adds 'Excellence in Narrative' Category" »
IGF China 2012 winners led by CubeTractor, Fish
The Independent Games Festival China has revealed the Main Competition and Student winners for its 2012 award ceremony, which celebrates the most creative indie games from throughout the Pan-Pacific area.
The GDC China co-located event is now in its fourth year, and the victors were led by Best Game winner, retro-inspired puzzler Cubetractor, and abstract action Best Student Game winner Fish.
Drawing from a prize pool totaling 45,000 RMB (roughly $7,150), IGF China's Main Competition gave away awards covering Excellence in Audio, Design, Technology, and Visual Arts, as well as the Best Mobile Game and Best Game awards.
Three awards -- for Best Student Game and Excellent Student Winners -- offered 13,000 RMB (roughly $2,050) in cash prizes, and the winners were revealed in a ceremony in Shanghai during GDC China.
Here are the winners for this year's IGF China:
Continue reading "IGF China 2012 winners led by CubeTractor, Fish" »
November 5, 2012
IGF 2013 sees record entries for its Student Competition
The organizers of the 15th annual Independent Games Festival -- the longest-running and largest festival relating to independent games worldwide -- are proud to announce another year of record entry numbers for IGF 2013's Student Competition.
In total, this year's Student Competition took in more than 300 game entries across all platforms -- PC, console and mobile -- from a wide diversity of the most prestigious universities and games programs from around the world.
Together with the record Main Competition entries, this year's IGF has taken in nearly 900 total entries -- the largest number in the festival's history across the Main and Student competitions.
This year's Student Competition includes entries such as the DigiPen-developed Perspective, which combines 2D platforming with 3D first-person navigation, and Nevermind, an experimental horror title that uses biofeedback to manage player stress and change difficulty on the fly.
Other entries include the physics-based tower defense title The White Laboratory, the stealth horror game Blackwell's Asylum, and the experimental narrative title Snowfall.
The above are just a small selection of the games now available for browsing via IGF.com, where you'll find more information, screenshots and video for each of the IGF Student Competition entries.
The festival's organizers have added an official Student Competition JSON feed, added to the existing Main Competition feed, updated every 30 minutes from live back end data. Teams can update info on their games and have the official entry page change, and third parties are welcome to use this feed to make their own custom IGF entry lists and pages.
Continue reading "IGF 2013 sees record entries for its Student Competition" »
October 29, 2012
Two days left to enter 2013 IGF's Student Competition
With record Main Competition submissions for IGF 2013 announced, organizers are reminding that student submissions for this year's GDC co-located festival are closing on Wednesday.
The longest-running and highest-profile independent video game festival, summit and showcase will continue to accept student entries until 11.59pm PT on October 31st, and finalists in both the Main Competition and Student Competition will be announced in January 2013.
This year, the show will select a total of eight student teams, all of which will receive the opportunity to show off their games at the IGF Pavilion at GDC 2013 in March. All teams in the IGF Student Showcase will also be eligible to receive an enhanced $1,000 cash prize.
In addition, the IGF student finalists will also compete for the IGF Best Student Game Award. The recipient will be revealed during GDC's prestigious IGF Awards ceremony, and the winning game will receive an additional cash prize of $3,000.
The award ceremony will take place Wednesday, March 27, 2013, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and the IGF Pavilion will remain open from March 27-29. The sister Independent Games Summit event, meanwhile, will be held on March 25 and 26.
All of the Independent Games Festival events take place as part of the 2013 Game Developers Conference, which is held March 25th - March 29th, 2013 in San Francisco, and the IGF continues as the most vital showcase of independent game talent across the wide spectrum of artistically- and commercially-aimed development.
Continue reading "Two days left to enter 2013 IGF's Student Competition" »
October 23, 2012
2013 Independent Games Festival reveals record Main Competition entrants
The organizers of the 15th annual Independent Games Festival -- the longest-running and largest showcase for independent developers -- are proud to announce that the event has once again seen record entry numbers for its latest Main Competition.
In total, the GDC 2013 co-located festival attracted 589 Main Competition entries from both already renowned indie developers and first-time entrants, just topping the record-breaking 567 games that the show saw in 2012.
Some of the hundred of intriguing-looking titles entered in the IGF Main Competition this year include EightyEightGames' RPG matching game 10000000, Christine Love's visual novel Analogue: A Hate Story, and Blue Manchu's CCG/RPG hybrid Card Hunter.
The entrants also feature titles such as Hitbox Team's action platformer Dustforce, SantaRagione and BloodyMonkey's unusual first person puzzler MirrorMoon, and much more - and everyone is welcome to check out the full list of entries now.
With the event growing ever larger, IGF 2013 has expanded each of its Main Competition award categories to six finalists (except Nuovo, which has 8 finalists). The Main Competition finalists will be announced in January 2013, and all will be available in playable form at a larger, expanded IGF pavilion on the GDC show floor.
In addition, all IGF 2013 Main Competition entrants are once again eligible for Microsoft Studios' second annual sponsored prize -- a guaranteed first-party publishing deal (including funding if desired) to release the selected title on LIVE-enabled platforms, including the Xbox LIVE Arcade service, Windows Phone, and Windows. (Last year's winner was Capy's frantic retro platform shooter Super TIME Force.)
The festival's organizers have also provided an official JSON feed, which is updated every 30 minutes from live back end data -- teams can update info on their games and have the official entry page change, and third parties are welcome to use this feed to make their own custom IGF entry lists and pages.
Continue reading "2013 Independent Games Festival reveals record Main Competition entrants" »
October 10, 2012
One week to go for 2013 IGF's Main Competition entries
Organizers are reminding that submissions for the 2013 Independent Games Festival Main Competition, which reveals winners at GDC 2013 in San Francisco next March, will close in just 7 days.
The longest-running and highest-profile independent video game festival, summit and showcase continues to accept entries to the 15th annual Festival, with deadlines in the Main and Student Showcase categories in one week (October 17th) and three weeks (October 31st) respectively, with finalists to be announced on January 2013.
Following over 850 entries to IGF 2012, the Festival has expanded each existing category to six finalists, all of which will be available in playable form at a larger, expanded IGF Pavilion on the GDC show floor, and will compete for nearly $60,000 in prizes.
These include the $5,000 Nuovo Award, honoring 'abstract, shortform, and unconventional' games, as well as the Excellence in Art, Audio, Design, Technology, Student Game and Audience Award prizes, each worth $3,000, and the crowning $30,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.
Notable former Independent Games Festival winners over the previous 15 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 27, 2013, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with the IGF Pavilion open from March 27-29, and the sister Independent Games Summit event taking place on March 25 and 26.
All of the Independent Games Festival events take place as part of the 2013 Game Developers Conference, which is held March 25th - March 29th, 2013 in San Francisco, and the IGF continues as the most vital showcase of independent game talent across the wide spectrum of artistically- and commercially-aimed development.
October 2, 2012
IGF China 2012 unveils Main Competition, Student finalists
The Independent Games Festival China has revealed the Main Competition and Student finalists for its 2012 award ceremony, which celebrates the most creative indie games from throughout the Pan-Pacific area,
The GDC China co-located event is now in its fourth year, and this time around the finalists include indie games such as the action-platformer Dustforce, the retro-inspired puzzler Cubetractor, the mobile action game Flying Daggers, and more.
Drawing from a prize pool totaling 45,000 RMB (roughly $7,150), IGF China's Main Competition will give away five distinguished awards, covering Excellence in Audio, Design, Technology, and Visual Arts, as well as the Best Mobile Game and Best Game awards. In addition to the prestige and prizes, winners will also receive two All-Access Passes for the upcoming GDC 2013 in San Francisco.
Alongside IGF China's Main Competition, the ceremony will also host the Student Competition, which honors six of the top regional student games, with teams this year hailing from Mainland China, Singapore, and Taiwan.
This part of the competition includes two awards -- for Best Student Game and Excellent Student Winners -- and offers roughly 13,000 RMB (roughly $2,050) in cash prizes.
Winners in both competitions will be chosen by a panel of expert jurors including Kevin Li (CEO, TipCat Interactive); Monte Singman (Founder/CEO, Radiance Digital Entertainment); Xubo Yang (Director of Digital Art Lab and Assistant Professor; Shanghai Jiaotong University's School of Software), Haipeng Yu (Producer, Tencent Shanghai), and jury chairman Simon Carless, IGF Chairman Emeritus and EVP of the GDC shows, Gamasutra, and Game Developer magazine.
This year's awards ceremony will take place the evening of November 18, and will run alongside the rest of GDC China, which will be held November 17-19 at the Shanghai Convention Center in Shanghai, China.
Here are the finalists for this year's IGF China.
Main Competition
Army and Strategy: The Crusades, by Pied Pipers Entertainment, South Korea [Website, Video]Cubetractor, by Ludochip, Singapore [Website, Video]
Diggin' Dogs, by Soap Creative, Australia [Website, Video]
Continue reading "IGF China 2012 unveils Main Competition, Student finalists" »
September 13, 2012
2013 Independent Games Festival Opens Submissions
Organizers are now officially opening submissions for the 2013 Independent Games Festival, to be held at GDC 2013 in San Francisco next March.
The longest-running and highest-profile independent video game festival, summit and showcase is now accepting entries to the 15th annual Festival, with deadlines in the Main and Student Showcase categories by October 17th and October 31st respectively, and finalists to be announced on January 2013.
Following over 850 entries to IGF 2012, the Festival has expanded each existing category to six finalists, all of which will be available in playable form at a larger, expanded IGF Pavilion on the GDC show floor, and will compete for nearly $60,000 in prizes.
These include the $5,000 Nuovo Award, honoring 'abstract, shortform, and unconventional' games, as well as the Excellence in Art, Audio, Design, Technology, Student Game and Audience Award prizes, each worth $3,000, and the crowning $30,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.
Notable former Independent Games Festival winners over the previous 15 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 27, 2013, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with the IGF Pavilion open from March 27-29, and the sister Independent Games Summit event taking place on March 25 and 26.
All of the Independent Games Festival events take place as part of the 2013 Game Developers Conference, which is held March 25th - March 29th, 2013 in San Francisco, and the IGF continues as the most vital showcase of independent game talent across the wide spectrum of artistically- and commercially-aimed development.
"All of us here at the IGF are eager to see this year's selection of games. Each year, the community manages to outpace itself in innovation and artistry, and we expect nothing less for this 15th anniversary Festival," said IGF Chairman Brandon Boyer.
"In the same spirit of that evolution, we've given our submission system an overhaul that should greatly enhance the experience for both our entrants and our judges alike, and look forward to hearing your feedback. Best of luck to all entrants -- we can't wait to see what you create!"
Submissions to the competition are now open to all independent game developers; important dates for IGF 2013 are as follows:
August 9, 2012 - Submissions are Open
October 17, 2012 - Submission Deadline, Main Competition
October 31, 2012 - Submission Deadline, Student Competition
January 7, 2013 - Finalists Announced, Main Competition
January 22, 2013 - Finalists Announced, Student Competition
March 25 - March 29, 2013 - Game Developers Conference 2013
March 25 - March 26, 2013 - Indie Games Summit @ GDC 2013
March 27 - March 29, 2013 - IGF Pavilion @ GDC 2013
March 27, 2013 - IGF Awards Ceremony (Winners Announced!)
For a complete list of information on the 2013 Independent Games Festival, including submission specifics, frequently asked questions, and more discussion on this year's changes from the IGF Chairman, please visit the official Independent Games Festival website.
August 18, 2012
IGF China seeking indie game submissions for 2012 event
The Independent Games Festival China - which will take place alongside this November's GDC China in Shanghai - has opened its call for submissions and is accepting indie game entries from the pan-Pacific area from now through September 10.
Following its success from previous years, GDC China will once again host all three main elements of IGF China, including the IGF Summit, the IGF Pavilion, and the prestigious IGF Awards.
Now in its fourth year, the IGF Summit at GDC China will feature sessions from some of the world's top developers, while the IGF Pavilion will showcase some of the region's best independent and student games.
And of course the IGF Awards - which are split into both Main and Student competitions - will honor the many talented developers in the pan-Pacific area.
The 2012 IGF China Main Competition will give out awards and cash prizes in five categories, including:
- Best Game (RMB20,000 ~ $3,150 USD)
- Best Mobile Game (RMB10,000 ~ $1,570 USD)
- Excellence in Audio (RMB5,000 ~ $780 USD)
- Excellence in Technology (RMB5,000 ~ $780 USD)
- Excellence in Visual Arts (RMB5,000 ~ $780 USD)
The Student Competition, meanwhile, will offer two awards, for Best Student Game (RMB10, 000 ~ $1,570 USD, 1 Winner) and Excellent Student Winner (RMB3, 000 ~$470 USD, 2 Winners).
Finalists -- who will receive two All Access passes to attend GDC China and the IGF awards ceremony on November 18, 2012 -- will be chosen by a panel of expert jurors including Kevin Li (CEO, TipCat Interactive); Monte Singman (Founder/CEO, Radiance Digital Entertainment); Xubo Yang (Director of Digital Art Lab and Assistant Professor; Shanghai Jiaotong University's School of Software), Haipeng Yu (Producer, Tencent Shanghai), and jury chairman Simon Carless, IGF Chairman Emeritus and EVP of the GDC shows, Gamasutra, and Game Developer magazine.
Last year's event saw 112 high-quality entries from regions including Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, India, and more. Winners included titles like Best Game recipient Pixel May Cry (Feng Li, China), Void (DigiPen Institute of Technology, Singapore) for both Excellence in Technology and Best Student Game, and Pixi (DigiPen Institute of Technology, Singapore) for Excellent Student Winner.
Key dates for IGF China include:
- September 10, 2012- Submission Deadline
- September 28, 2012- Finalists Announced
- November 17-19, 2012 - Game Developers Conference China 2012
- November 18, 2012 - IGF China Awards Ceremony (Winners Announced!)
- November 17-19, 2012 - IGF China Pavilion @ GDC China
GDC China will take place at the Shanghai International Convention Center from November 17-19, 2012. For more details on the show, please visit GDC China's official website or the information and submission pages for IGF China.
June 18, 2012
Letter From The Chairman: Welcome Back (Soon!) For IGF 2013
[Ahead of opening submissions for the 2013 Festival, IGF Chairman Brandon Boyer goes in-depth on the shifts in policy and rules for this year's 15th anniversary IGF experience, and the ethos and considerations behind them.]
Hello everyone, and a fine hallo to you, as we approach the opening of the 2013 Independent Games Festival. If you're playing along at home, you'll note that this is officially the 15th edition of the IGF, a remarkable landmark that puts into perspective just how far the business and culture of independent games has come since its 1999 debut (see the photos of that year's winners to drive the point home -- also, should we bring back the giant novelty check?).
As you know, each year we take some time following the ceremony to consider how best to improve and evolve the Festival in preparation for the next. It's a discussion we hold along with the community that has brought changes in previous years such as our two-tiered judge and jury system, and this year we'll be introducing a number of new changes as well.
Let's kick off the list of changes we're making this year with the one that most directly affects our entrants:
We'll be opening IGF submissions a bit later than our usual schedule.
Traditionally, we open submissions for the festival around this time (mid-June). This year, we're giving our entry and judging backend a major upgrade, so we'll be officially opening our submissions in late July. And though our submissions are usually very light until much closer to the deadline, we're mentioning this change so you can begin planning now.
Our deadline dates, however, will not change: submissions will close on October 17th for the Main Competition and October 31st for Student. We think you'll appreciate the new features that this short delay will bring -- we'll have more details on those as we get closer to opening back up.
Continue reading "Letter From The Chairman: Welcome Back (Soon!) For IGF 2013" »
March 15, 2012
Best of IGF returns to Melbourne's ACMI
Melbourne's Australian Centre for the Moving Image will present the "Best of the Independent Games Festival 2012" exhibition, featuring winners, finalists, and honorable mentions from this year's IGF competition.
Opening on March 27 (the day after its ongoing Best of IGF 2011 exhibition ends) and running until July 8, this annual curated installment invites attendees to play independently-developed games previously featured at San Francisco's IGF event, held by Gamasutra parent UBM TechWeb Game Network. Several of the titles, which visitors can play for free, have not yet released to the public.
The showcase will display 14 games from local and international developers, including IGF's Seumas McNally Grand Prize winner Fez (XBLA) from Polytron, Excellence in Design winner Spelunky (XBLA) from Mossmouth, and Excellence in Visual Art honorable mention Dustforce (Windows) by Australian developer Hitbox Team.
Other games set to be featured at ACMI include PC titles like Amanita's Botanicula (Excellence in Audio winner, pictured), Thechineseroom's Dear Esther (Visual Art winner), and Mode 7's Frozen Synapse (Audience Award winner).
Joost van Dongen's Proun (Visual Art honorable mention), Firebird Games' To The Moon (Audio finalist), State of Play's Lume (Visual art finalist), and Ed Key's Proteus (Audio honorable mention) will be exhibited there, too.
iOS games that will be on display include Powerhead Games' Async Corp (Best Mobile Game finalist), Simogo Games' Beat Sneak Bandit (Best Mobile Game winner), Game Oven Studios' Fingle (Nuovo Award finalist), and Imangi Studio's Temple Run (Best Mobile Game honorable mention).
More information on the event will be made available at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image's official site.
March 8, 2012
14th annual IGF announces winners; Fez gets grand prize, Dear Esther, Spelunky, Antichamber win awards
Montreal-based developer Polytron Corporation proved 2D and 3D environments can get along in Fez, the unique 'perspective-shifting' platformer which earned the Seumas McNally Award for Best Independent Game and the $30,000 grand prize this evening at the 14th Annual Independent Games Festival, hosted by the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.
Fez and its lead developer Phil Fish make headlines again after the game was chosen by a jury of his peers for the win. Fish was most recently thrust into the limelight as the central focus of the hit documentary at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Indie Game: The Movie, which also screened earlier in the week at GDC.
Elsewhere, developer Daniel Benmergui received the Nuovo Award and a $5,000 prize for his comic strip-based narrative game, Storyteller. The Nuovo Award honors abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which "advances the medium and the way we think about games." Storyteller lets the player drop characters into given story panels, where they react according to their personality traits.
Other IGF award recipients for 2012 include thechineseroom's haunting first-person experiential adventure, Dear Esther, which won the award for Excellence in Visual Art for its stunning environments. Demruth's mind-bending puzzle game Antichamber earned the award for Technical Excellence for its creative distortions of time and space, and Mossmouth's update of 2D platformer Spelunky, which custom creates new levels each time it is played, took the award for Excellence in Design. In addition, Amanita Design's point and click exploration game Botanicula received the award for Excellence in Audio with its original soundtrack and sound effects, created by Czech alternative band DVA.
Rounding out the winners list were the recipients of the award for Best Mobile Game which went to Swedish developer Simogo for its rhythmical puzzle game, Beat Sneak Bandit, Best Student Game award winners, and CMU Entertainment Technology Center/Coco & Co for its game Way. Finally, Mode 7's Audience Award winner Frozen Synapse was chosen from nearly 7,000 votes from the IGF game-playing public.
All of this year's IGF games, including both the winners and the finalists, are playable at the Game Developers Conference at the IGF Pavilion on the GDC Expo Floor, which is open through Friday, March 9th.
"The sheer number of fantastic games submitted to the Festival this year was overwhelming, and selecting winners was as tough for our juries as it's ever been," said IGF Chairman Brandon Boyer. "This year's winning games are incredible achievements that showcase just how diverse and innovative the independent game community can be. Congratulations to them, and to all of our finalists and entrants for continually surprising and delighting us with their efforts."
The IGF awarded the following games as winners of the 14th Annual Awards:
February 28, 2012
OnLive offering free trials of select IGF 2012 nominees
Cloud gaming company OnLive announced Monday that it has partnered with the Independent Games Festival to offer a two-week online event in which users can play many of the titles featured at the upcoming IGF 2012.
From February 27 through March 11, OnLive users across the U.S. and UK can play 16 of the current IGF nominees and honorable mentions via the company's game-streaming service on PC, Mac, television, and mobile devices.
Each game is available as a 30-minute free trial on the OnLive Facebook page, allowing users to check out many of the titles in the show's varied lineup, including nominees Dear Esther, English Country Tune and Frozen Synapse.
The OnLive Indie Showcase will conclude on March 11, when OnLive will tally both the number of Likes and the total number of game sessions played for each game. The top games will be announced online on Monday, March 12.
In addition, starting March 5th, OnLive, which is a Gold Sponsor of this year's event, will also be placing previously honored IGF games on sale for 75% off, with free instant demos available for all.
The 2012 Independent Games Festival will take place alongside this year's Game Developers Conference, which will be held next week, from March 5 through March 9 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
February 6, 2012
IGF 2012 Audience Award Opens Voting
[In this note to indie game fans, Independent Games Festival Chairman Brandon Boyer announces public voting to pick this year's IGF Audience Award from among all of the Main Competition finalist games for this year.]
It's time to have your say for the best Independent Games Festival game of 2012! We've just opened public voting for this year's Audience Award, with all members of the public and the indie game community eligible to vote.
As we've done in prior years, we're allowing voting for to any game chosen as a finalist in the festival, as opposed to just those with public PC demos. This is because many of the titles have been playable at other indie game events - or have Beta and other OS versions that many indie game fans may have checked out.
To be part of this year's vote, simply visit the IGF Audience Award page, download any of the games or demos that are currently publicly available (each has been marked whether there's a version for you to purchase or otherwise download). When you've made up your mind, return to vote for your favorite.
After voting and inputting your email address, you'll need to verify your vote by clicking on a link sent to that email. Voting will be open from now until Sunday, February 19th at midnight PST -- go check it out now and start making your way through the games!
