Reminder: IGF 2014 Main Competition deadline is in two weeks
Don't forget: The Main Competition submission deadline for the 2014 Independent Games Festival is in two weeks!
The Independent Games Festival is 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 are October 19th and October 31st, 2013, respectively, with finalists announced in January 2014. Finalists' games will be playable at the IGF Pavilion on the Game Developers Conference 2014 Expo Floor, and will compete for nearly $60,000 in prizes.
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.
Continue reading "Reminder: IGF 2014 Main Competition deadline is in two weeks" »
September 18, 2013
IGF China 2013 winners announced
The fifth annual Independent Games Festival China has concluded, after some 250 entries were boiled down to a core 14 finalists, including eight for the main competition, and six student competition entries.
Entrants came from all over Asia and Australasia, from countries as diverse as Singapore, India, Taiwan, Australia, and indeed, China itself. The awards were judged by a team of five veterans, including Richard Tsao of Ubisoft Chengdu, Kevin Li of Tipcat interactive, and IGF chairman emeritus Simon Carless.
The ceremony, held on Monday the 16th in Shanghai, brought these various countries together under one roof, to celebrate the region's innovative spirit. Stage fright upon receipt of awards abounded, but that only added to the endearing nature of the general environment. Indeed, one nominee, Muhammad A.Moniem (Coated), brought his entire family with him to the event.
While only nine of the 14 finalists received awards, all were present at GDC China's IGF pavilion, and were a main attraction during the event's proceedings, alongside GDC China's independent games summit.
Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2013 IGF China awards:
Continue reading "IGF China 2013 winners announced" »
September 11, 2013
IGF, Valve re-team to offer Steam agreements to 2014 Main Competition finalists
The organizers of the Independent Games Festival, the leading showcase for independent video games worldwide, have announced a renewed agreement with Valve for IGF 2014.
Once again, 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, Excellence in Audio, and even the Nuovo Award - can work directly with Steam to bring their titles to PC, Mac and Linux.
2013 IGF Finalists that have already appeared on Steam following their success at the Festival include Gone Home, MirrorMoon EP and Kentucky Route Zero, as well as acclaimed titles such as Cart Life and Starseed Pilgrim.
Continue reading "IGF, Valve re-team to offer Steam agreements to 2014 Main Competition finalists" »
August 16, 2013
IGF China finalists, Indie Summit talks announced for GDC China 2013
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:
Continue reading "IGF China finalists, Indie Summit talks announced for GDC China 2013" »
August 8, 2013
Letter From The Chairman: Welcome To IGF 2014
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!
2014 Independent Games Festival opens call for submissions
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.
Continue reading "2014 Independent Games Festival opens call for submissions" »
July 18, 2013
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.
