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IGF 2015 now accepting submissions
Indie developers, it's time to start applying the final coat of polish to your star projects. The Independent Games Festival is now accepting submissions for its 2015 event, giving eligible devs the chance to compete across multiple featured categories. IGF entrants compete for over $50,000 in prizes and awards for Excellence in Visual Art, Audio, Design, and Narrative. Finalists will be eligible for the event's prestigious Seumas McNally Grand Prize, which in previous years was awarded to indie standouts like Cart Life, Fez, and Papers, Please. Developers must pay a $95 entry fee to be considered for this year's IGF Awards. IGF Main Competition entries are due by October 22. Finalists will be announced on January 6, 2015. [Image: IGF]
Independent Games Festival reveals 2014 Student Showcase winners
Independent Games Festival organizers have revealed the winners of this year's IGF Student Showcase category, honoring entries from the NHTV University of Applied Science, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Cambridge, among other institutions. This year's top picks feature Hopoo Games' run-and-gun roguelike platformer Risk of Rain, Albert Shih's forced-perspective puzzler Museum of Simulation Technology, and Hafiz Azman and Winston Lee's single-switch rhythm game Rhythm Doctor. Other winning games include Mahdi Bahrami and Moslem Rasouli's Engare, Philipp Beau and Daniel Goffin's Symmetrain, Ostrich Banditos' Westerado, Unblanched Peanuts' Foiled, and Hack n' Hide's Cyber Heist. Five additional games received honorable mentions. This year's IGF saw a record-breaking number of entries, including 346 projects developed by students. The IGF's Main Competition finalists were announced earlier this month, nominating indie standouts like The Stanley Parable, Device 6, and Papers, Please.
IGF 2014 sees over 1,000 entries, record student numbers
The Independent Games Festival attracted a record number of student contestants this year, pushing the competition's total number of entries to over 1,000. Student Competition highlights for IGF 2014 include the Kickstarter-funded platformer-roguelike Risk of Rain and HKU University of the Arts Utrecht's Westerado, along with motion-controlled experiments like the Oculus Rift-powered Anamnesis and Perfect Woman, a Kinect pose-mimicking collaboration between CLA Game Lab and Filmakademy Baden-Wurttemberg. IGF's Main Competition saw 656 entries this year, including indie standouts like Blendo Games' Quadrilateral Cowboy and Vlambeer's Nuclear Throne. Award winners will be announced in March.
IGF 2014 axes Technical Excellence category, ups finalists minimum to six
Independent Games Festival Chairman Brandon Boyer revealed new policies for IGF 2014 after the festival opened to submissions last week. The removal of the Technical Excellence category stands as this year's most significant change. Boyer says the decision stems from the "rise of widespread, affordable middleware [that] has, if not leveled the playing field, then at least given many equal footing from which to begin." Additionally, the previous minimum number of five finalists in a category has been bumped up to six. The Student Showcase and Nuovo Award (which rewards innovation) will remain at eight finalists, however, and honorable mentions will still be named for each award. Last year's decision to restrict IGF finalists from re-submitting the same project to future festivals also remains in place. Boyer asks that any questions concerning these changes be directed to "chairman [at] igf [dot] com." Submissions for IGF 2014 will be accepted until October 19 for the Main Competition and until October 31 for the Student Competition.
Independent Games Festival 2014 now accepting submissions
The 16th annual Independent Games Festival is now accepting submissions from indie developers. Those looking to enter the competition must enter by October 19. Entries for the student showcase are due October 31. IGF nominees compete for roughly $60,000 in prizes across a number of categories, including Excellence in Visual Art, Audio, Design, and Narrative Awards. Becoming an IGF finalist may not guarantee success, though finalists' games will be playable at GDC 2014 in San Francisco.
IGF 2013 finalists set a Little Inferno, dial Hotline Miami for Thirty Flights of Loving
This year's Independent Games Festival finalists have been selected, a smattering of almost 30 top independent games that have launched within the past year. Leading multiple-nomination games are Subset Games' Best of the Rest 2012 favorite FTL: Faster Than Light, Cardboard Games' adventure offering Kentucky Route Zero, street vendor sim Cart Life from Richard Hofmeier and Little Inferno, the surprisingly delightful Wii U game about burning things from Tomorrow Corporation.Other notable mentions include The Fullbright Company's nod for excellence in writing with its first game, Gone Home; Blendo Games' sequel Thirty Flights of Loving is also up for the win in writing. Terry Cavanagh's Super Hexagon is up for an award in design, while Dennaton Games' Hotline Miami is up for the Seumas McNally grand prize along with all the games listed in the first paragraph of this post. And, as announced back in December, IGF finalists will be offered a Steam distribution deal.For the full list of nominees, hit up the source link below – the nominees will be playable and showcased during GDC in San Francisco, March 27-29. The winners will be revealed during the annual awards show on Wednesday night, March 27.
Fez wins 2012 IGF 'Seumas McNally Grand Prize'
The dust has settled and only one independently developed title is left standing. Seconds ago Fez was announced as the winner of the 'Seumas McNally Grand Prize' at the 14th annual Independent Games Festival Awards.This is the second IGF award for the Polytron-developed title. In 2008, Fez took home the IGF award for excellence in art. After nearly five years of development, Fez is undergoing certification for release on Xbox Live Arcade.
Tonight's nominees (and winners) at the 14th annual IGF Awards
In only a few moments, the Independent Games Festival will honor the best in indie gaming with the 14th annual IGF Awards.The nominees are listed after the break and we'll make sure to update the list as awards are handed out.
IGF 2012 Audience Award voting now open
Despite being into awards shows before they were cool, we're hoping you're not above voting for this year's Independent Game Festival "Audience Award." Voting has just kicked off for 2012's entrants, which comprise all finalist games across all IGF 2012 categories (yes, the list once again includes Fez).Should you choose to cast your favor towards any particular game, you'll want to head to this particularly yellow form and fill things out before February 19. Once you've done as much, we're told a verification email will come through to make sure you're not an evil robot. If you are, in fact, not an evil robot, things should go swimmingly.
IGF finalists Smash a Frozen Fez To the Moon (from a cave)
The 14th annual Independent Game Festival finalists have been announced, and this year's finalists are indie-licious (yum). Titles include pop-indie hits Fez, Frozen Synapse, Spelunky and Atom Zombie Smasher, as well as some of our own understated favorites, such as Freebird Games' To the Moon. The winner of the Seumas McNally Grand Prize receives $30,000, the winner of the Nuovo Award for "abstract, shortform and unconventional game development" gets $5,000, and all other category winners receive $3,000. The awards will take place March 7 at GDC. Check out the entire list of finalists right here:
IGF 2012 entrants have a crack at winning the first ever 'XBLA Prize'
Independent Games Festival entrants aren't just charming, attractive, and creative -- they're also potential XBLA developers. At least they are now, after today's announcement of the first "XBLA Prize" by Microsoft and Game Developers Conference administrators UBM, which gives IGF entrants a crack at being fast-tracked on Xbox Live Arcade for publishing by Microsoft. According to the prize sponsors, a "standalone jury of independent game creators" will apparently collaborate with Microsoft to "identify a shortlist" -- a list which will then be considered for the XBLA prize. If the winner so chooses, his/her project will then be offered funding for development across Xbox 360, Windows Phone 7, and Windows, as well as given the opportunity to employ Microsoft's bevy of testing, marketing, and usability support. Alongside today's prize announcement, Microsoft head of first-party publishing Ted Woolsey also revealed that Microsoft invests upward of $20 million annually on XBLA titles, and offered support for the multi-year partnership with the IGF. "The independent development scene wouldn't be nearly as robust as it is today without the exposure provided by the IGF. We look forward to working with the IGF and having a window into to the huge array of independent games that are submitted every year so that we can continue to find the best games to share with our customers."
IGF announces 2011 Student Showcase winners
The 2011 Independent Games Festival has named the winners of this year's Student Showcase. Created by student teams all over the world, each of the eight titles will be featured and playable at the 2011 Game Developers Conference next month. The games also serve as finalists for Best Student Game at the IGF awards, which will be presented on March 2. The finalists cover a wide swath of styles and gameplay concepts, from ambient shooters to Myst-like adventures. And then there's the one about an octopus trying to make it in human society. See the list of nominees, with links to their IGF pages, after the break.
Independent Games Festival 2011 competition finalists announced
Out of nearly 400 entries, the 2011 Independent Games Festival has narrowed down finalists into six categories for another year's festivities, culminating in the actual awards presentation on March 2. Featured prominently in this year's awards are world creator Minecraft and the terrifying Amnesia: The Dark Descent, both taking three category nominations. Supergiant Games' Bastion and QCF Design's Desktop Dungeons each earned two. Aside from being granted free passes to this year's Game Developer's Conference (where the IGF awards show happens), finalists must present "playable versions of their game to all GDC attendees at the IGF Pavilion on the GDC Expo Floor from Wednesday, March 2nd through Friday, March 4th." That means, after winning the $20,000 grand prize, that team has to stay on the show floor and contain their explosive excitement for the next two days, while dullards like ourselves ask questions about this and that. The ultimate game? Perhaps! Head past the break for all the finalists broken down by category.
IGF China honors indie games from Asia and Australia
The Chinese arm of the Independent Games Festival has announced its award winners for the year, and you can see all of them on its official blog. 2D platformer Sugar Cube (not to be confused with The Crying Sugar Cube Leprechaun game) walked away with the Best Game award and iOS App Store puzzler Train Conductor 2: USA won Best Mobile Game. Best Student Game went to a sandbox-style tower defense title called The White Laboratory, available in demo form on Google Code. The IGF China awards honor games from both Asia and Australia, and are awarded every year at GDC China. Winners picked up a cash prize and will be shown off in Shanghai during the conference itself.
Independent Games Festival expanding focus to include handheld titles
As the Independent Games Festival enters its thirteenth year, chairman Brandon Boyer has announced a couple of significant changes to the awards format. This year, handheld games -- including those for DS, PSP and iPhone -- will be included in the main judging and be up for the same awards as non-portable titles. A new "Best Mobile Game" category is also being added to the IGF Awards suite; the separate IGF Mobile Awards of years past has, effectively, been rolled into the main ceremony. The next IGF Awards event is scheduled for March 2, 2011. Additionally, the field for the IGF Nuovo Award, which is given to more "abstract" entries, is being widened from five to eight titles. Finally, judging will be overhauled: 170 IGF member judges will evaluate the initial entries, recommending them for specific categories, which will then be judged by smaller, more specialized panels to determine a winner for each award. The Independent Games Festival runs from February 28 through March 4, 2011, during GDC 2011 in San Francisco. Submissions are now being accepted.
Direct2Drive indie award finalists named, threatened with Chobot lick
Aside from a spot on Sony's The Tester, we can't imagine a contest in the game industry with a much more ominous prize than Direct2Drive's Vision Award winner. Aside from the $10,000 bounty, apparently the trophy will be presented onstage at the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival by IGN's one and only lick-happy reporter, Jessica Chobot. We've listed all five of the games up for the Vision Award after the break -- a list that includes Hello Games' Joe Danger and Edmund McMillen's Super Meat Boy. The awards presentation will be held during GDC 2010, specifically taking place on Thursday, March 11. We here at Joystiq would like to wish all the contestants luck. Also, you might wanna bring a towel. Just in case, ya know?
2010 IGF Student Showcase winners announced
Are you ever curious about what the future of video gaming is going to look like? Perhaps you envision a world where young people control the actions of prison inmates remotely, as they compete in a gruesome deathmatch? Or maybe it's world where games that are played with the hands are curtly dismissed as "baby toys." However, for a glimpse at the more immediate future of our industry, we need not look further than the IGF Student Showcase -- a round-up of the neatest titles being developed by the big industry names of tomorrow ... today! The IGF committee recently announced the winners of the 2010 Student Showcase, highlighting ten games independently developed by the bright minds currently attending some form of educational institute across the globe. These games will go on to compete in the Best Student Game category of the IGF Awards on March 11 -- an award which nets the winner a cool $2,500. Check out the full list of finalists -- some of which are totally free and available to download now -- right after the jump.
Independent Games Festival 2010 finalists announced
The contenders for the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival awards have been announced today -- you can find the full list of finalists after the jump. In addition to the Seamus McNally Grand Prize (nominees for which include Joe Danger and Super Meat Boy), there are specialized categories recognizing excellence in art, design, audio, and technical achievement. There's also the Nuovo Award, which honors "abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development." Previous winners of the Nuovo include N+ co-creator Mare Sheppard and Passage developer Jason Rohrer. We find ourselves particularly invested in this year's awards show, as -- deep breath now -- AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard For Gravity was nominated for Excellence in Design. We've got, like, a million jokes we still want to make about that game title, but we're running out of opportunities to do so.
Independent Games Festival 2010 competitors announced
Each year, indie developers from around the world submit their creations to the Independent Games Festival Main Challenge in hopes of becoming the next cola-to-Cristal success. This year, the IGF has received a whopping 306 entries (last year: 224) competing for the top prize of $20,000. Last year's winner, Erik Svedang's Blueberry Garden, was picked up for distribution on Steam.Screens, videos and details on all 306 entries can be perused on the IGF website, while many of the games are either downloadable or directly playable from their developer's homepages. Finalists will be picked in January, with the winners in various categories -- including art, design, audio, and innovation -- set to be announced during GDC 2010, which runs March 9–13, 2010.[Via Eurogamer]
2010 Independent Games Festival accepting submissions
If you're ready to unleash your totally deviant, totally original and totally counter-cultural Tetris remake upon the world, your best chance to do so has arrived. The Independent Games Festival is now accepting entries into its Main and Student Showcase categories. You've got until November to get your submissions in, and finalists in the Main Competitions will be announced January 4.If you're looking for reasons to enter your humble project, the festival's organizers have about 20,000 good ones, and by "ones" we mean dollars, by which we mean $20,000 is the grand prize for the competition. In addition, finalists will have their games exhibited on the GDC show floor, where they can be played, admired and possibly exalted by the gaming press -- a treatment received by titles such as World of Goo and Castle Crashers in the past. If your game is of that caliber, we highly suggest throwing your hat into the ring.
