Submissions open for 15th annual Independent Games Festival
The 2013 Independent Games Festival, held at GDC in San Francisco next March, is now accepting entries for the main and Student Showcase categories. The deadline for entries to the main competition is October 17 and the Student Showcase deadline is October 31, both at 11:59 p.m. PDT.
The main competition entry fee is $95, and applicants will be competing for more than $55,000 in prizes: the Seumas McNally Grand Prize of $30,000; Excellence in Visual Art, Audio, and Design, each competing for $3,000; Technical Excellence for $3,000; the Audience Award for $3,000 and the Nuovo Award for $5,000. Each category will have six finalists – except the Nuovo Award, which has eight – and will be announced in January.
Eight games chosen for the Student Showcase will be awarded $1,000 each, with one taking home the title of Best Student Game and an extra $3,000. There is no entry fee for the Student Showcase, though it does have its very own rule set.
IGF 2012 saw 850 entries, with Fez eventually taking home the Seumas McNally Grand Prize – Polytron's second IGF award following an Excellence in Art win in 2008. Alexander Bruce, IGF 2012 winner in Technical Excellence for Antichamber, shares some sage Twitter advice for those entering this year: "Suggestion: Take that IGF deadline as a great thing to work towards, submit the best thing you can, update often, and expect nothing from it."
