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February 08, 2010

2010 Independent Games Festival organizers have revealed the five IGF Mobile category finalists battling it out for Best Mobile Game at GDC, also debuting the IGF Audience award and revealing the hosts for this year's IGF Awards.

IGF Mobile Category Winners

After announcing finalists and honorable mentions late last month, the 2010 Independent Games Festival Mobile has named the category winners that will show their games at GDC and battle for the Best IGF Mobile Game prize.

After battling it out from a field of 170 top-notch entries, winners thus far include Secret Exit's physics-heavy Stair Dismount for iPhone, Powerhead Games' cunning color-based puzzle game Glow Artisan for DSi, and Tiger Style's acclaimed action game Spider for Apple's handheld.

The category winners for the 2010 IGF Mobile competition -- an event that celebrates excellence in games for the iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone OSes, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and other handheld devices -- are:

Continue reading "2010 IGF Reveals Mobile Category Winners, Audience Voting, Award Hosts" »

February 01, 2010

In partnership with the Independent Games Festival's organizers, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne is running a free exhibit featuring a selection of IGF 2009 competition finalists and winners.

The Best of IGF 2009 showcase invites visitors to not just view but also play ten indie games, some even projected on walls (Blueberry Garden, Night Sky, PixelJunk Eden, and Osmos).

ACMI sent over these photos from the show since it opened last December, showing kids and adults exploring the games and their concepts -- the gallery's curators say it's a popular exhibit for both experienced gamers and neophytes. The space also provides a pleasing sonic atmosphere with Osmos and NightSky playing over the speakers in different rooms (other game setups use headphones).

The Best of IGF 2009 showcase runs until February 15th, so you still have time to check it out if you're in the area! You can find more information on the exhibit and see the full list of games on display at ACMI's site. We've included more images of people playing the games in the extended entry:

Continue reading "ACMI, IGF Partner For 'Best Of IGF 2009' Public Showcase" »

January 26, 2010

The 2010 Independent Games Festival Mobile, an event that celebrates excellence in games for Apple's iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone operating systems (OS), Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation Portable, and other handheld devices, has named the finalists for its third annual competition, with a host of outstanding portable titles showcased this year.

This year's IGF Mobile marks a record number of entries with 170 titles submitted for the competition, up nearly 65 percent from last year's total, which itself was double over the previous year. The finalists for IGF Mobile will compete for $5,000 in prizes, including specialized awards for art, design, audio, technical prowess, and iPhone game creation, as well as the IGF Mobile Best Game award.

Some of the notable titles nominated for this year's IGF Mobile Awards include iPhone games such as double nominee, Tiger Style's Spider: The Secret Of Bryce Manor, downloadable games for Nintendo's DSi including Powerhead Games' Glow Artisan, and promising titles from a host of worldwide indie developers, from England's Studio FungFung through Finland's Secret Exit and beyond.

More information on the finalists is available at the official IGF Mobile website.

January 21, 2010

GDC 2010 organizers have revealed an initial set of Independent Games Summit talks for the March event, including notable lectures by Ron Carmel (World Of Goo) and Randy Smith (Spider).

The summit, now in its fourth year and taking place on March 9th-10th during Game Developers Conference 2010 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, features lectures, postmortems and roundtables from some of the most notable independent game creators -- including many former and current Independent Games Festival finalists and winners.

Overall, the 2010 Independent Games Summit "seeks to highlight the brightest and the best of indie development, with discussions ranging from game design philosophy, distribution, business, marketing, and much more." With a final set of lectures to be announced soon, a number of major talks have been revealed on the Summit homepage. Highlights include the following:

- Indies and Publishers: Fixing a System That Never Worked
In IGS 2010's kickoff talk, 2D Boy co-founder Ron Carmel (World Of Goo) will discuss "the problems with the current model (a tenant farming ecosystem built upon a weak security model), contrast how Valve and Microsoft deal with developers, and propose that creating more transparency in the game industry will give rise to a healthy model for developers and publishers/distributors to work together."

Continue reading "2010 Independent Games Summit Debuts Details" »

January 18, 2010

The Independent Games Festival, the popular industry event highlighting and awarding the talents of independent game developers, has announced the winners of the 2010 IGF Student Showcase, which recognizes outstanding indie game development taking place on school and university campuses around the world.

This year's set of ten Student Showcase winners include titles such as Utrecht School of the Arts & USC's virtual paper-folding puzzle game Paper Cakes, DePaul University's first-person 'sound visualization' title Devil's Tuning Fork, and Chalmers University's ingenious card-shuffling platform game Continuity.

These ten games will go on to compete for the Best Student Game Prize, announced on stage at the Independent Games Festival Awards, held Thursday, March 11, 2010, in San Francisco at Game Developers Conference 2010.

The Student Showcase-winning games -- all of which will also be playable at the IGF Pavilion on the GDC 2010 show floor -- were chosen from a remarkable field of entries by an opt-in subset of the more than 150 notable game industry figures judging the IGF Main Competition.

The full list of this year's winners is as follows:

Continue reading "2010 IGF Reveals Student Showcase Winners" »

January 08, 2010

Just a quick note that the Independent Games Festival will be announcing the ten 2010 IGF Student Showcase winners on Monday, January 18th, as opposed to Monday, January 11th, as we'd previously intended.

While judging has largely concluded, we're still working out technical kinks with a minority of the entries, which are present in increased numbers this year thanks to the almost 200 Student Showcase entrants.

We'd like to give those few IGF Student entries that still aren't working properly a chance to upload final compatibility fixes, hence the delay. Watch for the announcement on the 18th, and an IGF Mobile finalist announcement which is still scheduled for the 22nd.

The Independent Games Festival has announced the Main Competition finalists for the twelfth annual presentation of its prestigious awards, celebrating the most innovative creations to come out of the independent game development community this year.

Nearly $50,000 in prizes in various categories, including the $20,000 Seamus McNally Grand Prize will be awarded on stage at the Independent Games Festival Awards on March 11, 2010 during the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The record-setting 306 Main Competition entries represent a 35% increase over last year's record 226 entries, many of them striking new titles from leading indie developers.

This year's finalists are led by multiple nominations for several notable games, including three nominations for innovative light-centric puzzle platformer Closure, Krystian Majewski's gestural photographic adventure game Trauma, and Ratloop Asia's cinematic avian action title Rocketbirds: Revolution!.

There were two nominations each -- including a Grand Prize nomination -- for Pocketwatch Games' stylish co-op heist game Monaco, Hello Games' polished stunt motorbike title Joe Danger, and Team Meat's cartoon-gory 2D action title Super Meat Boy!.

To ensure the highest-quality judging for the IGF, more than 150 leading indie and mainstream game industry figures -- from 2D Boy's Ron Carmel through Spore's Soren Johnson to ThatGameCompany's Kellee Santiago and beyond -- were recruited to choose finalists via a carefully constructed empirical process.

The Festival is particularly keen to give constructive, written feedback to Main Competition entrants -- even if they did not place as a finalist. As a result, over 1500 written, anonymized judge comments will be passed along to entrants in the next few days, an important part of deriving value and takeaway from entering the IGF.

In addition, for the first year, the IGF's Nuovo Award, intended to "honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which advances the medium and the way we think about games", was judged by a separate, smaller juried panel of notable game and art world figures. These spanned previous IGF Nuovo winner Jason Rohrer (Passage), Area/Code's Frank Lantz, N+ co-creator Mare Sheppard, EA division head and art-game creator Rod Humble, and more.

The jury for the $2,500 Nuovo Award, which allows more esoteric 'art games' to compete on their own terms alongside longer-form indie titles, has released a statement about the chosen Nuovo finalists, including several 'honorable mentions', on the official IGF website.

The finalists for the 2010 Independent Games Festival are:

Continue reading "Independent Games Festival 2010 Announces Main Competition Finalists" »

January 07, 2010

[In this informational piece, indie game creator and Independent Games Festival judge Jens Bergensten (Harvest: Massive Encounter) discusses the process of judging the IGF to help entrants understand what their game goes through, with personal views from two other 2010 IGF judges and IGF Chairman Simon Carless.]

This year I had the great privilege to take part in Independent Games Festival as a judge, getting a chance to evaluate the best independent games that have been recently released or that are still in development. (The finalists for the Main Competition were recently announced.) This task has been really fun, even though it took a little more of my time than I had thought.

I wanted to share my experience from this because when we participated in IGF in 2008 and 2009, the process was somewhat of a black box. Your game was dropped into the box and wasn't seen again until three months later, when an e-mail with commiserations and a few judge comments told you relatively little about the process the titles went through.

Of course, this isn't that different to most competitions out there (even judge comments are rare in other contests), but we had no idea what had happened in that time. And we obviously wanted more information and idea of how this was decided, since IGF is among the most important events for small game start-ups like ours.

So I wrote this article with the permission of the IGF organizers, based on my experience of being on both "sides", without ever getting the luxury of a nomination.

Continue reading "In-Depth: Demystifying the IGF Judging Process" »

January 03, 2010

Alongside the announcement of 2010 Independent Games Festival finalists, the IGF Nuovo Award jury has revealed its finalists for the $2,500 award, which is intended to "honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which advances the medium and the way we think about games."

The Award, which was won (when called the Innovation/Nuovo Award) by Jason Rohrer's acclaimed abstract multiplayer title Between in 2009, allows more esoteric 'art games' to compete on their own terms alongside longer-form indie titles. For the 2010 Independent Games Festival, the IGF Main Competition judges, numbering over 160 in total, recommended games entered into the IGF Main Competition this year to be considered for this award.

But a separate panel of notable game and art world figures -- spanning previous IGF winner Rohrer, Area/Code's Frank Lantz, N+ co-creator Mare Sheppard, EA division head and art-game creator Rod Humble, and more, have decided the finalists (and will decide the winner) for the Nuovo Award in discussion-based, juried form -- mirroring similar, artistically important awards in other industries. All five Nuovo finalists will exhibit their games at GDC 2010 in San Francisco in the IGF Pavilion, and a Nuovo Award winner will be revealed at the IGF Awards Ceremony on the evening of March 11th, 2010.

The Nuovo Jury's finalist statement discussing and justifying their picks - also adding a number of 'honorable mentions' for games that were just outside the finalist selection, but had fascinating characteristics - reads as follows:

Continue reading "2010 IGF Nuovo Jury Releases Finalists Statement" »

December 09, 2009

IGF Mobile organizers have revealed record entries for the third annual handheld indie game contest, with 172 games entered in total, a 65% increase on last year's competition.

This follows a similarly all-time high number of submissions for IGF's Main and Student competitions, and means over 650 entries in total for the leading independent game competition.

This year's competition -- the sister event to the main Independent Games Festival -- is showcasing independently-developed handheld games for all mobile devices including Apple's iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone OSes, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and other handheld devices.

The full list of 172 entries for 2010's IGF Mobile, including a number of interesting and previously unannounced titles, is now available to view on the competition's official website, along with more specifics on the competition's prizes and upcoming announcements.

December 08, 2009

Organizers of the 2010 Independent Games Festival have revealed jurors for the $2,500 Nuovo Award, which is intended to honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which "advances the medium and the way we think about games."

The IGF's Nuovo Award, which was won (when called the Innovation/Nuovo Award) by Jason Rohrer's acclaimed abstract multiplayer title Between in 2009, allows more esoteric 'art games' to compete on their own terms alongside longer-form indie titles.

For the 2010 Independent Games Festival, the IGF Main Competition judges, numbering over 160 in total, will recommend games entered into the IGF Main Competition this year to be considered for this award.

But a separate panel of notable game and art world figures will decide the finalists and winner for the Nuovo Award in juried form, mirroring similar, artistically important awards in other industries.

Organizers have now announced the full jury for the award, which will be given out during the Independent Games Festival Awards on the evening of Thursday, March 11th, 2010 during Game Developers Conference 2010.

It consists of the following individuals:

Continue reading "2010 IGF Announces Jury For Nuovo Award" »

IGF organizers have announced a third collaboration with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne to show a 'Best Of The Independent Games Festival' exhibition through February 2010.

The major Melbourne, Australia institution, located in Federation Square, is beginning the exhibition starting Tuesday, 8th December 2009. The exhibit features a selection of playable finalists from the most recent 2009 Independent Games Festival competition

The exhibition is open from 10am to 6pm, admission is free, and the 'Best Of The Independent Games Festival' exhibit will run until the 14th of February 2010. Interested parties can watch the exhibition trailer on ACMI's official site, and visit the 'Best of the Independent Games Festival 2009' information site for info on specific games being shown.

December 01, 2009

We're imagining that most of you are pretty tired from submitting your game to IGF this year. But if you're looking to make a smaller experimental game project that can also get you to GDC, our friends at Kokoromi have just announced the GDC 2010-affiliated Gamma 4 - with game makers challenged to make "innovative, experimental new games played with just one button".

You have until January 29th, 2010 to make a short one-button game, and the chosen games will be playable for all in a dedicated Gamma booth on the Game Developers Conference Expo floor, and showcased at a special gathering after the Indie Games Summit on March 10th. In addition, game creators who are selected for presentation at Gamma 4 will also be awarded GDC 2010 All-Access passes. There's more information on entry guidelines at the official Gamma 4 website.

November 18, 2009

Following record Main Competition entries, organizers of the 2010 Independent Games Festival -- the leading worldwide independent games showcase -- have revealed 193 Student Showcase entries, a record 33% more entries than last year.

After this year's 12th Annual IGF Main Competition -- just one of the three IGF competitions taking place this year -- amassed 306 game entries, information on the almost 200 Student Showcase entries is now available on the official IGF website.

Previous notable IGF Student Showcase honorees have included DigiPen's Narbacular Drop (evolved into Valve's acclaimed Portal), USC's The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom (now signed by 2K Games for XBLA), Hogeschool van de Kunsten's The Blob (made into a console title by THQ as De Blob), and early USC/ThatGameCompany (Flower) title Cloud.

This year's IGF Student Showcase entries will be judged by an opt-in subset of the more than 160 notable game industry judges, before the student-specific finalists are announced in mid-January 2010.

Ten Student Showcase winners will be given all-access GDC 2010 tickets to show their games at the show, as well as $500 towards travel costs. The overall Best Student Game will be awarded $2500 at the IGF ceremony during Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco next March.

Finally, IGF 2010 organizers are reminding that entries to the IGF Mobile competition -- encompassing iPhone, mobile phone, PSP, DS, Android and other handheld games -- are due by December 1st, 2009.

November 04, 2009

Following record entries for IGF's Main and Student competition, IGF Mobile organizers are reminding of a December 1st deadline for the third annual festival honoring handheld indie games.

This year's competition -- the sister event to the main Independent Games Festival -- will again feature independently-developed handheld games for all mobile devices including Apple's iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone OSes, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and other handheld devices.

More information on the imminent deadline and competition is available via the Gamasutra article on the subject and the official IGF Mobile website.

November 02, 2009

The organizers of the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival -- the longest-running and largest festival relating to independent games worldwide -- are proud to announce record entry numbers for IGF 2010's Main Competition, for which entries closed last night.

This year's Main Competition -- just one of the three IGF competitions taking place this year -- amassed 306 game entries, many of them new titles from leading indie developers.

Information, screenshots and videos on each of the IGF Main Competition entries are now available on IGF.com. This total entry tally comprises 35% more games than last year's record 226 Main Competition entries, itself a 30% increase on the previous year -- showing the continuing popularity of independent games and the IGF.

This year's IGF entries will be checked and distributed to the more than 150 notable industry judges for evaluation, before finalists are announced in January 2010 and winners awarded at the IGF ceremony during Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco next March.

IGF 2010 organizers are reminding that games are due for submission in the free to enter Student Showcase category by November 15th, 2009, and entries to the IGF Mobile competition -- encompassing iPhone, mobile phone, PSP, DS, Android and other handheld games -- are due by December 1st, 2009.

October 23, 2009

The organizers of the 2010 Independent Games Festival are reminding entrants that there's one week left before the Nov. 1st main deadline, revealing over 100 entries and new specifics on the Nuovo prize.

Entries to the 12th Annual IGF's Main Competition are due by 11.59pm PST on November 1st, with submissions accepted for easy digital submission from game creators worldwide, in multiple PC, computer and console formats.

Games selected as finalists for the world's leading independent games competition will be available in playable form on the GDC 2010 show floor and will compete for nearly $50,000 in prizes, including awards for Excellence in Design, Art, the Audience Award and the coveted $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Winners will be announced on stage at the prestigious Independent Games Festival Awards on Thursday, March 11, 2010.

As well as the Main Competition entry deadline on the 1st, organizers are reminding that games are due for submission in the free to enter Student Showcase category by November 15th, 2009, and entries to the IGF Mobile competition -- encompassing iPhone, mobile phone, PSP, DS, Android and other handheld games -- are due by December 1st, 2009.

Continue reading "IGF 2010 Reminds On Deadline, Reveals Nuovo Award Specifics" »

October 13, 2009

Unity Technologies, the provider of the Unity development platform for PC, Mac, Wii and iPhone is proud to announce it is the Gold Sponsor of the Independent Games Festival (IGF) at the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), to be held in San Francisco in March 2010.

As part of its Gold sponsorship, Unity is supporting all of the finalists by giving them a copy of the Unity Pro package (worth $1,500) to every winning team member - in addition to one copy for each finalist team.

Nicholas Francis, Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Unity said, "We're honored to be sponsoring the IGF - Unity started out as an indie game studio, so in a way this feels like coming home. We can't wait to have some of these talented developers see what we do, so we'd like to give away a lot of Unity Pro copies. In short, we're proud to sign on as sponsors and show our support for Indie gaming."

Continue reading "Unity Takes IGF Gold Sponsorship, To Give Unity Pro To Finalists/Winners" »

As the Independent Games Festival continues, we thought it might be a good idea to update periodically with the latest news on submissions, previous winners, judging, relevant events, and so on. Here's the final update before the November deadlines, with info on those dates, news from IGF China and the Independent Games Summit at GDC Austin, plus a new indie event that's debuting at GDC 2010.

Deadline Reminders

We've heard from a lot of you who are preparing to submit your game to this year's Independent Games Festival, so we know you're getting ready. But another reminder doesn't hurt -- and you'll need to submit by November 1st, 2009 for the IGF 2010 Main Competition, and by November 15th, 2009 for the IGF 2010 Student Showcase Competition. Don't be late!

One notable new thing this year - several indies such as Resonance's Vince Twelve and Flywrench's Mark Essen are funding their IGF entrance fee and time to prepare their games for our Festival through the pledge-based website Kickstarter -- an interesting new method of bankrolling independent games.

Also worth noting, for those who didn't see our recent announcement - the Independent Games Festival Mobile is returning for 2010, with handheld-specific submissions being accepted at the official IGF Mobile website through December 1st, 2009. We're looking forward to a host of interesting game entries for platforms like iPhone, cellphone, DSi, PSP, and even perhaps new platforms like Google's Android operating system.

Continue reading "IGF Note From The Organizers, October 2009: Deadline Reminders, IGS Austin, GAMMA @ GDC, New Judges" »

October 12, 2009

Organizers of the inaugural Independent Games Festival China have announced this year’s IGF China winners during a packed riverside IGF Awards Ceremony, held on the first evening of the 2nd Game Developers Conference China in Shanghai, on October 11th 2009.

The ceremony, presented by IGF China judge and Chinese game industry veteran Kevin Li, awarded the best independent game developers and student creators from the Asia-Pacific area.

The first ever IGF China Best Game award, including a RMB 20,000 ($2,900 U.S.) cash prize and two all-access GDC 2010 passes, went to Australian creator Farbs and his unique modular 2D space adventure game, Captain Forever (pictured).

Some of the other top awards went to notable Chinese game creators, with You Yun Tech's XNA-based kung fu combat title HurricaneX2 picking up the Technical Excellence award, and Magic Day Studio's lush fantasy strategy game Donovo winning the Excellence In Art Direction award.

In addition, Best Student Game went to National University Of Singapore's Autumn Dynasty, which uses a brush and touch screen to have the player direct fantasy Far-Eastern armies with virtual brushstrokes.

The full set of IGF China 2009 winners are as follows:

Continue reading "First IGF China Awards Topped By Captain Forever" »

October 03, 2009

The Independent Games Festival (IGF) Mobile, the premiere venue that celebrates creativity and innovation on handheld platforms, has opened submissions for its third annual festival.

The overall IGF Mobile winner will be awarded at the IGF Awards Ceremony, which precedes the Game Developers Choice Awards on March 11th, 2010. Both the IGF Awards Ceremony and the Game Developers Choice Awards are part of the 2010 Game Developers Conference, which takes place in San Francisco's Moscone Center in March.

This year's competition -- the sister event to the main Independent Games Festival -- will again feature independently-developed handheld games for all mobile devices including Apple's iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone OSes, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and other handheld devices.

IGF Mobile submissions are now being accepted at the competition's official website through December 1, 2009; finalists will be announced in January 2010, and will each receive one pass to attend the 2010 Game Developers Conference.

Continue reading "2010 IGF Mobile Announced, Calls For Submissions" »

October 01, 2009

[Though the main Independent Games Festival doesn't close entries for a few weeks, we've just announced the finalists for IGF China. We'll be in Shanghai at GDC China in a few days to give out prizes, and we're really pleased to be honoring indie titles across Asia and Australasia.]

Organizers of the inaugural Independent Games Festival China have revealed that over 100 entries were received for the first-ever showcase of Asia-Pacific indie games, and finalists have now been decided for both the Main and Student competitions. Winners will be revealed next week at GDC China in Shanghai.

Chinese submissions for the first-ever independent games event targeting this area -- a newly formed sister event to the main yearly IGF in San Francisco -- were received from Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Jiang Su Province, Guang Dong Province, Sichuan Province, and Zhejiang.

In addition, overseas submissions from Asian, Asia-Pacific and Australasian nations including the Philippines, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Pakistan, Australia, Iran, South Korea and India were considered.

Continue reading "First-Ever IGF China Event Announces Finalists" »

August 23, 2009

In the run-up to this year's Independent Games Festival deadlines this November, we thought it might be a good idea to update periodically with the latest news on submissions, previous winners, judging, relevant events, and so on.

IGF Success Stories

Firstly, I just wanted to highlight some notable successes from previous Independent Games Festival winners, showing the power of indie games in today's market. For starters, The Behemoth's 2007 double IGF award winner Castle Crashers for Xbox Live Arcade recently reached 1 million individual leaderboard entries, making it one of the most-played XBLA titles of all time - congratulations to them.

Continue reading "IGF Note From The Organizers, August 2009: Winner Highlights, IGS @ GDC Austin, Judge Additions" »

August 22, 2009

Just a note for anyone in the Asia-Pacific region - we've just posted new information, including judge specifics, on the first Independent Games Festival China event, taking place in Shanghai this October alongside GDC China.

The deadline for IGF China is September 7th, and the smaller satellite event is free to enter, with winners being displayed at the October GDC China event. (There will also be a small Independent Games Summit with a mix of Western and Chinese speakers at the event.)

Here's the English-language page and Chinese-language page on IGF China if you'd like to learn more.

July 19, 2009

Think Services, organizer of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference (GDC) events, is pleased to announce that submissions are now open for the 2010 Independent Games Festival. Entries to the 12th annual festival are due in both Main and Student Showcase categories by November 2009, with Main Competition finalists to be announced January 4, 2010.

Games selected as finalists will available in playable form on the GDC show floor and will compete for nearly $50,000 in prizes, including awards for Excellence in Design, Art, the Audience Award and the coveted $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Winners will be announced on stage at the prestigious Independent Games Festival Awards on Thursday, March 11, 2010, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The Independent Games Festival Awards are held alongside the Game Developers Choice Awards and both award shows are part of the 2010 Game Developers Conference. GDC 2010 also includes the 2010 Independent Games Summit, which is entering its fourth year and offers two days of inspiration and practical lectures and rants from the top minds in the independent games world.

Over the years, the Independent Games Festival has recognized the best and brightest indie game developers and their games. As the indie game mindshare continues to grow, thanks to the rise of digital distribution and a compelling aesthetic, the Independent Games Festival has played a key role in putting a well-deserved spotlight on these games. Notable former IGF winners include Everyday Shooter, Audiosurf, World of Goo, Blueberry Garden, Darwinia, Castle Crashers, and many more.

Notable evolutions to this year's Festival include a substantial increase in the number of hand-picked IGF judges - chosen, as always, from notables practicing both mainstream and indie game development, as well as discerning indie-minded games journalists.

The judging pool has more than doubled over last year's event, allowing each individual game entry to be played in much greater depth. The IGF is also adding compulsory (previously optional) written judge feedback alongside scores, an important part of deriving value and takeaway from entering the Festival, even for non-finalists.

Simon Carless, Chairman of the IGF, commented of this year's event: "We're delighted to return for our twelfth year of the Independent Games Festival, and we're really looking forward to see what the independent game community comes up with this time around. Good luck to all entrants!"

Submissions to the competition are now open to all independent game developers; important dates for IGF 2010 are as follows:

July 1st, 2009 - Submissions are Open
November 1st, 2009 - Submission Deadline, Main Competition
November 15th, 2009 - Submission Deadline, Student Competition
January 4th, 2010 - Finalists Announced, Main Competition
January 11th, 2010 - Finalists Announced, Student Competition
March 9th-13th, 2010 - Game Developer's Conference 2010
March 9th-10th, 2010 - Indie Games Summit @ GDC
March 11-13th, 2010 - IGF Pavilion @ GDC
March 11th, 2010 - IGF Awards Ceremony (Winners Announced!)

Sponsors already confirmed for the 2010 Independent Games Festival include Official Download Partner Direct2Drive and Platinum Student Showcase sponsor DigiPen Institute Of Technology. For a complete list of IGF 2010 event information, please visit the official IGF website.

July 15, 2009

[While submissions have just opened for the main IGF, we're pleased to announce that we've also created an IGF China event, starting this year - all Asian entrants should check out the IGF China site (Chinese-language version) for more info.]

Think Services, organizer of the Game Developers Conference events, has announced the first annual Independent Games Festival China. The event is to be held in conjunction with the 2009 Game Developers Conference China, which returns to the Shanghai International Convention Center, October 11-13 of this year.

After 11 years of the main Independent Games Festival competition being held at GDC in San Francisco, the Independent Games Festival will present itself to Shanghai, China for the first time in 2009, in a competition specifically designed to encourage innovation and showcase standout games from smaller companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Continue reading "2009 IGF China Announces Inaugural Pan-Asian Competition" »

July 02, 2009

[We're starting to announce the content for the first-ever Indie Games Summit @ GDC Austin, and this IGF-affiliated offshoot is really looking like an interesting gathering of the minds. Full info below...]

Organizers of this September's Independent Games Summit at GDC Austin have announced first speakers, with the indies behind titles like Bit.Trip Beat, Age Of Booty, Fantastic Contraption, and DeathSpank speaking on a number of notable topics.

Initial information about the September 15th-16th Summit, a separate part of the wider, 'connected game'-focused Austin-based event, is available on the GDC Austin website. Other Summits taking place at GDC Austin this year include a brand-new iPhone Games Summit and the notable, long-running Writing and Audio Summits..

Details on the Independent Games Summit at GDC Austin include specifics on the first five lectures and panels for the first-ever Austin edition of the popular main GDC event, and the highlights include:

Continue reading "Independent Games Summit @ GDC Austin Reveals First Speakers" »

May 20, 2009

Thanks to everyone for making the 11th Annual Independent Games Festival one of the best ever. As I'm sure you've noticed, a full list of winners is available on the site.

We've also updated the IGF press page, showing major BBC and The Onion AV Club coverage, as well as an updated Indie Games Summit page, with pictures and write-ups from the March 2009 IGF sister event. (Don't forget about the new GDC Austin Indie Games Summit this September, too!)

In addition, watch out for information on the 12th annual Independent Games Festival, to appear on the site in late June or early July. We'll be adding full info and submission dates for the 2010 IGF event, which we expect to once again be the biggest ever.

Finally, we've updated the site to a proper blog format, so you can now subscribe to the brand new IGF News RSS feed to be alerted when news is posted.

May 19, 2009

Organizers of this September's GDC Austin have announced a call for submissions for the IGF-affiliated first-ever Independent Games Summit there, also revealing the Advisory Board and topics to be discussed at the two-day Summit.

Initial information about the September 15th-16th Summit is available on the GDC Austin website, with organizers noting that the Indie Games Summit will include "discussions surrounding business models and methods, promotion and marketing, deep game design techniques and inspirational case studies." (The IGF is skipping IGF Pavilion presence at GDC Austin this year in favor of a more educational Summit experience.)

The Advisory Board for the Summit, which will be announcing its first speakers in the next few weeks, include local Austin-area independent developers Adam Saltsman (Paper Moon, Cave Story WiiWare contributor) and Brandon Boyer (editor of indie-friendly BoingBoing-affiliated game site Offworld.com).

In addition, the three main Advisory Board members of GDC San Francisco's yearly Independent Games Summit, Flashbang Studios' Matthew Wegner and Steve Swink (Minotaur China Shop) and Independent Games Festival Chairman Simon Carless, are also helping to oversee the event.

Continue reading "GDC Austin Adds Indie Games Summit, Calls For Submissions" »

March 26, 2009

The winners of the 11th Independent Games Festival Awards were announced last night at the Annual IGF Awards ceremony, hosted by the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

Congratulations to all the winners, including Erik Svedang's Blueberry Garden (pictured), which took home the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and $30,000.

You can read about the awards and see the full list of winners at this Gamasutra news story.


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