07.01.10: We are pleased to reveal the finalists for the twelfth annual Independent Games Festival Main Competition! Congratulations to all of the winners, and thanks to all who have participated this year. Subscribe to the brand new IGF News RSS feed for regular competition updates.
2009 - The Behemoth's follow-up to Alien Hominid, the IGF-winning Castle Crashers, tops XBLA charts to critical acclaim.
2009 - IGF multi-award winner World Of Goo launches as one of the best-selling, best-reviewed WiiWare titles of all time, alongside a popular PC version.
2009 - Petri Purho's Crayon Physics Deluxe spawns an iPhone version courtesy of Hudson, plus a popular PC downloadable version.
2008 - The team behind IGF Student Showcase finalist Narbacular Drop is hired by Valve. The game is reworked into Portal and goes on to win the coveted Game Developer's Choice "Best Game" award for 2008, as well as numerous game of the year accolades.
2008 - Design Innovation winner Braid debuts on Xbox Live Arcade to significant success.
2008 - Excellence in Audio winner Audiosurf launches on Valve's Steam distribution service and goes on to become the highest selling game of February, outselling even Valve's own Orange box (including Team Fortress 2 and Game Developer's Choice "Best Game" winner Portal.)
2007 - Design Innovation winner Everyday Shooter is signed by Sony for distribution on the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network, after Sony's John Hight plays the game at the IGF Pavilion during GDC 2007 - Everyday Shooter's Jon Mak also appears at the inaugural Independent Games Summit.
2006 - Grand prize winner Darwinia gets both digital distribution via Valve's Steam system and U.S. retail distribution from new indie label Cinemaware Marquee.
2005 - Multi award-winner Alien Hominid receives publishing deals in the U.S. (via O3 Publishing) and Europe(via Zoo Digital), much critical acclaim, and even spawns a mobile version.
2005 - Fan favorite N wins the audience award, and, as N+, releases as a hit XBLA title, as well as notable Nintendo DS and Sony PSP versions.
2004 - Innovative casual strategy game Oasis wins the web/downloadable grand prize, going on to launch on major online portals the following year.
2003 - Super X Studios' Wild Earth, a photographic game based around a worldwide safari, takes multiple prizes and subsequently becomes a motion simulator ride and eventually (in adapted form) a Wii title.
2000 - Tread Marks, created by the late Seumas McNally, which the IGF's grand prize is now named after, wins 3 major awards.
1999 - Vicarious Visions, now a major handheld / console developer, honored for Terminus.
IGF 2010 Student Competition Entrant
Hazard The Journey Of Life
School: Swinburne University Of Technology (Melbourne, Victoria Australia)
Description: Hazard is a philosophical first person single player environmental puzzle game. The game presents no goals directly to the player, but they create goals for themselves based on what they know of the world. The game has no story in the traditional sense, but it has a narrative based on philosophy and life. After every choice and after every problem in the game, there is a message about how it relates to life, and what we can learn from it. This is used to extend the emotional involvement with the game beyond putting the game down.
The dynamic geometry system and usage of 4D space work to change how players think about what choices are available to them, and to introduce new ways of thinking about how First Person Perspective can be used to enhance an experience without requiring the ability to shoot things.
Spanning several hours, the first half of the game is a branching map structure based around making choices and learning from them, whilst the second half is about solving cerebral puzzles - puzzle which are solved by understanding mechanics, not through use of skill. Each puzzle is inherently simple once you know the answer.
Video:
If you seen any information about Hazard The Journey Of Life that needs to be corrected or updated, contact the IGF Chairman.
