Go-go indie
The men and women behind the 11th Independent Games Festival have announced the competition finalists for the award ceremony, to be held March 25th, in San Fransisco.
This year, the IFG received 30% more entries to choose nominations from. Also, Direct2Drive has partnered with the festival, as the "official download partner" for the show.
Why are independent game awards so important, you may wonder? Well, for starters, many of the big design names of today have won prior awards or have been nominated, such as guys behind World of Goo, Braid, Aquaria and N+. Independent games also break new ground, and generate interesting new directions for the big studios to look -- a guy working in his living room has a much greater freedom to create, and try new things, than does a 150 person studio with an army of shareholders financing them.
$50,000 worth of prizes is up for grabs -- which is especially a lot of money if you are a young dude who made a game up in his spare time, in his basement. This year Direct2Drive has offered a prize up, in their name, and the name of independent gaming.
Neoseeker gives a heart-felt congratulations to all these nominations. When the games come out, we'll be taking a look at them, to recommend any that you might want to download and check out:
Seumas McNally Grand Prize:
Blueberry Garden (Erik Svedang)
Osmos (Hemisphere Games)
Carneyvale Showtime (Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab)
Night Game (Nicalis)
Dyson (Rudolf Kremers/Alex May)
Excellence In Visual Art:
Zeno Clash (ACE Team)
PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)
Machinarium (Amanita Design)
Cletus Clay (TunaSnax)
Feist (Filthy Grip)
Excellence In Audio:
Musaic (KranX Productions)
Blueberry Garden (Erik Svedang)
BrainPipe (Digital Eel)
PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)
Retro/Grade (24 Caret Games)
Excellence In Design:
Retro/Grade (24 Caret Games)
Snapshot (Six AM)
Night Game (Nicalis)
Musaic (KranX Productions)
Osmos (Hemisphere Games)
Innovation Award:
Between (Jason Rohrer)
Mightier (Ratloop)
The Graveyard (Tale Of Tales)
Coil (From The Depths)
You Have To Burn The Rope (Mazapan)
Technical Excellence:
PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)
Cortex Command (Data Realms)
Osmos (Hemisphere Games)
The Maw (Twisted Pixel Games)
Incredibots (Grubby Games)
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By the way, I'm a bit sceptical that they are entirely independent???? But anyhow,if they are, they deserve awards, aren't they?
Your last comment is very astute. Many people are actually complaining that many of these 'indie' games are really independent at all. Some of these titles have big teams working on them, and large budgets, so they aren't exactly what you think of when you say 'independent.' The line between indie and non-indie is fairly fuzzy.