Indie game awards showcase future
Friday, March 27th, 2009
- Image by muscapix via Flickr
A topless game developer and games about nature and paint spattering were the big winners at the Independent Games Festival Awards.
The 11th annual IGF awards are seen as the equivalent of the Sundance Festival for the video game industry.
The IGF exists to reward innovation and excellence in independent games.
Fairytale exploration game BlueBerry Garden won the top prize, the $30,000 (£20,400) Seumas McNally award.
“Indie games are pushing the envelope and getting great critical acclaim,” said IGF’s chairman Simon Carless.
This year there were 226 games in competition with a further 145 entered for the student prize. This demonstrates a “period of massive growth in the number and quality of independent developers,” Steve Swink of Flashbang Studios told the audience.
“The world is catching on. Game journalists, industry and yes players are beginning to appreciate indie games.
“The game playing public is beginning to understand that a tiny team with a brilliant vision can make better games than people with a corporate mandate and millions of dollars to spend. The world is realising that as much as they love big budget shooters, they are hungry for new types of experiences,” said Mr Swink.
Mr Carless told the BBC he agreed the indie movement is moving out of the closet but that the big issue now for consumers is one of choice.
“There is an infinite amount of games, especially thanks to digital distribution. But there is a problem and that is a choice problem.
“Just like music on the web, you can get millions of different bands. In gaming the problem is for the indie to differentiate themselves from other indies. In the end it will all be down to the quality of your art,” he said.
Related articles
- Awards night at the Game Developers Conference (venturebeat.com)
- Hard times and gaming (bbc.co.uk)
- How the World of Goo became one of the indie video game hits of 2008 (venturebeat.com)
- @ GDC: Game Developers Get The Short End Of The Money Stick (paidcontent.org)
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Rhys says:
August 31st, 2009
1:48 pm
Here is a new Canadian indie game that has got some international recognition,. it would be nice to see a little bit of the Canadian scene,.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synth_(video_game)