2009 Independent Games Festival Announces Finalists
[The Independent Games Festival finalists are now revealed, and there's a whole bunch of extremely interesting, innovative titles jockeying for contention again this year.]
The 2009 Independent Games Festival (IGF) has revealed the finalists for this year's ninth installment of the pre-eminent indie game competition, and from a record field of 226 entries, 30% over last year’s totals, a number of notable games scored multiple nominations this year.
These include orbital osmosis sim Osmos (3 nominations), abstract PSN action-er PixelJunk Eden (3 nominations), time-reversing guitar-compatible antishooter Retro/Grade (2 nominations), and atmospheric ball-ambulator Night Game (2 nominations).
Other examples of the finalists, which are viewable on the official IGF website, include charming exploration-game Blueberry Garden and music-based block puzzler Musaic Box, both double nominees, and several of the finalists for the new Innovation award, including Ratloop’s Mightier, Jason Rohrer’s Between and Tale Of Tales’ The Graveyard.
Finalists were decided by a panel made up of over 40 industry-leading game creators and journalists, including the makers of previous IGF honorees World Of Goo, Braid, Aquaria and N+; industry veterans from studios including Maxis, Big Huge Games, and SuperVillain Studios; and noted writers from Wired, Newsweek, and MTV.
In addition to the announcement, digital download store Direct2Drive has aligned with the Independent Games Festival to serve as the festival’s official download partner this year.
This includes a new Direct2Drive Award given out at the IGF Awards this March, and the service has opened dedicated Direct2Drive indie game area, including many previous IGF finalists and winners and other notable independent games.
The finalists for the 2009 Independent Games Festival are:
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 Box (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 Box (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)
Nominated games will available in playable form on the 2009 Game Developers Conference show floor, and will compete for nearly $50,000 in prizes, including awards for Innovation, Excellence in Design, and the coveted $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize, as well as the new Direct2Drive prize.
Winners will be announced on stage at the prestigious Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday, March 25, 2009, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The Independent Games Festival Awards are held along the Game Developers Choice Awards at GDC, which is run by Think Services (as is this website).
A separate set of finalists for the Student Showcase award, will be announced during the week of Jan. 19th, with the finalists for the IGF Mobile competition following in late January. Full festival information, including more details on these finalists and winners, is available at the official IGF website.
Comments
Congrats to haowan for dyson being a finalist, I hope it wins.
It's too bad Barkely Shut Up and Jam Gaiden isn't a finalist for anything though, that was one of my favorite indie games of the year. Perhaps it might be because of copyright concerns.
Posted by: Paul Eres | January 7, 2009 9:14 PM
Thanks Paul. It's staggering to be up for this award. Really amazing.
I agree with you about BSUAJG. However, it's an interesting list this year for sure. Some strange nominations, and it feels like a general shift towards more obscure and less commercial titles, the PixelJunk title being the obvious exception. Maybe I'm imagining it and it's like that every year though.
Posted by: Alex May | January 7, 2009 10:40 PM
I wrote up some of my thoughts on the finalists on my blog:
http://www.pocketwatchgames.com/blog/igf-trends
Posted by: Andy | January 7, 2009 10:55 PM
Holy macaroni!
Big gratz @ the Dyson team! Wouldn't have guessed that your game makes it to the finals, of the Grand Prize no less!
I was observing your progress eagerly (TIGSource forums, later your site). What an accomplishment for a game that was created for the procedural generated content compo!
Posted by: Lim-Dul | January 8, 2009 1:31 AM
Thanks :-D
We are as surprised as you. We were hoping to get through of course but maybe on visuals or music.
This is just phenomenal and we are extremely happy.
Posted by: Rudolf (Dyson Team) | January 8, 2009 9:40 AM