Possibly one of the hardest platformers you will ever play.
"I Wanna Be the Guy has been a game that has given me an awfully mixed reputation. Depending on where you ask, I'm either a mad genius or some sort of angry 14 year old who had just learned flash (nevermind the fact the game isn't made in flash). I think I Wanna Be the Guy did something that it's predecessor 'masochist' retro games (Owata, Syobon) didn't do and that is what makes it a worthwhile game inside this structure of traps and references.
Most games of this genre ride the joke out as well as they can in a short, humorous fashion. I Wanna Be the Guy is an extended game featuring areas that involve real platforming and problem solving skills, while ALSO being mercilessly unfair and funny. I think it stands out because of that. No one gets real props for finishing Owata or Syobon, because they're brilliant joke games. I Wanna Be the Guy isn't a 'joke game', even though it leverages the same techniques and material. Since progressing through the game has meaning, and is littered with save points, there's a real rewarding feeling associated with taking down each series of screens, or defeating each boss.
I think this is what gives it that real, honest 'nintendo hard' feeling. I've gotten plenty of letters from older gamers saying that IWBTG was an experience they hadn't had since the NES and SNES. While I don't think these feelings are what new games should try and invoke, it does show that there's something missing in the equation of modern games, and I don't think it's just difficulty." - Kayin
UBM TechWeb (producer of Game Developer magazine, Gamasutra.com, and the Game Developers Conference) established the Independent Games Festival in 1998 to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers.
The competition, now in its 13th year, awarded a total of nearly $50,000 in prizes to deserving indie creators in Main Competition and Student Competition categories at the IGF Awards Ceremony, held in March 2010 at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA, as one of the highlights of the Game Developers Conference.
The Independent Games Festival will return in March 2011 at GDC in San Francisco - look for more information soon. [More information...]
About The IGS
Featuring lectures, postmortems and roundtables from some of the most notable independent game creators around, the Independent Games Summit is a yearly event, with iterations thus far taking place in March 2007, February 2008, March 2009 and March 2010 at Game Developers Conference.
UBM TechWeb (which curates the IGF and runs GDC) plans to continue and grow the Independent Games Summit in subsequent years. [More information...]
