2008 Independent Games Festival Reveals Main Competition Entries
Aha, here's what's up: "The organizers of the 10th annual Independent Games Festival have revealed a record 173 entries for the 2008 IGF Main Competition, with a host of notable independent PC, web-based and even downloadable console games entering the contest, for which almost $50,000 prizes will be given out at GDC 2008 next February.
A full list of IGF 2008 entries is now available on the official Independent Games Festival website, including screenshots and details on each of the entries. As always, many of the top IGF games will only come to the fore during the judging process - and there are many high-quality titles not listed below.
However, some of the games entered this year from notable previous winners, or titles already well-known to the indie gaming public, include:
- Axiom: Overdrive (Reflexive Entertainment)
(From the creators of Wik & The Fable Of Souls, "...players grapple with unique physics-based game-play as they explore a mine's dark corridors and discover... they are not alone!")
- Crayon Physics Deluxe (Kloonigames)
("Crayon Physics Deluxe is a 2D physics puzzle game that lets you experience what it would be like your drawings were magically transformed into real physical objects.")
- DROD: The City Beneath (Caravel Games)
("Caravel's third major release in the DROD series will take you further inside a world of puzzles and adventures than any game you've played before!")
- Fret Nice (Bits & Pieces Interactive)
("Fret Nice is a charming platformer designed for guitar controllers, giving the player the unique feeling of not only controlling the main character's every movement, but actually playing the game as if it was a rock song.")
- Gish 2 (Cryptic Sea)
("Gish 2 is the long awaited sequel to the IGF 05 grand prize winner Gish. In Gish 2 you take the role of physics based blob whose movement and control are physically modeled around the shape and texture of his body. When his girlfriend Brea is murdered, Gish sets out to the Isle of the Dead to make a deal with Quietus (the god of death) to bring her back to life.")
- Noitu Love 2: Devolution (Konjak)
(Pictured above: "In "Noitu Love 2: Devolution" you're thrown into a classic action and beat-em-up scenario but with a twist to the gameplay that creates a new and fluent style of play using the mouse.")
- Pixeljunk Racers (Q-Games)
("Simple addictive puzzle racing game based loosely on slot-car racing, with 32 types of game and up to 7 players simultaneously.")
- Schizoid (Torpex)
("Schizoid is the most co-op game ever! One or two players control a red ship and a blue ship. Waves of red and blue enemies attack the ships of the opposite color; the two ships must work together closely to defend each other, and ram and burst all the enemies on over 100 levels.")
- The Night Journey (USC Game Innovation Lab)
("The Night Journey is an experimental game created in collaboration with Bill Viola, an internationally acclaimed artist and MacArthur fellow, which uses game technologies to evoke the universal story of an individual’s journey towards enlightenment.")
- The Path (Tale Of Tales)
("The Path is a short horror game inspired by Little Red Ridinghood. There is only one rule, and you must not follow it. There is only one goal, but if you attain it, you lose.")
- World Of Goo (2D Boy)
("World of Goo is a physics based puzzle / construction game. But the millions of Goo Balls that live in the beautiful World of Goo don't know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious.")
But that's just the start - as mentioned above, a full list of entries is now available for viewing on the official website - and darn, there's so many other good ones - please point them out in the comments.
The next deadlines for this year's IGF are October 15th (for entering titles in the Student Showcase), October 26th (for entering mobile, DS, and PSP titles in IGF Mobile), and December 3rd (when Main Competition finalists will be announced)."









Comments
damn! lots of heavy hitters this year.
its gonna be the best IGF yet!
Posted by: fish | October 9, 2007 7:16 AM
Can't believe you left off mentioning Digital Eel with Soup du Jour on your list of entries from previous winners. Tsk-tsk!
Posted by: Scott R. Krol | October 9, 2007 12:54 PM
simon, this list strikes me as somewhat of a conflict of interest, since you're one of the igf chairpeople and your opinion of which entries are noteworthy carries a certain weight both inside and outside of the competition.
Posted by: dessgeega | October 9, 2007 6:37 PM
Dess - I thought about this, but the IGF judges are randomly assigned to games. I trust them to rate games - independently of me happening to mentioning those that are already well-known or are from previous winners or finalists.
It's a fair point, though.
Posted by: simonc | October 9, 2007 7:03 PM
i love you, dessgeega.
Posted by: fish | October 10, 2007 6:26 AM
As one of the 2008 IGF entries unmentioned by this list, I can't say I really mind.
Sure, recognition is always nice, but this list is covering things you'd find out yourself while looking into the games. I recognize many of these as games that've already had some mainstream coverage, and of course some are made by people who have already distinguished themselves.
So thanks for this article, Simon. I'm going to be checking out the other entries, and this'll make a nice starting point.
Posted by: mortimerv | October 10, 2007 2:07 PM
In my opinion, pointing out noteworthy competitors is not something a chairman of a competition that needs to be taken seriously by the industry should do.
How many judges are there per game? Does it say anywhere on the IGF homepage that the judges will be randomly assigned to games?
For indie gamemakers, the entry-fee is a lot of money, and entering the competition is a big deal. That should be recognized by the competition lead by not giving any games better odds, either by mentioning them as noteworthy or by assigning different judges to different games.
I really like IGF and I love the fact that there's an organization that shed some light on all those Indiegamers out there, but I can't say my respect for IGF hasn't been lowered by this.
Posted by: Erik Mosnier | October 12, 2007 6:29 AM
I don't understand the 'random judging' issues here - what are you concerned about?
Nonetheless, I take the point on mentioning competitors, and despite the fact that I firmly believe it makes no difference, I won't do it again. Fair enough?
Posted by: simonc | October 12, 2007 9:49 AM
The choices gamasutra made are bad. And for them to say something so soon without testing all the game well is also bad.
They are just helping to put more hype to sway judges.
Posted by: ws | October 15, 2007 10:59 PM