Last year's indies are making for some tough competition

The nominees for the 2023 Independent Games Festival Awards are locked in. And after a stellar year for independent games, the categories look p??retty packed ?with viable candidates.

Both action-adventure game Tunic and dreamlike RPG Betrayal at Club Low leads the nominations at three apiece. Some other familiar faces from awards season also appear, including Immortality, Neon White, and NORCO.

Of course, the IGFs are also great for finding hidden gems you missed in the year prior, and the 2023 nominees are no different. While you might be aware of some notable breakouts, there may be some lesser-known games ha?nging aro??und in the nominees or honorable mentions worth checking out.

The IGF Awards are p??art of GDC 2023, which is being held in San Francisco this coming March?? 20 through 24.

Here's the full lineup for this year's 2023 IGF nominees and honorable men??tions.

2023 Independent Games Festival Awards nominees

Best Student Game

• Gevaudan (Nicolas Bernard)
• Mind Diver (Indoor Sunglasses)
• Presenter Slides (Mathias Schifter & Brin Žvan)
• Shutter (ARTFX 2022)
• Skala (Gustav Almström)
• Slider (randomerz)

Honorable Mentions: A Mallard's Song (Ducky Elford), Error143 (Jenny Vi Pham), Paper Planet (Doodlegames), The Longest Walk (Alexander Tarvet), zenosyne (Ezra Szanton)

Excellence in Audio

• Dome Keeper (Bippinbits)
• Paradise Marsh (LazyEti)
• South of the Circle (State of Play)
• The Forest Quartet (Mads & Friends)
• TUNIC (TUNIC Team)
• We are OFK (Team OFK)

Honorable Mentions: Betrayal at Club Low (Cosmo D Studios), Cult of the Lamb (Massive Monster), IMMORTALITY (Sam Barlow, Half Mermaid), Melatonin (Half Asleep), Neon White (Angel Matrix), Tinykin (Splashteam)

Excellence in Design

• Against the Storm (Eremite Games)
• Betrayal at Club Low (Cosmo D Studios)
• Mr. Sun's Hatbox (Kenny Sun)
• Neon White (Angel Matrix)
• Stacklands (Sokpop Collective)
• The Case of the Golden Idol (Color Gray Games)

Honorable Mentions: Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over the Age), Cursed to Golf (Chuhai Labs), Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator (niceplay games), Swordship (Digital Kingdom), Terra Nil (Free Lives), Tinykin (Splashteam)

Excellence in Narrative

• Butterfly Soup 2 (Brianna Lei)
• Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over the Age)
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (Northway Games)
• IMMORTALITY (Sam Barlow, Half Mermaid)
• NORCO (Geography of Robots)
• South of the Circle (State of Play)

Honorable Mentions: Eternal Threads (Cosmonaut Studios), Queer Man Peering Into a Rock Pool.jpg (Fuzzy Ghost), Roadwarden (Moral Anxiety Studio), The Case of the Golden Idol (Color Gray Games), The Excavation of Hob's Barrow (Cloak and Dagger Games), The Wreck (The Pixel Hunt)

Excellence in Visual Arts

• Afterglitch (Vladimir Kudelka)
• How Deep Is the Dark Water? (Rhett Tsai)
• Potionomics (Voracious Games)
• RPG Time: The Legend of Wright (DeskWorks Inc.)
• To Hell With the Ugly (La Poule Noire, ARTE France)
• TUNIC (TUNIC Team)

Honorable Mentions: I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (Northway Games), Melatonin (Half Asleep), NAIAD (HiWarp), Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator (niceplay games), Return to Monkey Island (Terrible Toybox), Swordship (Digital Kingdom), Terra Nil (Free Lives), Voodoo Detective (Short Sleeve Studio LLC)

Nuovo Award

• Afterglitch (Vladimir Kudelka)
• An Outcry (Quinn K.)
• Betrayal at Club Low (Cosmo D Studios)
• He Fucked The Girl Out Of Me (Taylor McCue)
• Queer Man Peering Into a Rock Pool.jpg (Fuzzy Ghost)
• Sylvie Lime (Love♥️Game)
• Time Bandit (Joel Jordon)
• Titanic II: Orchestra for Dying At Sea (Flan Falacci)

Honorable Mentions: Atuel (Matajuegos), Ib (kouri), Not For Broadcast (NotGames), Of Moons and Mania (Absurd Walls), RPG Time: The Legend of Wright (DeskWorks Inc.)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

• Betrayal at Club Low (Cosmo D Studios)
• TUNIC (TUNIC Team)
• The Case of the Golden Idol (Color Gray Games)
• IMMORTALITY (Sam Barlow, Half Mermaid)
• Neon White (Angel Matrix)
• Not For Broadcast (NotGames)

Honorable Mentions: Tinykin (Splashteam), Terra Nil (Free Lives), RPG Time: The Legend of Wright (DeskWorks Inc.), Roadwarden (Moral Anxiety Studio), Hardspace: Shipbreaker (Blackbird Interactive), Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over the Age)

The post 2023 IGF Awards nominations include Tun??ic, Club Low, and more appeared first on Destructoid.

Check out these indie games when you get a chance

GDC may have been pushed out of sight, but the 2020 Independent Games Festival awards still took place last night as originally scheduled, albeit without a physical stage and audience. Instead, the IGF winners were publicly revealed in a prerecorded ceremony. The recipients gave their thank-yous remotely, and the host, League ??of Geeks co-founder Trent Kusters, had some fun vintage go?ofs.

It was a nice spread! A Short Hike too?k two of the top honors, including the coveted $10,000 grand prize, but it wasn't a landslide – the 2020 IGF awards went to a diverse group of games.

• Excellence in Visual Art: Knights and Bikes (Foam Sword)
• Excellence in Audio: Mutazione (Die Gute Fabrik)
• Excellence in Design: Patrick's Parabox (Patrick Traynor)
• Excellence in Narrative: Heaven's Vault (Inkle)
• Nuovo Award: The Space Between (Christoph Frey)
• Best Student Game: Bore Dome (Goblin Rage)
• Audience Award: A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu)
• Seumas McNally Grand Prize: A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu)

"Thank you to Lucas Pope for giving someone els?e a chance this year," Kusters said in his wrap-up.

If you didn't manage to claim a free copy of A Short Hike from the Epic Games Store over the ??past week while that promo was still running, well, drat. Maybe next time. The soothin?g mountainside platform-adventure game is worth seeking out in good times and bad. Its pleasantness knows no bounds.

As for the rest of ?the winners, click those links. They've all got something special going on.

The post A Short Hike won the grand prize? at the 2020 IGF awards appeared first on Destructoid.

Mutazione earned the most nominations

The next time you're looking to branch out beyond your typical week-to-week video game backlog, consider poring over the finalists for the 2020 Independent Games Festival. The list is brimming with wonderful indie games – some you'll recognize, others you won't – and it's?? a great place to start.

One of the games on my must-play list is Mutazione, a garden-tending hang-out adventure from Die Gute Fabrik "where small-town gossip meets the supernatural." It's the most preva??lent nominee this year, earning nods for the Grand Prize along wi??th Excellence in Visual Art, Audio, and Narrative.

The IGF Awards will be hosted by Armello director Trent Kusters and live-streamed on ?March 18, 2020. After that ceremony wraps up, the night will continue with the Game Developers Choice Awards.

Let's ??get into it. These?? are the Independent Games Festival finalists and runners-up for 2020:

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

• Eliza (Zachtronics)
• A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu)
• Untitled Goose Game (House House)
• Mutazione (Die Gute Fabrik)
• Slay the Spire (Mega Crit Games)
• Anodyne 2: Return to Dust (Sean Han Tani & Marina Kittaka)

Honorable Mentions: Katana ZERO (Askiisoft); Lonely Mountains: Downhill (Megagon Industries); Song of Bloom (Philipp Stollenmayer); Wide Ocean, Big Jacket (Turnfollow); Elsinore (Golden Glitch); Astrologaster (Nyamyam); Heaven's Vault (inkle)

Excellence in Visual Art

• Mutazione (Die Gute Fabrik)
• Knights and Bikes (Foam Sword)
• Void Bastards (Blue Manchu)
• Creature in the Well (Flight School Studio)
• Eastward (Pixpil)
• Stone Story RPG (Martian Rex / standardcombo)

Honorable Mentions: LUNA The Shadow Dust (Lantern Studio); Eastshade (Eastshade Studios); Minute of Islands(Studio Fizbin); Katana ZERO (Askiisoft); Song of Bloom (Philipp Stollenmayer); A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu); Creaks (Amanita Design)

Excellence in Audio

• Observation (No Code)
• Vectronom (Ludopium)
• Astrologaster (Nyamyam)
• Knights and Bikes (Foam Sword)
• Mutazione (Die Gute Fabrik)
• Untitled Goose Game (House House)

Honorable Mentions: Afterparty (Night School Studio); Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to) (Popcannibal); Manifold Garden (William Chyr Studio); Alt-Frequencies (Accidental Queens); Don't Look (Don't Look Team); Lonely Mountains: Downhill (Megagon Industries); Tales From Off-Peak City Vol. 1 (Cosmo D)

Excellence in Design

• Katana ZERO (Askiisoft)
• Lonely Mountains: Downhill (Megagon Industries)
• Slay the Spire (Mega Crit Games)
• A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu)
• Elsinore (Golden Glitch)
• Patrick's Parabox (Patrick Traynor)

Honorable Mentions: Guildlings (Sirvo Studios); Nauticrawl (Andrea Interguglielmi); Blabyrinth (Sleeping Beast Games); Children of Morta (Dead Mage); Void Bastards (Blue Manchu); Untitled Goose Game (House House); Creature in the Well (Flight School Studio)

Excellence in Narrative

• Mutazione (Die Gute Fabrik)
• Heaven's Vault (inkle)
• Elsinore (Golden Glitch)
• Wide Ocean, Big Jacket (Turnfollow)
• Eliza (Zachtronics)
• LIONKILLER (Sisi Jiang)

Honorable Mentions: American Election (Greg Buchanan); Night Call (Monkey Moon, BlackMuffin); Astrologaster(Nyamyam); A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu); Adventures With Anxiety! (Nicky Case); Observation (No Code)

Nuovo Award

• Tales From Off-Peak City Vol. 1 (Cosmo D)
• Infini (Barnaque)
• The Space Between (Christoph Frey)
• Life Tastes Like Cardboard (Demensa)
• Promesa (Julián Palacios)
• Song of Bloom (Philipp Stollenmayer)
• The Longing (Studio Seufz)
• PAGAN: Autogeny (Oleander Garden)

Honorable Mentions: Astrologaster (Nyamyam); Elsinore (Golden Glitch); Fit for a King (Brent Ellison & Tanya X. Short); My Exercise (Atsushi Wada, Ryoya Usuha, Nobuaki Doi); Where the Bees Make Honey (Brian Wilson); Smile For Me (Gabe Lane and Yugo Limbo / LimboLane)

Best Student Game

• Orbital Bullet (SmokeStab)
• A Juggler's Tale (kaleidoscube)
• Forgotten (Mutiny Games)
• Neon Beats (OKYO Games)
• BORE DOME (Goblin rage)
• Nothing In Sight (Nothing In Sight Team)

Honorable Mentions: Unhatched (Filip Loster); Du Rejser (You Travel) (Victor Selnæs Breum + Katinka); Trail Mix(Puzzsoft); Where the Bees Make Honey (Brian Wilson); Northbound (Johannes Köberle & Arno Justus); Evergreen Blues(David Su and Dominique Star)

Here a??re your finalists for th??e 2020 Independent Games Festival Awards! [IGF]

The post Stuck in a gaming rut? Try p??laying some of the? IGF 2020 finalists appeared first on Destructoid.

Here are your Independent Games Festival finalists

That headline probably goes without saying, but it's true! The indie scene brought some genuinely great games in 2018 that will continue to stick with us for years to come. Look no further than the 2019 Independent Games Festival, which rounded up its finalists this week. That'??s a good starting point.

The list also serves as a gentle nudge for me to check out games I'm liable to foolishly let slip by. I need to pencil in Hypnospace Outlaw, a ?peculiar yet heartfelt '90s internet simulator feve?r dream.

It seems remarkably likely that Papers, Please creator Lucas Pope will f??ind hi??s way back onto the award show stage. His latest title, the ship-bound murder-mystery adventure Return of the Obra Dinn??, is up for awards in not only Audio, Design, Visual Art, and Narrative, but also the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

We'll see what's what when the IGF Awards kick off at 6:30pm Pacific on March 20. The ceremony is the same night as the Game Developers Choice Awards and it'll be led by 80 Days writer Meg Jayanth.

Here's the full list of finalists and runners-up:

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

Minit (Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Jukio Kallio & Dominik Johann)

Opus Magnum (Zachtronics)

Noita (Nolla Games)

Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)

Hypnospace Outlaw (Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Corey Cochran)

Do Not Feed the Monkeys (Fictiorama Studios)

Honorable Mentions: Wandersong (Greg Lobanov & A Shell in the Pit); Subnautica (Unknown Worlds Entertainment); Mirror Drop (Ian Lilley); Moss (Polyarc); Unavowed (Wadjet Eye Games); Iconoclasts (Joakim Sandberg); Virtual Virtual Reality (Tender Claws); Beat Saber (Beat Games)

Excellence in Visual Art

Forgotton Anne (ThroughLine Games)

Alto's Odyssey (Team Alto)

Hypnospace Outlaw (Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Corey Cochran)

Just Shapes & Beats (Berzerk Studio)

Mirror Drop (Ian Lilley)

Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)

Honorable Mentions: Beat Saber (Beat Games); Wandersong (Greg Lobanov & A Shell in the Pit); Subnautica (Unknown Worlds Entertainment); Moss (Polyarc); Iconoclasts (Joakim Sandberg); Guildlings (Sirvo Studios); Paratopic (Arbitrary Metric)

Excellence in Audio

ETHEREAL (Nonsense Arts - Nicolás Recabarren and Tomás Batista)

Hypnospace Outlaw (Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Corey Cochran)

Moss (Polyarc)

Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)

Alto's Odyssey (Team Alto)

Paratopic (Arbitrary Metric)

Honorable Mentions: Creaks (Amanita Design); Holedown (grapefrukt games); Pikuniku (Sectordub); The Messenger (Sabotage); Distance (Refract Studios); Wandersong (Greg Lobanov & A Shell in the Pit); Wattam (Funomena)

Excellence in Design

What the Golf? (Triband)

Do Not Feed the Monkeys (Fictiorama Studios)

Noita (Nolla Games)

Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)

Dicey Dungeons (Terry Cavanagh, Chipzel, and Marlowe Dobbe)

Opus Magnum (Zachtronics)

Honorable Mentions: Subnautica (Unknown Worlds Entertainment); Carto (Sunhead Games); Black Room (Cassie McQuater); JUMPGRID (Ian MacLarty); Mirror Drop (Ian Lilley); Hypnospace Outlaw (Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Corey Cochran); Beat Saber (Beat Games)

Excellence in Narrative

Wandersong (Greg Lobanov & A Shell in the Pit)

Genital Jousting (Free Lives)

Unavowed (Wadjet Eye Games)

Seers Isle (Nova-box)

Watch Me Jump (Jeremy Gable)

Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)

Honorable Mentions: Do Not Feed The Monkeys (Fictiorama Studios); The Hex (Daniel Mullins Games)

Speed Dating for Ghosts (Copychaser Games); after HOURS (Bahiyya Khan, Claire Meekel, Tim Flusk, Abi Meekel); Fortune-499 (AP Thomson); Marie's Room (like Charlie); Tango: The Adventure Game (Gualicho Games)

Nuovo Award

Circle0 (yesyes)

eCheese Zone (Seemingly Pointless)

Noita (Nolla Games)

Mirror Drop (Ian Lilley)

Black Room (Cassie McQuater)

Paratopic (Arbitrary Metric)

Do Not Feed the Monkeys (Fictiorama Studios)

Nth Dimension[al] Hiking (Zachariah Chandler)

Honorable Mentions: All Our Asias (Sean Han Tani); Hypnospace Outlaw (Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Corey Cochran); Cyberpet Graveyard (alienmelon); levedad (solimporta); Subserial Network (Aether Interactive); macdows 95 (gamebra.in); The Norwood Suite (Cosmo D); Nerve Damage (Dennis Carr)

Best Student Game

It's Paper Guy! (Paper Team)

Grace Bruxner Presents: The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game (Grace Bruxner)

After HOURS (Bahiyya Khan, Claire Meekel, Tim Flusk, Abi Meekel)

En Garde! (En Garde! Team)

levedad (solimporta)

Sole (Gossamer Games)

Honorable Mentions: We Should Talk (HeartBeetStudio); Coffin Rot Brewing Co. (Rosser-McGraw Studio); Fling to the Finish (SplitSide Games); Indecision. (Bilge Kaan); Seasons (David Su and Dominique Star); supertype (Philipp Stollenmayer); Atlas' Fate: Between Light and Darkness (Baby Robot Games); Marbloid (Supyrb)

2019 Independent Games Festival reveals thi??s year??'s finalists! [IGF]

The post Damn, 2018 had a lot of really great indie games appeared first on Destructoid.

Decisions, decisions

Leave it to t??he IGF to ?remind me just how jam-packed my backlog is these days.

The finalists are here for the 2018 Independent Games Festival, including nods to recent favorites like Cuphead, Tacoma, Tooth and Tail, Night in the Woods, Heat Signature, West of Loathing, and A Mortician's Tale. There's also a lot of love for the blood-boiling Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy.

We'll find out the winners on March 21 during the annual Game Developers Conference. This year, League of Geeks (Armello) co-founder Tren??t Kusters is hosting the IGF award ceremony.

Even the honorable mentions are good as hell!

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

• Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (Bennett Foddy)
• Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
• West of Loathing (Asymmetric Publications)
• Into the Breach (Subset Games)
• Heat Signature (Suspicious Developments)
• Baba is You (Hempuli)

Honorable Mentions: Tacoma (Fullbright); Rain World (VIDEOCULT); Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator (Game Grumps); Cosmic Top Secret (klassefilm); Hollow Knight (Team Cherry); Cuphead (StudioMDHR); Everything Is Going to Be OK (Nathalie Lawhead)

Excellence in Visual Art

• Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
• Cuphead (StudioMDHR)
• Echo (ULTRA ULTRA)
• Luna (Funomena)
• The Gardens Between (The Voxel Agents)
• Chuchel (Amanita Design)

Honorable Mentions: Jettomero: Hero of the Universe (Ghost Time Games); Dead Cells (Motion Twin); AER - Memories of Old (Forgotten Key); Tooth and Tail (Pocketwatch Games); Rain World (VIDEOCULT); Shape of the World (Hollow Tree Games); Hollow Knight (Team Cherry)

Excellence in Audio

• Tormentor X Punisher (e-studio)
• Cuphead (StudioMDHR)
• Vignettes (Skeleton Business)
• Rain World (VIDEOCULT)
• Uurnog Uurnlimited (Nifflas Games)
• Celeste (Matt Makes Games)

Honorable Mentions: Tumbleseed (Benedict Fritz, Greg Wohlwend, Joel Corelitz, David Laskey and Jenna Blazevich); Hollow Knight (Team Cherry); Tacoma (Fullbright); Tooth and Tail (Pocketwatch Games); Million Onion Hotel (Onion Games); Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)

Excellence in Design

• Into the Breach (Subset Games)
• Shenzhen I/O (Zachtronics)
• Wilmot's Warehouse (Richard Hogg, Ricky Haggett, Eli Rainsberry)
• Baba Is You (Hempuli)
• Uurnog Uurnlimited (Nifflas Games)
• Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (Bennett Foddy)

Honorable Mentions: Heat Signature (Suspicious Developments); Dead Cells (Motion Twin); Factorio (Wube Software); Space Pirate Trainer (I-Illusions); Battle Chef Brigade (Trinket Studios)

Excellence in Narrative

• Tacoma (Fullbright)
• Attentat 1942 (Charles University and Czech Academy of Sciences)
• Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (Dim Bulb Games)
• Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
• Butterfly Soup (Brianna Lei)
• Tooth and Tail (Pocketwatch Games)

Honorable Mentions: A Mortician's Tale (Laundry Bear Games); Lost Memories Dot Net (Star Maid Games); Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator (Game Grumps); Bury me, my Love (The Pixel Hunt, Figs and ARTE France); Cosmic Top Secret (klassefilm); West of Loathing (Asymmetric Publications); Rakuen (Laura Shigihara)

Nuovo Award

• Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (Bennett Foddy)
• Tarotica Voo Doo (TPM.CO SOFT WORKS)
• 10 Mississippi (Karina Popp)
• A Mortician's Tale (Laundry Bear Games)
• Cosmic Top Secret (klassefilm)
• Everything Is Going to Be OK (Nathalie Lawhead)
• Baba Is You (Hempuli)
• Kids (Playables)

Honorable Mentions: Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (Dim Bulb Games); IO Interloper (DANG!); The Norwood Suite (Cosmo D Studios); Cheap Golf (Pixeljam); Witchball (S.L.Clark); Million Onion Hotel (Onion Games)

Best Student Game

• IO Interloper (DANG!)
• Don't Make Love (Maggese)
• Penny Blue Finds a Clue (DigiPen Team Cactus Curse)
• We Were Here (Total Mayhem Games)
• Baba Is You (Hempuli)
• Guardian of the Gears (DigiPen Team Studio 76)

Honorable Mentions: Crewsaders (Titan Squad); A.L.F.R.E.D. (Hugo Lefevre, Joseph Reichenbach, Romain Jaohar-Gaillard, Garance Royere Lebigre, Nicolas Tham, Marion Speiser, Delphine Migeot de Baran, Song Huang); MOLOCH (Seemingly Pointless); Kyklo's Code (Cube Factory); Membrane (Perfect Hat / Seth S. Scott); That Blooming Feeling (The Tots Team); Tell Me What You See (Pesky Bees)

The post T?he 2018 Independent Games Festival finalists are?? a handsome bunch appeared first on Destructoid.

It's been a strong year

This is going to be an esp??ecially hard yea??r to name winners at the Independent Games Festival.

The list of finalists is out, and even just looking at the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, I feel like we're being to asked to name our favorite child in a family full of angels. Like, how do you choose between Inside, Stardew Valley, Quadrilateral Cowboy, Event[0], Hyper Light Drifter, and Overcooked? Tough call.

The IGF awards ceremony isn't too far off. As always, it'll precede the Game Developers Choice Awards, and this year it's set for the evening of March 1, hosted by Nina Freeman of Fullbright and Cibele.

Best Student Game

• Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor (Sundae Month)  
• Lily, Colors of Santa Luz (Lily, Colors of Santa Luz Team)
• Un Pas Fragile (PAF team)
• FAR: Lone Sails (Mr. Whale's Game Service / Mixtvision)
• Frog Climbers (TeamCrew)
• Bamboo Heart (Sokpop Collective)

Honorable Mentions: Awkward Dimensions Redux (StevenHarmonGames); DYO (Team DYO); Code 7 - Episode 0: Allocation (Goodwolf Studio); You Must be 18 or Older to Enter (Seemingly Pointless)

Excellence in Audio

• The Flame in the Flood (The Molasses Flood)
• GoNNER (Art in Heart)
• Virginia (Variable State)
• Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
• Everything (David OReilly)
• Inside (Playdead)

Honorable Mentions: 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (iNK Stories); Kingdom: New Lands (Noio); Dropsy (Tendershoot, A Jolly Corpse); Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor (Sundae Month); Sentris (Timbre Interactive); TumbleSeed (TumbleSeed Team)

Excellence in Design

• Imbroglio (Michael Brough)
• Ultimate Chicken Horse (Clever Endeavour Games)
• Duskers (Misfits Attic)
• Overcooked (Ghost Town Games)
• Event[0] (Ocelot Society)
• Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)

Honorable Mentions: She Remembered Caterpillars (jumpsuit entertainment); Elsinore (Golden Glitch Studios); Inside (Playdead); Antihero (Tim Conkling); Replica (Somi); Space Pirate Trainer (I-Illusions)

Excellence in Narrative

• Ladykiller in a Bind (Love Conquers All Games)
• 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (iNK Stories)
• Virginia (Variable State)
• Orwell (Osmotic Studios)
• Event[0] (Ocelot Society)
• One Night Stand (Kinmoku)

Honorable Mentions: A Normal Lost Phone (Accidental Queens); The Lion's Song (Mi'pu'mi Games); Far from Noise (George Batchelor); Inside (Playdead); Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe); Burly Men at Sea (Brain&Brain); Sorcery! 4 (inkle / Steve Jackson)

Excellence in Visual Art

• The Flame in the Flood (The Molasses Flood)
• Inside (Playdead)
• Virginia (Variable State)
• Old Man's Journey (Broken Rules)
• Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
• She Remembered Caterpillars (jumpsuit entertainment)

Honorable Mentions: Inks (State of Play); Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall); Mu Cartographer (Titouan Millet); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); Sundered (Thunder Lotus Games); Un Pas Fragile (PAF team)

Nuovo Award

• Islands: Non-Places (Carlburton)
• Close (Tobias Zarges and Moritz Eberl)
• Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor (Sundae Month)
• Oiκοςpiel, Book I (David Kanaga)
• Everything (David OReilly)
• Virginia (Variable State)
• Mu Cartographer (Titouan Millet)
• Lieve Oma (Florian Veltman)

Honorable Mentions: Memoir En Code: Reissue (Alex Camilleri); Far from Noise (George Batchelor); Ladykiller in a Bind (Love Conquers All Games); Witchball (S.L.Clark); Project Perfect Citizen (Bad Cop Studios); Wheels of Aurelia (Santa Ragione); Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

• Inside (Playdead)
• Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe)
• Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)
• Event[0] (Ocelot Society)
• Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
• Overcooked (Ghost Town Games)

Honorable Mentions: 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (iNK Stories); Orwell (Osmotic Studios); Imbroglio (Michael Brough); Virginia (Variable State); Duskers (Misfits Attic); Oiκοςpiel, Book I (David Kanaga)

2017 Independent ??Games Festival? announces Main Competition finalists! [IGF]

The post The 2017 I??ndependent Games Festival finalists are here appeared first on Destructoid.

Starting at 6:30pm Pacific

The video game industry isn't done handing out awards for last year's titles. There are a pair of ceremonies happening tonight in San Francisco, one right after the other. First up, it's the Independent Games Festival Awards, hosted by Capybara's Nathan Vella and starting at 6:30pm Pacific, and then we'll roll right into the Game Developers Choice Awards with Funomena's Robin Hunicke.

Those two links point to the nominee lists, but you can also find nice video summaries of the IGF and GDC Awards finalists here and here, respectively. It's ?nice to put faces to these titles.

You can watch the festivities here. Let's get wild in the comments, 2015 Game Awards style.

I had to go onto Twitch to pull this embed code, and the people in the chat room, pre-stream, were having some real strange conversations. Lots of hot takes on Undertale.

The post Let’s watch the 2016 IGF and GDC Awards right here, right now appeared first on Destructoid.

Lots of love for Undertale

The 2016 Independent Games?? Festival has figured out its finalists.

The Seumas McNally Grand Prize will go to either Darkest Dungeon, Her Story, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Mini Metro, Superhot, or Undertale. If you're a regular reader, you're probably familiar with most if not all ?of those games by now. They come up a lot, and for ??good reason.

But I'd push you to also look through the rest of the list -- particularly the honorable mentions, where there are lots of lesser-known gems to be found. The winners will be announced during an awards ceremony on Wednesday, March 16 in San Fran?cisco. Capybara's Nathan Vella is hosting again.

Excellence in Visual Art

• Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
• Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga)
• Gnog (KO_OP)
• Armello (League of Geeks)
• Oxenfree (Night School Studio)
• Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios Inc.)

Honorable Mentions: Forkride Grilltime Sloth (Black Pants Game Studio [Sebastian Stamm]); Epistory - Typing Chronicles (Fishing Cactus); Kingdom (noio & Licorice); Alto's Adventure (Snowman); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); Astroneer (System Era Softworks)

Excellence in Narrative

• The Beginner's Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.)
• Black Closet (Hanako Games)
• That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games)
• Her Story (Sam Barlow)
• Undertale (Toby Fox)
• The Magic Circle (Question)

Honorable Mentions: Oxenfree (Night School Studio); Orion Trail (Schell Games); Cibele (Star Maid Games); Contradiction (Tim Follin / Baggy Cat Ltd); The Writer Will Do Something (Tom Bissell and Matthew S. Burns)

Excellence in Design

• Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
• Kingdom (noio & Licorice)
• Her Story (Sam Barlow)
• Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games)
• Superhot (SUPERHOT)
• Infinifactory (Zachtronics)

Honorable Mentions: Gang Beasts (Boneloaf); Imbroglio (Michael Brough); Duskers (Misfits Attic); Chaos Reborn (Snapshot Games); TIS-100 (Zachtronics); Soft Body (Zeke Virant)

Excellence in Audio

• Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
• Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga)
• That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games)
• Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios Inc.)
• Lumini (Speelbaars)
• Undertale (Toby Fox)

Honorable Mentions: Heart Forth, Alicia (Alonso Martin); The Beginner's Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.); Gnog (KO_OP); Oxenfree (Night School Studio); Kingdom (noio & Licorice); Inside My Radio (Seaven Studio)

Nuovo Award

• The Beginner's Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.)
• Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga)
• Fantastic Contraption (Northway Games & Radial Games)
• Orchids To Dusk (Pol Clarissou)
• Her Story (Sam Barlow)
• Cibele (Star Maid Games)
• Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games)
• Progress (Tim Garbos, Martin Kvale and Joel Nyström)

Honorable Mentions: Enough (cabbibo); Sentree (Glitchnap); Affordable Space Adventures (KnapNok Games and Nifflas' Games); Vignettes (Pol Clarissou, Armel Gibson); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); Sage Solitaire (Zach Gage); TIS-100 (Zachtronics)

Best Student Game

• Pitfall Planet (Bonfire Games)
• Ape Out (Gabe Cuzzillo)
• Beglitched (Jenny Jiao Hsia & Alec Thomson)
• Circa Infinity (Kenny Sun)
• Orchids To Dusk (Pol Clarissou)
• Chambara (team ok)

Honorable Mentions: Anarcute (Anarteam); Gathering Sky (A Stranger Gravity); Not Everything is Flammable (DAM: David Shiyang Liu, Alex Hu and Mac Lotze); FAR (Mr. Whale's Game Service); Sumer (Studio Wumpus); Bad Blood (Winnie Song)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

• Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
• Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios Inc.)
• Her Story (Sam Barlow)
• Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games)
• Superhot (SUPERHOT)
• Undertale (Toby Fox)

Honorable Mentions: The Beginner's Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.); Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga); Affordable Space Adventures (KnapNok Games and Nifflas' Games); Twelve Minutes (Luis Antonio); Oxenfree (Night School Studio); That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games); Cibele (Star Maid Games); Soft Body (Zeke Virant)

2016 Independent Games Festival debuts finalists [IGF]

The post These are th??e 2016 Independent Games Fe?stival finalists appeared first on Destructoid.

Space exploration game Outer Wilds takes grand prize

The winners of the 17th Annual Independent Games Festival were revealed last night in San Francisco and, my goodness, I've got names to Google today. I hardly recognize any ?of these!

• Excellence in Visual Art ($3,000) - Metamorphabet (Patrick Smith of Vectorpark)
• Nuovo Award ($5,000) - Tetrageddon Games (Nathalie Lawhead)
• Excellence in Audio ($3,000) - Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure (SuperChop Games)
• Excellence in Narrative ($3,000) - 80 Days (inkle)
• Best Student Game ($3,000) - Close Your (Goodbye World Games - University of Southern California)
• Audience Award ($3,000) - This War of Mine (11 bit studios)
• Excellence in Design ($3,000) - Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wilds)
• Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($30,000) - Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wilds)

We had Steven and Brett at the awards show. ??Here's, uh, here's what they sent back:

I'm dying to know which ?one of them drew tha?t Homer.

The post These are the ??2015 Independent Games Festival winners appeared first on Destructoid.

A bunch of cool games are getting awards soon

We're a couple months away from March's Game Developers Conference, where everyone has to travel to where I live (uh, the city, not my home) and I just get to roll out of a nice non-hotel bed and make my way to appointments. One of the staples of GDC is the Independent Games Festival, at which Lucas Pope (Papers, Please) cleaned up last year. You almost felt bad for hi?m having to keep walking up and accepting awards. 

The IGF has named its finalists from nearly 650 entrants. The nominees for the Seumas McNally Grand??? Prize (last year, $30,000) are: 

• 80 DAYS
• Invisible, Inc.
• Metamorphabet
• Outer Wilds
• The Talos Principle
• This War of Mine

I've only played Invisible, Inc. out of the bunch, but I liked it enough to give it a Steven Hansen's Destructoid's 2014 GotY award despite it not being out of Early Access yet. And I've only heard good things about Talos Principle, 80 DAYS, and This War of Mine. Metamorphabet seems like a weird Sesame Street app, which I am also okay with. 

Honorable mentions include: Donut County (Ben Esposito); Endless Legend (Amplitude Studios); Killer Queen (Joshua DeBonis & Nikita Mikros); Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games); The Sailor's Dream (Simogo); and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts).

Other awards and finalists:

Excellence in Visual Arts:

• Donut County
• else Heart.Break()
• Lumino City
• Memory of a Broken Dimension
• Metamorphabet
• Oquonie

Honorable mentions: Crawl (Powerhoof); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine); Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club); The Sailor's Dream (Simogo); and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts).

Excellence in Design:

• 80 DAYS
• FRAMED
• Invisible, Inc.
• Killer Queen
• Outer Wilds
• The Talos Principle

Honorable mentions: Desert Golfing (Captain Games); Dungeon of the Endless (Amplitude Studios); Endless Legend (Amplitude Studios); Helix (Michael Brough); Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (Steel Create Games); and Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club).

Excellence in Audio:

• Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure
• Phonopath
• Shovel Knight
• The Sailor's Dream
• The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
• Thumper

Honorable mentions: Deep Under the Sky (Rich Edwards and Colin Northway); FOTONICA (Santa Ragione); Goat Simulator (Coffee Stain Studios); Hotline Miami 2 (Dennaton);Nuclear Throne (Vlambeer); and Smash Hit (Mediocre).

Excellence in Narrative:

• 80 DAYS
• Coming Out Simulator 2014
• Ice-Bound: A Novel of Reconfiguration
• PRY
• This War of Mine
• Three Fourths Home

Honorable mentions: Curtain (Llaura, dreamfeeel); Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) (Upper One Games / E-Line Media); Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wilds); The Fall (Over The Moon);The Sailor's Dream (Simogo); and The Talos Principle (Croteam).

Nuovo Award:

• BECOME A GREAT ARTIST IN JUST 10 SECONDS
• Bounden
• Desert Golfing
• Elegy for a Dead World
• how do you Do It?
• Plug & Play
• Rooftop Cop
• Tetrageddon Games

Honorable mentions: Curtain (Llaura, dreamfeeel); Ice-Bound: A Novel of Reconfiguration (Down to the Wire); International Jetpack Conference (Rob Dubbin and Allison Parrish); Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wilds); Phonopath (Kevin Regamey); and Push Me Pull You (House House).

The post 2015 Independent Games Festival finalists named appeared first on Destructoid.

That forced perspective puzzle game also got a nod

The Student Showcase winners have been announced for the 2014 Independent Games Festival and a few of the names are surprising to see. I had no idea Westerado, for instance, was a student project. Wow. Risk of Rain similarly caught me off guard.

All eight winners are receiving $1,000 in prize money and passes to attend the 2014 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this March, which is where the IGF's Main Competition winners as well as the Best Student Game wi?ll be named. One of the following titles will receive that title as well as an extra $2,000 prize:

• Museum of Simulation Technology (Albert Shih - Carnegie Mellon University, Entertainment Technology Center)
• Engare (Mahdi Bahrami & Moslem Rasouli - NHTV University of Applied Science)
• Risk of Rain (Hopoo Games - University of Washington)
• Symmetrain (Philipp Beau & Daniel Goffin - University of Amsterdam / University Kassel)
• Westerado (Ostrich Banditos - HKU)
• Rhythm Doctor (Hafiz Azman& Winston Lee - University of Cambridge)
• Foiled (Unblanched Peanuts - NYU)
• Cyber Heist (Hack n' Hide - University of Utah)

Something tells me Museum of Simulation Technology is going to take top honors. You saw the demonstration, right? Powerful stuff. Honorable mentions for the Student Showcase include: Ladylike, UN EP, Rabbit Rush, Flying Fish, and Bokida.

The post Westerado and Risk of Rain are 2014 IGF ??student win?ners appeared first on Destructoid.

DEVICE 6, Jazzpunk, The Stanely Parable, and more nominated

The Main Competition finalists for the 16th annual Independent Games Festival have been announced ahead of the awards ceremony on March 19, 2014 in? San Francisco. For this year's Seumas McNally Grand Prize, it's between:

• The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)
• Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment)
• Jazzpunk (Necrophone Games)
• Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)
• DEVICE 6 (Simogo)
• Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" (Deirdra Kiai Productions)

Tell me I'm not the only one who had to look up that last game. Honorable mentions for the $30,000 grand prize include Crypt Of The NecroDancer (Brace Yourself Games), TowerFall Ascension (Matt Thorson), Kerbal Space Program (Squad), 868-HACK (Michael Brough), and The Yawhg (Damian Sommer & Emily Carroll).

The full list of category finalists and honorable m??entions can be found below.

Excellence In Visual Art

• DEVICE 6 (Simogo)
• Gorogoa (Jason Roberts)
• The Banner Saga (Stoic)
• Perfect Stride (Arcane Kids)
• Samorost3 (Amanita Design)
• Drei (Etter)

Honorable mentions: Shelter (Might & Delight), Galak-Z (17-BIT), The Swapper (Facepalm Games), The Yawhg (Damian Sommer & Emily Carroll), Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment)

Excellence In Narrative

• The Yawhg (Damian Sommer & Emily Carroll)
• Paralect (Paralect Team)
• DEVICE 6 (Simogo)
• Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" (Deirdra Kiai Productions)
• The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)
• Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)

Honorable mentions: Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games), Gorogoa (Jason Roberts), Redshirt (The Tiniest Shark), Detective Grimoire (SFB Games), Monster Loves You! (Radial Games Corp. & Dejobaan Games)

Excellence In Design

• TowerFall Ascension (Matt Thorson)
• 868-HACK (Michael Brough)
• Mushroom 11 (Untame)
• Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)
• Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment)
• Crypt of The NecroDancer (Brace Yourself Games)

Honorable mentions: The Banner Saga (Stoic), Perfect Stride (Arcane Kids), Threes (Asher Vollmer, Greg Wohlwend & Jimmy Hinson), DEVICE 6 (Simogo), Gorogoa (Jason Roberts)

Excellence In Audio

• Samorost3 (Amanita Design)
• Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" (Deirdra Kiai Productions)
• The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)
• Crypt of the NecroDancer (Brace Yourself Games)
• DEVICE 6 (Simogo)
• The Yawhg (Damian Sommer & Emily Carroll)

Honorable mentions: Sokobond (Alan Hazelden, Harry Lee & Ryan Roth), The Banner Saga (Stoic), Potatoman Seeks the Troof (Pixeljam), Jazzpunk (Necrophone Games), Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment)

Nuovo Award

• Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" (Deirdra Kiai Productions)
• Luxuria Superbia (Tale of Tales)
• Extrasolar (Lazy 8 Studios)
• Perfect Woman (Peter Lu and Lea Schönfelder)
• SoundSelf (Robin Arnott)
• Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)
• Save the Date (Paper Dino Software)
• Corrypt(Michael Brough)

Honorable mentions: Shelter (Might & Delight), DEVICE 6 (Simogo), Elegy for a Dead World (Dejobaan Games with Popcannibal), SUPERHOT (SUPERHOT team), 18 Cadence (Aaron A. Reed)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

• The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)
• Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment)
• Jazzpunk (Necrophone Games)
• Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)
• DEVICE 6 (Simogo)
• Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" (Deirdra Kiai Productions)

Honorable mentions: Crypt Of The NecroDancer (Brace Yourself Games), TowerFall Ascension (Matt Thorson), Kerbal Space Program (Squad), 868-HACK (Michael Brough), The Yawhg (Damian Sommer & Emily Carroll)

The post 2014 Independent Games Festival finalists named appeared first on Destructoid.

That's a lot. No really, a lot.

It feels like every year the Independent Games Festival gets bigger and bigger but that's definitely the case with the student prize. There have been over 1000 entrants to the 2014 IGF in total, split between the Main and Student competitions. There were 350 entrants to the student prize alone&nbs??p;which is heck of a lot of games. 

Some of these games, like the wonderful browser game Westerado, have already been released but many titles are still to see the light of day. There seems to be a good mix of entries spread over traditional platforms and mobile devices, as well as games using the Oculus Rift, like Anamnesis. I'm kind of glad I'm not a judge for the IGF as it must be overwhelming to h??ave so many games to play. Still, it will be great to see some of these unique titles in their final form.

The post Over a record 1000 entries to the 2014 IGF appeared first on Destructoid.

I'd prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around

It seems that there are more interesting-looking free games hitting the PC lately than I have time to play. The latest free game you can check out is The Path of Shadows, a stealth-based game of as??sassination where the player ?controls shadows.

It was created by five students from Spain, and they have submitted it to IGF. Their plan was to create a twenty-minute-long demo that would show off their skills.?? It looks like a lot of fun, and I will d?efinitely be downloading this to check out this weekend.

Path of Shado??ws: a free student-made stealth game, now?? available to download [PC Gamer]

The post Download Path o?f Sha??dows for free and sneak up on people appeared first on Destructoid.

A Steam release is in the works

This trailer for Gunpoint serves as an excellent introduction to the PC stealth-puzzle game, which you need to be introduced to if you haven't been already. The video itself is a glorified walkthrough from designer Tom Francis, and it does a great job of showing o?ff the mechanics through demonstration that's indicative of what gameplay is actually about. Refreshing stuff.

Although a price point and release date are unknowns at this point, the Independent Games Festival-approved Gunpoint will make an appearance on Steam. That should do wonders for improving visibility. I like what I'm seeing in this foot??age, even if it does suggest later, more complex puzzles that will cause ?my feeble mind to shatter.

The post Gunpoint’s stealth puzzles look delightfully morbid appeared first on Destructoid.

I would have given all the awards to Kentucky Route Zero, but I guess this is fair too

The Game Developers Conference currently going on in San Francisco is home to the Independent Games Festival. A couple of months ago, the finalists were revealed. Last night, the winners were revealed.

Richard Hofmeier’s Cart Life took home Best Independent Game and its subsequent $30,000 prize, as well as the Best Narrative Award, and the Nuovo Award “for abstract and unconventional games.” Subset Games’ unforgiving space strategy title FTL: Faster Than Light also took home multiple pieces of hardware in the form of the Excelle?nce in Desi?gn Award and the crowd sourced Audience Award.

My personal horse in this race, Cardboard Computer’s brilliant Kentucky Route Zero, took home the award for Excellence in Visual Art. A full list of winners can be found after the break. Meanwhile, do yourself a favor and look at both the list of winners and the list of nominees, and try and play some of the games on the list if you haven’t already. I spent quite a bit of time touring the IGF finalists section of GDC today (you can expect some video coverage of the games throughout the week by Spencer Hayes), talking with various nominated developers and playing their games. T??hey’re pretty much all great in one way or another.

Play cool games. Do it.

The IGF awarded the following games as winners of ?its 15th Annual Awards:

Excellence in Visual Art ($3,000)
Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)

Nuovo Award ($5,000)
Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)

Excellence in Audio ($3,000)
140 (Jeppe Carlsen)

Excellence in Narrative ($3,000)
Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)

Technical Excellence ($3,000)
Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)

Best Student Game ($3,000)
Zineth (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

Audience Award ($3,000)
FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)

Excellence in Design ($3,000)
FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($30,000)
Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)

The post Cart L?ife and FTL win big at the Indie Games Festival appeared first on Destructoid.

Hundreds of games included

Now through March 29, Steam will be running its Indie Spring Sale. There are discounts on some re?al hits that have been featured at the Independen?t Games Festival as well as a selection from PAX East. If you've been known to hold out, chances are there's something in here for you.

Quick highlights from today include Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams ($7.49), Half-Minute Hero ($3.39), They Bleed Pixels ($3.39), Everyday Shooter ($2.49), Trine 2 ($3.74), FTL: Faster Than Light ($4.99) and Legend of Grimrock ($7.49). ??If this is only the first day of the promo, we're going to need to keep an eye out.

The post Steam starts 2013 Indie Spring Sale appeared first on Destructoid.

New game from Limbo's lead gameplay designer

At first glance, I was ready to write off 140 for its unabashedly simple art style. Silly me. I should know better than to do something like that by now. Nominated for Excellence in Audio at the 2013 Independent Games Festival, 140 is the work of Jeppe Carlsen and Jakob Schmid of Playdead.

While I didn't recognize his name and you likely won't either (yet!), Carlsen was the lead gameplay designer on Limbo, one of the more interesting platformers to go mainstream in the past few years. He did the puzzles for the acclaimed game and 140 is a personal project of his?? that's been in the works for over two years now.

With this trailer, they've got my attention. Was that a "boss fight" near the end? I'd like to see more whe?re that came f??rom.

The post ‘Rhythmic awareness’ required for platformer 140 appeared first on Destructoid.

Hotline Miami, FTL, and more up for awards

The annual Independent Games Festival will be taking place on March 27 during GDC 2013 and the list of main competition finalists has now been revealed. Pruned from a list of over 580 entries, the nominees here are truly some of the best indie game?s we've played this year.

Up for the Seamus McNally Grand Prize are Hotline Miami, FTL, Cart Life, Little Inferno and Kentucky Route Zero. Also up for a variety of awards in other categories are titles like Space Team, Thirty Flights of Loving, Super Hexagon, and Intrusion 2. 

What's interesting? to note is th??at all finalists in this year's competition will have the chance to accept a distribution deal with Valve, so we could be seeing plenty of these titles coming to Steam in the next few months. You can check out the full list of nominees below.

Excellence In Visual Art
Incredipede (Northway Games and Thomas Shahan)
Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)
Guacalamelee! (Drinkbox Studios)
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (Asteroid Base)
Year Walk (Simogo)

Excellence In Narrative
Thirty Flights of Loving (Blendo Games)
Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)
Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)
Dys4ia (Auntie Pixelante)
Gone Home (The Fullbright Company)

Technical Excellence
StarForge (CodeHatch)
Perspective (DigiPen Widdershins)
Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)
Intrusion 2 (Aleksey Abramenko)
LiquidSketch (Tobias Neukom)

Excellence In Design
Samurai Gunn (Beau Blyth)
FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)
Starseed Pilgrim (Droqen & Ryan Roth)
Super Hexagon (Terry Cavanagh)
Super Spac?e ______ (David Scamehorn &?? Alexander Baard/DigiPen)

Excellence In Audio
Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)
Bad Hotel (Lucky Frame)
140 (Jeppe Carlsen)
Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games)
Pixeljunk 4AM (Q-Games)

Nuovo Award
[Designed 'to honor abstract... and unconventional game development'.]
Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)
Spaceteam (Henry Smith)
Dys4ia (Auntie Pixelante)
Bientot l'ete (Tale of Tales)
7 Grand Steps (Mousechief)
MirrorMoon (SantaRagione + BloodyMonkey)
VESPER.5 (Michael Brough)
Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize
Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games)
FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)
Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)
Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)
Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)

The post Independent Games Festiva?l 2013 finalists ?announced appeared first on Destructoid.

Awesome Shark Volcano, the team behind the IGF nominated Nous, was able to take some time with me after the Game Developers Conference was over to talk a bit about their game, Nous. We covered everything from the history behind Nous' development, to how they approached the ??ar??t and audio design.

The team even admits to stumbling through a long road of multiple failures before finally arriving at their IGF worthy design. Check out the interview, and then play Nous for yourself.

Destructoid: What is Nous about?

Brett Cutler, Game Designer: Nous is a top-down action game inside an AI that’s going insane. Nous can’t figure out what it’s for,? and it constantly switches personas -- incompetent shrink, abusive drill sergeant, suicidal robot -- on its spiral down. The player’s choices and playstyle shape the character that emerges.

What is the history behind the development of the game?

Jason Meisel, Graphics Programmer: We began in May 2010. We wanted to create the most “awesome” game we possibly could; we even went around asking people to name the ??most awesome things they could think of (spiders, bears, motorcycles, and bears riding motorcycles were all very common responses.) However, we soon realized that wasn’t working out.

We created tons of prototypes that involved different gravity-based mechanics and gameplay styles. We then shipped the first playable version of the game based on one of those prototypes. We kept creating prototypes, reaching even farther into things like sidescrollers and bullet hells. It wasn’t until Brett pitched Nous that we stopped focusi??ng on gameplay and b??egan focusing on the experience of the game.

What inspired the design?

BC: Failure. Every milestone we had a different game -- we kept prototyping and throwing it out. We wen?t through so many desperate changes, searching for a great idea but we never found it. We did the only honest thing and poured that frustration and searching into the game itself.

How did you arrive at the final mechanics and theme?

BC: In the end, we took what was good enough and? built up the narrative. The illusion?? of talking to and influencing this program drove the final design and the last few months of work.

How did you approach audio design?

BC: Nous needed to sound like a computer in pain -- the SFX are electronic screams. We wrote a lot of original music but in the end relied on a computer -- we used super-slow-mo versions of classical music tracks and ambient electronic tracks to build the world inside Nous.

What influenced the art direction?

Pohung Chen, Producer/Physics Programmer: A lot of it was due to the lack of art production power. We went with simple abstract shapes because t??hat is?? within our artistic ability. We then just relied heavily on graphical effects to make the game look interesting and unique. I think it really helps that a lot of players feel very saturated with the super-realistic, high production value art style that many big titles go with today. So seeing a game stripped to bare minimum essentials and still have a visually interesting style is refreshing.

How did you achieve the visual aesthetic?

JM: When we switched our thematic direction to Nous, we knew we wanted to leverage our graphics technology (which had already been built up to a large number of effects at that point). However, it had to be in a way that we (as programmers) could accomplish ourselves. We decided to make the game more abstract, and I created simple 3D meshes that could be patterned, lit, and moved in interesting ways. We applied particle effects liberally, and iterated on the environmental?? art a ridiculous number of times. Finally, I created many different glitching and distortion effects that, in tandem, made the visuals much more interesting.

Why did you choose to go with a narrative driven game?

BC: Nous has a ??lot of text, and I didn't mean it to be that way. But it ended up being the best way to communicate. When the game wasn’t working, when we hated just not being good enough -- those are real feelings. Narrative ended up being the only clumsy tool I had to get through and reach people.

What challenges did this present and how did you tackle them?

JM: As the focus shifted towards narrative, it became more clear that a large portion of players just wouldn’t appreciate what the game was doing. We originally wanted Nous to come off as mocking the pretentiousness of “artistic games”, but to be effectively poignant, it had to become just as pretentious! We decided to focus on thos?e who would enjoy the style of game it was becoming; the haters were a hopeless cause. We finished with something that people either love or hate, but the former seems like it’s a large enough group that we did what was best.

What did you take away from your IGF experience?

Treb Connell, Technical Director: I was incredibly impressed by all the indie games, especially the submissions for the Nuovo awards. They helped me reconsider what a game can be and what effects it can have on a pl?ayer. I hope that these games motivate developers?? to think outside the box. I know that I’ll be trying to.

JM: IGF was incredibl?e! It’s an incredible feeling to have developers you admire be impressed with your work. I’ve been becoming a bigger and bigger fan of the indie community over the past few years, and being in the same pavilion as all these truly awesome games and developers was an huge honor. I’ve never really felt like a part of the industry, but this week? I’ve felt right at home.

Where is the game available to play?

TC: It’s available for free on WhatIsNous.com

The post GDC: Interview with the indie team behind Nous appeared first on Destructoid.

Last night's 2012 Independent Games Festival awards show was totally refreshing. It wasn't some flashy television event where scantily-clad dancers and lasers give way to booming game trailers. Each of the night's winners were actual game makers that were humble and thankful, and not some braindead celebrities that had nothing to do with games. Best of all, there were no advertisements, holograms or ridiculous tie-ins accompanying their acceptance speeches. Even the host, Monaco creator Andy Schatz, was a breath of fresh air. Great people were celebrated for their ?great games, with no unnecessary bullsh*t. It was nice.

Here are last night's winners:

• Seumas McNally Grand Prize: Fez
• Audience Award: Frozen Synapse
• Best Mobile Game: Beat Sneak Bandit
• Technical Excellence: Antichamber
• Excellence in Design: Spelunky
• Excellence in Audio: Botanicula
• Excellence in Visual Art: Dear Esther
• Student Game Award: Way
• Nuovo Award: Storyteller

Find the full list of 2012 IGF finalists here.

The post GDC: 2012 Independent Games Festival ??award winners appeared first on Destructoid.

The Independent Games Festival nominees will have demos hosted on Facebook, courtesy of cloud-gaming service OnLive. They're calling it the OnLive Indie Showcase, ?and it will run from today through March 11, showcasing 16 indie ?titles.

OnLive plans to list which games brought in the most plays a??nd Facebook likes at?? a later date, and they'll offer past IGF titles at a 75 percent discount as a promotion.

The 14th Annual Independent Games Festival takes place during next week's Game Developers Conference, and we'll be there to cover the March 7 awards ceremony. Which of these would you pick to win?

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Following the Main Competition finalists of the 2012 Independent Games Festival are the eight Student Showcase winners. Beyond the exposure and glory that comes with earning top honors, each team is get??ting $500 for making the cut. ($3,000 goes to the to-be-decided best of the bunch.)

• The Bridge (Case Western Reserve University)
  
• Dust (Art Institute of Phoenix)
  
• The Floor Is Jelly (Kansas City Art Institute)
  
• Nous (DigiPen Institute of Technology)
  
• One and One Story (Liceo Scientifico G.B. Morgagni)
  
• Pixi (DigiPen Institute of Technology - Singapore)
  
• The Snowfield (Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab)
  
• Way (Carnegie Mellon University, Entertainment Technology Center)

You probably haven?'t heard of these games before, but don't be surprised when one (or more) of the groups behind them go on to have a bright future. It's happened before and it'll happen again. Check 'em out at GDC, if you??'re going.

The post The winners of the 2012 IGF Student Showcase appeared first on Destructoid.

The results are in for the 2012 Independent Games Festival. Hundreds of entrants were narrowed down considerably, and what we're left with is a delightful collection of very different games. The finalists for the Seumas McNa??lly Grand Prize a??re:

• Dear Esther (thechineseroom)
• Fez (Polytron)
• Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games)
• Johann Sebastian Joust (Die Gute Fabrik)
• Spelunky (Mossmouth)

Be sure to read over the finalists for the other Main Competition categories -- plus the honorable ?mentions -- sometime ??before the winners are named during the Game Developers Conference early next month. Consider this list a cheat sheet of notable games if you don't regularly follow the indie scene.

The post 2012 IGF Main Competition finalists named appeared first on Destructoid.