2009 IGF Main Competition Finalists!
Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:11:00 GMT
Seumas McNally Grand Prize:
- Blueberry Garden
- CarneyVale Showtime
- Dyson
- Night Game
- Osmos
Excellence in Visual Art:
- Cletus Clay
- FEIST
- Machinarium
- PixelJunk Eden
- Zeno Clash
Excellence in Audio:
- Blueberry Garden
- BrainPipe
- Musaic Box
- PixelJunk Eden
- Retro/Grade
Excellence in Design:
- Musaic Box
- Night Game
- Osmos
- Retro/Grade
- Snapshot
Innovation Award:
- Between
- Coil
- The Graveyard
- Mightier
- You Have To Burn The Rope
Technical Excellence:
- Cortex Command
- IncrediBots
- The Maw
- Osmos
- PixelJunk Eden
Congrats to the nominees! 30% more entries this year than last year’s huge amount. (Find out more at IGF.com!) Whole lots of awesome, a little bit of WTF?, and my impressions after the jump…
SO MUCH AWESOME:
- Dyson! An entry from Alex “haowan” May into TIGS’ very own Procedurally Generated Content competition. Extra awesome.
- Snapshot! Turns out this one’s actually made by Kyle Pulver, creator of BONESAW and Verge, winner of the recent Commonplace Book Competition.
- Cletus Clay! True creator of Platypus Anthony Flack’s clay-mation magnum opus. (Anthony, I haven’t seen you around in a while! This was such a pleasant surprise.)
- The Graveyard! Another somber and inventive game from TIGS allies Tale of Tales. (And another IGF nomination!)
- Cortex Command! Will this be the year the excellent Cortex Command gets its IGF dues?
- Night Game! Nifflas’ most ambitious project yet. (See also: WADF, Knytt, Knytt Stories)
- Blueberry Garden! This game looks so lovely I almost can’t stand it.
Congrats again! To all the nominees. (I’m sure I’m missing something.)
WTF?:
- PixelJunk Eden? Isn’t that game, like, already out on PSN? I thought that would be against IGF submission rules… or at least the spirit of the competition.
- You Have To Burn The Rope? Hahaha—wait, really?
Update: Check out Kian’s response. I found it genuinely touching. Games like YHTBTR getting nominated may be a blessing in disguise—it means you can work from unadulterated creativity, even on a relatively small scale, and still get noticed. That is a good thing! (Thanks, Simon!)
- Goo!? Mondo Nation? Solar Plexus? Just a few awesome and likely awesome games without a nomination. (I’d venture to say there are at least a couple spots these games could have filled…)
DISCUSS.
Waitasec, how is You Have To Burn The Rope innovative? I mean, it was amusing and cool and I liked it, but it’s basically a one-note joke, and not even an original joke (there’s at least one earlier browser “game” about completing one extremely simple task in exchange for an epic theme song and extensive credit roll, though I can’t remember the name).
I’m not knocking the game at all, I’m just not sure why it’s up for an award…
I thought the same. I guess they might see the innovation in how well it worked as the joke and such, but even so that’s a really weird choice.
I don’t yet know all of the games, but I got the impression that this is a relatively “weak” year in comparison to the previous ones, only judging from the nominations.
Well, it’s good to see Cortex Command became a finalist after all :)
BMcC! Where’s the analysis?
Haha, sorry, just posted it!
Congrats to all the finalists. Cortex Command, finally you are where you belong! I’m sad that there’s no Goo, Cactus, or Konjak though.
Didn’t World of Goo win it last year?
checks Yup it did.
I think it would be unfair for them to win it twice. ;)
so you have to burn the rope got a nomination?
WTF with IGF judges this year?
Yeah I don’t know, I’m going to have to disagree strongly with Burn the Rope as well.
Also: don’t confuse Goo! with World of Goo – two completely different games… and Goo! was submitted again this year since it didn’t win anything last year.
starts powering up
Ugh, can we drop this You Have To Burn the Rope thing already? Sure it was good for a laugh, but seriously, it doesn’t need to be a finalist in ANY category of the IGF, least of all innovation.
I mean, just think of the ACTUALLY innovative games that got pushed out because some judge thought it’d be funny to put YHTBTR in there.
Poor form, IGF, poor form.
you have to burn the rope is going to become the rickroll of indie games.
Hi. I am the benevolent and sometimes confusing god known as “IGF”.
What are judges?
I’m one of the developers of Zeno Clash, and I’m glad that we finally made it to the front page of TIGSource, not to mention to the IGF! ;)
somebody on a mailing list im part of said about YHTBTR’s nomination:
“isnt that like giving an emmy to dick in a box?”
and i agree completely.
lots of weird picks in there.
Congrats to all the finalists! It looks like it’s going to be an awesome IGF again :)
Where’s the messhof? Glad Blueberry Garden and Night Game got nominated, though. Looks like there’s a 40% chance for a Swedish grandprize this time around…
And congrats to everyone who made it! see ya at GDC!
Great to see Night Game there, and I’ll be keeping a close eye on Blueberry Garden now I’ve heard about it. Also, Dyson. Awesomesauce. Reminds I’ve not checked in for updates there for far too long aswell.
Congrats too all the finalists although, once more and with feeling You Have To Burn The Rope?! what the hell?
Really, if YHTBTR made it in, I figure some of the other one-liner satires should get in too. Things like Achievement Unlocked and such. Besides, I can’t imagine how hard it would have been to innovate YHTBTR.
“So, you know how most games are really hard? WE should make one that’s REALLY EASY!”
“Oh man, that’s an awesome idea. You get the design doc ready, I’ll go code it up. See you in 4 hours!”
And so YHTBTR was born.
Extra points for the curly mustache, though.
Pha, burn the rope, burn the rope… I demand community project awards! Balding’s Quest! Indie Brawl! Then we shall see who’s the real hot dog on the block!
Shit’s so pringles! Where your curleh mustache at?
FWIW, here is Kian’s commentary on being nominated:
http://www.mazapan.se/news/2009/01/07/independent-games-festival/
I think it’s an interesting response.
As for why it was nominated - hey, it was empirically voted one of the most innovative titles by the judges. It’s as simple as that.
But it’s a cheeky innovation of concept, rather than gameplay innovation, and I can understand why that rubs some people the wrong way.
I stand by it, just as we and the other organizers stand by the IGF. It’s what the judges thought, after all.
And congrats to all TIGSource readers and regulars who are finalists this year!
Simon. [IGF Chairman.]
Hehe, Simon, TIGSource regulars and readers? That’s everyone, right? :)
…Right? :\
Also: I find Kian’s post very reassuring. (Touching, even!)
It actually seems like a good, progressive thing for the IGF, in light of this.
I wanted Calamity Annie to be nominated but I’m happy to see Coil!
Hey Derek - you were an IGF judge this year, right? Do you know if there was supposed to be a browser game category? Also, the Gleemie awards seem to be missing again. I know the Gleemies were a third-party sponsored thing, so maybe that company didn’t put the prize money forward this year? Do you know anything about this? Just wondering.
Lars, I’m going to pretend I’m Derek and answer those questions.
Firstly, the browser game category isn’t included this year, mainly because Flash games are so good nowadays that they can compete perfectly well with non-web games. (As evidenced by a fair amount of web games being finalists.)
Secondly, there is/will be a Direct2Drive Award instead of the Gleemie Award this year, because Direct2Drive is the main award sponsor thus far. It should be more $ for indies, though.
Oh, hey Mr. Carless!
Thanks for the response. The Gleemies as I understand were for Strategy games. What are the Direct2Drive awards for?
I don’t think I heard anything about Zeno Clash since that trailer earlier in the year. I love me some Source games/mods.
Anywho, there are some pretty contended categories this year, and there’ll be plenty of surprises for sure.
As for YHTBTR… if that had been removed from the nominees for being a simple one-liner, would that constitute the removal of The Graveyard as well? I think both games were trying to ‘do something’ rather than ‘be something’, both succeeded in different ways, and I wonder if what each game did was something the judges thought innovative, rather than ‘ROFL! THE GAME IS THE ANSWER! GENIUS!’. The biggest difference is that The Graveyard uses shock and sympathy to do something whereas YHTBTR uses humor.
So… yeah. My two cents.
I am obviously quite biased at the moment since we got nominated for Dyson. \o/
I realy like Kian’s post tbh because it touches on a central advantage and power of indie games, which is that they are all about personal and creative freedom. I have been working on games professionaly fo nearly ten years, but I have never been as happy as now since I have gone indie. Dyson is a perfect example, I always wanted to design a procedural game for love of the the subject and the design implications, and not for commercial reasons. Haowan and myself worked together well in the past and are good friends anyway and this just happened to be a shared interest, so why not go for it? It turned out to be one of the best and most fun game dev experiences I have had (And am having) and it all started out due to pure fun and a little tigsource competition :-D
Regardless of what happens commercially, this is the way I want to make games.
Lars: good question, I think Direct2Drive is still deciding what its award will, uh, award. All finalists are eligible, and I imagine there will be an announcement soonish.
yo were be dat derek yoo foo? i aint seen his as in daiz he owe me llike fitty tree dollas
D:
Zero Gear! No!
Well, it’ll be a fun game anyway, IGF or not.
I just noticed: it’s about time Cortex Command got something! Congrats data!
For me too! I can’t say I’m too confident about taking the prize (up against the likes of Machinarium) but it is going to be a blast to attend. Now I guess we have a WHOLE HEAP of work to do between now and then…
As for YHTBTR, well, it didn’t really strike me as being a contender for the innovation award I must say, but I did really like the author response. Working on a commercial game, I have actually begun to crave that sense of futility in my work. It’s only when I’m pursuing something completely worthless and pointless that I feel like I’m truly following my muse and I do miss that. I actually think I might need to make some little freeware games at some point just to see what would happen if I dropped the commercial imperative entirely.
It can be quite an imposing question to ask of yourself: if you didn’t care a damn what anyone else thinks, what form would your creativity take? It’s easy enough to impress other people with your skills and tricks, but you’re not going to impress YOURSELF that way.
YHTBTR is an in-joke among the indie-gaming community and nothing more.
i feel like i would be taking the bait if i acted outraged by the nomination.
How do I win YHTBTR?
Congrats to all the winners! There are a lot of really great games in the running this year.
Oh, I almost forgot…
I really like Kian, and despite my own criticism of the soon to be infamous ropegate scandal, he’s a developer worthy of respect.
Check out Metro Rules of Conduct if you haven’t already! http://www.mazapan.se/index.php
Surely the weirdest nomination is The Graveyard? Pretty sad if such a badly done game gets nominated just because the protagonist is not a Hero. Maybe the reason it’s considered innovative is something that I’m not aware of?
I also don’t see a problem with YHTBTR - it’s well executed, witty and gets the message across. Maybe it’s not really on par with Picasso’s “Bull’s Head” but that’s the direction.
A handful of people have made good arguments for YHTBTR’s inclusion being inappropriate, but most of your arguments have been fairly idiotic.
Valter, you seem to be insinuating a direct relation between time to completion and innovation. This disturbs me greatly.
Also, Achievement Unlocked came out after the IGF submission deadline, and the fact that other, similar games exist does not negate YHTBTR’s right to nomination. The whole idea is that only the best games - i.e. not all games entered - are nominated. It’s fairly basic.
I was a little stunned by its inclusion, initially, but on further consideration it does kinda make sense. I could see it being included for innovation in the use of computer games as a medium for parody and satire, for example.
It may not have been the first game of its kind, but it was certainly one of the most high-profile of them; what’s more, the other similar games might not even have been submitted.
In conclusion, quit yer yabberin’.
@Anthony: Yeah! Congrats. I can’t wait to see you there! (Aah, gotta find out about getting a press pass ASAP…)
That’s about how I feel about that nomination, too, after reading Kian’s post.
@namuol: You Have To Take the Bait :P
@PoV: You have to– HEY, WAIT A MINUTE!
I liked the YHTBTR joke and enjoyed the experience. At the same time I understand the people that don’t see how it got nominated. The game is a fun joke, it’s no innovation unfortunately.
And really, PixelJunk Eden? Didn’t the company know what IGF was all about? It’s not like they need to up their publicity. Sinking kinda low in my opinion.
Dylan Cuthbert replies to the pixeljunk inclusion here in the Gamasutra comments section (comment 6)
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21742
I tried to link to the gamasutra IGF artcicle as the comments feature a reply from Dylan Cuthbert re this issue, but I can’t use URLS in these comments.
So here is a copy and paste:
“We are truly chuffed at getting three nominations for Eden!
To address Benjamin’s concern - “Indie” has nothing to do with whether you are working from a garage or not (same goes for indie music), the definition is closer to describing non-publisher or non-externally controlled creativity. The PixelJunk series has been an enormous financial risk for us here at Q and is fully self-funded - it really embodies our independence from publishers because we saved and scrimped for 5 years in order to be able to strike out by ourselves with PixelJunk.
I agree a category could be added for “best student game” perhaps, which can only accept titles submitted by people who don’t have jobs in the games industry yet. ”
I don’t see why. It’s not as if they’re in a league above the competition, is it? It’s a fair fight.
I have only played the demo, so someone please enlighten me, but what is technically excellent about Osmos? It’s just a bunch of sphere colliding around…
I guess YHTBTR is a parody, and that’s original, but I was shocked at first. It was funny the first time, but aren’t people reading a little bit too much into it?
Dyson seems a little too simple for me, but the graphics style is fine. I was surprised it won.
FEIST was obviously going to get an Excellence in Visual Art award.
I don’t get Coil at all. Just a bunch of minigames with an artsy description in between.
IGF feels so random… I wonder how much variance there is in the scores? i.e. do most games get around the same score, or are these the clear winners?
Oops, my response was to #42, I should have indicated.
I was surprised to see Pixeljunk Eden entered in the competition, but given that it was allowed to enter I think it deserves its nominations.
The difficulty which Dylan Cuthbert’s comments don’t address is that whilst the development was self-funded the company also handles externally funded projects and so have access to equipment, tech, staff and profits from those projects to help with their indie work.
Still, I think the IGF are right not to disqualify them. After all, Jonathan Blow was able to self-fund Braid by using a large stack of his own cash. Surely we don’t want to disqualify Pixeljunk because their self-funding source happened to be gaming-related?
I predict we’re yet to see the really controversial cases. For example, what would happen if an employee of (say) Valve wrote an indie game in their spare time using (with Valve’s permission) a large amount of non-publically-available Valve tech? In some ways that’s very Indie because it’s the developer’s private project on their own time. In other ways it’s the antithesis of Indie because it’s only made possible by a close relationship with a large commercial group.
We’ll just have to deal with such cases if and when they come up.
Anthony, I got the impression the IGF’s intentions were to promote good games made by talented people which they themselves don’t have the means to do. Sure, Eden is a good game and a lot of other games entered are at least as good. But what’s the point in winning with Eden when it’s already been out on PSN? Yeah, they get the prizes but I doubt it will help them reach new audiences. So it seems pointless and unfair towards the other contestants that also made good games but not have them published on PSN yet.
Well, technically we’ve got access to external equipment and funds from my contracting work for The Man, but it’s entirely separate to our indie game work. Didn’t help Droid Assault win anything mind :)
It’s hard to draw a strict line for who is allowed and who isn’t allowed to enter. I don’t really mind funding and other external resources either, since you can’t really control those too much from an organizer’s point of view. But entering the competition when you have achieved what all other entrants are trying to achieve seems pointless and a bit unfair to me. Just my personal opinion, though.
You Have To Get The Joke
They don’t have to draw a strict line for who’s allowed to enter I just think they should give some of the excellent underdogs a chance. Let them enter but maybe give the other games some kind of head start to get into the finals or win.
;). Had to be done. :D
“You have to burn the rope” sort of does deserve it. But it’s not much of a ehh game.
I guess my position is that we have nothing to lose from the extra competition. Entering Gears of War 2 into the IGF would be like entering a skyscraper into a pumpkin-growing contest - it just wouldn’t make sense - but a game like PixelJunk Eden doesn’t seem out of place.
I understand how people feel about the IGF’s role in helping the underdog, but that doesn’t mean it should be a competition for mediocre games. If you feel like you have missed out on a nomination because of a game like PixelJunk Eden taking its slot, then I guess your game wasn’t as good as PixelJunk Eden. If you want that recognition, come back when you’ve hit on something truly exceptional. Every year, somebody does.
if the way the judging was setup in a more democratic way then, the argument that if your game isnt as good as pixel junk eden then it shouldn’t get in would be more valid.
but the fact is the games that got in are only the opinions of 2-6 people and not a combined score of all, or even a majority of judges. I think the only real valid issue with every bitch and moan people have about the igf can be traced back to the fact that their judging system is extremely and obviously flawed.
when only a few people are judging a game often times your running into very polarized opinions and personal taste of the people involved.
if you have 3 people judging your turn based strategy game, and 2 of those judges arnt fans of that genre.. then your fucked. Judging something by its average score is only valid when its a consensus of all involved.
now i realize that having 200+ games and only 20 judges working on them is a big reach.. but it doesn’t mean keeping the way its setup now is the best.. because its very obviously not.
Cortex Command!!! i’m excited!
On the whole YHTBTR thing: Have you all looked at the other games in that category? I think it fits in with them very well.. that category seems like it was made just for games like YHTBTR, so it’s not like it stole the spot from some other game or anything.
YHTBTR? innovation! c’mon.. what kind of innovative idea it has? I understand other games on this category are stranges but the difference is that YHTBTR is BAD! It’s no minimalist, it’s no an experiment, it’s just a little idea with good graphics.
What is with that F-uck-in Hat???
BlademasterBobo: YHTBTR was a funny piece of commentary on video games.. but if you look through that entrients there are TONS more very very innovative games that didn’t make it in (im looking at you IWIWTM!).
Do you really think if every judge judged YHTBTR it would have made it to the finals?
I know for a fact that if all the judges judged Coil it wouldn’t have made it for sure.
again this is the fault of the judging process.. not the games that made it.
what is the actual judging process for the igf, exactly?
I am confued about you have to burn the rope. Because I have played a different game called you have to burn the rope. With a little green guy. Then I also played the one with the pink guy.
Anyway, the innovation about you have to burn the rope is not that its a joke.
In my opinion its about making a short and easy game that is also fun. Thats a combination that is lacking in most of today’s games(including indie) in the quest for making the best most unique/pretty/whatever game.
the igf can be traced back to the fact that their judging system is extremely and obviously flawed.
Yeah, but in a way it’s sad. I mean, take for example Goo! It’s a great game that deserves more, and it gets snowed under by obviously less interesting or technically advanced games. Not that tech should be any kind of requirement to end up on IGF, but lack of the basics should be. I don’t know, I agree it’s flawed the way it currently is.
What lack of basics are you talking about? Some time ago we were told the good graphics were not required for a fun game. But slowly I see that indie games are becoming more established. And suddnely, some small silly little game, is not as worthy as the bigger game, with more time and resources invested in. It seems that some indies are starting to imitate the big games industry. Wihtout even noticing they are doing that. Now, I have nothing against that. I think everyone can start as an indie, but once you get more established, you are not really indie anymore. But don’t say that your high production value games, are more worthy than the little games. Because that would be very ironic, compared to how indie games have begun.
I really think Droid Assault should have made it in :(
what is the actual judging process for the igf, exactly?:
now i havent been a judge for a year or so, so forgive me if some of my details are a bit off but this is the jist of what goes on.
currently each judge will judge 10 games that are pre selected for them. each judge has to play each game they are selected for and give them a score from 0-100 for Audio, Graphics, Design, Tech, Innovation and Over all. all the scores are added up and they pick the top 5 games that scored the highest for each section.
Judges can judge more games but dont have to, from what i hear most dont judge more then 15.
so the way it stands with 10 games to judge and 20 judges and over 200+ games submitted, at the very least your game can be judged by 2 people.. but from what i hear there is an average of about 3-5 judges per game when it was all said and done.
its pretty easy to see where the flaws are here.
what if your the kind of judge who never gives out perfect scores for things? what if youre the kinda person who throws out 100s to things you like, and 0s to things you dont. if you had 3 judges, 2 of them gave you 90s and the other gave you a 0 because they didn’t like the genre of game then your pretty much fucked.
again opinions only really matter if its a consensus of all involved.. if the finals were really the average of every judge involved then we couldn’t really bitch could we? because that’s how democracy works.
Aside from the number of judges judging, i also think the IGF should toss out the scoring system all together and save that for the 2nd round of judging. If the first round consisted of each judge getting to vote yes on 10 games in the finals they thought were the best, for whatever reason and then the top 20 games that got the most votes then made it to the finals.. we would have 20 of the best indie games entered.
then everyone’s in the same boat.
theres a lot more to how i think they could fix things. alex and i are working on a basic proposal to submit to simon to see what he thinks, ill probably post it in the forums today to see what you guys think.
-Edmund
@PHeMoX,
I don’t understand what you’re jabbering about??? Goo got all kinds of great PR and is still getting all kinds of great recognition from various sources around the world, plus, they did very well at the last IGF… That is, I’m assuming we’re both talking about World of Goo, unless of course you’re talking about the stuff between your fingernails.
@Guy,
Good point and I’d have to agree.
Take Iji (by Daniel Remar) for example. That’s a game that deserves more attention. I’m sure a fair amount of people enjoy it but probably won’t get as much exposure as it deserves because it’s FREE and because it doesn’t conform to any standard of action game nor is it extremely innovative. It just happens to be different and extremely fun. It contains everything a game needs and should be made of, but it will probably stay a little known (but well liked) game simply because of the way the entire gaming scene is.
As a side note, I’m really enjoying Spelunky as well. Another FUN game. I think the whole “Games are Art” thing has gotten carried away. Games are supposed to be fun first, and artistic second cuz if the game isn’t fun it’s just Bad Art.
God I’m good. I’m gonna make T-Shirts outta that one.
Edmund, we will welcome proposals, of course. I think letting judges (there are >40, by the way, not >20) just nominate their 10 favorite games means they have to play all 250+, though, which is definitely unrealistic, right? Many of them are busy professionals or working on their own games.
simonc, then shouldn’t the judges be for next years IGF already be selected so they can start playing games as they’re nominated instead of getting the judges to try and play a handful of games within a compressed amount of time??? I think Edmund was just pointing out how the judging system is flawed. Obviously getting a judge to play some 250+ titles within a compressed amount of time is unrealistic, but shouldn’t the planning for IGF get better and better each year so that the system for judging becomes better and more fluid? How long does it take for a title to become nominated? How long is the submission process? Perhaps working on these will help with the judging process… perhaps not, I’m not trying to be facetious but it seems to me that more sense could be made of the judging process with a little more work.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just making too much sense (now I am being facetious). Anyway, hopefully the process will improve with time and allow more exposure for even more great indie games along the way.
There are far too many good, even decent, indie games that have little to no exposure and far too many Mainstream games that are complete and utter shit with far too much exposure. When all is said and done the festivals usually come down to a “bean count” but I certainly wouldn’t be offended by a role reversal in this area of the gaming scene.
Like I said, concrete suggestions welcome - chairman at igf dot com. We want to do right by the indie community.
One problem with “judging all year long”, aside from it would still be a huge task for each judge, is that most entrants don’t submit anything until the very last minute, literally..
I definitely agree with Edmunds concerns, especially “judges that never give high scores”; I’ve often apprehensive about handing out extremely low or high scores simply because I was aware that it could really skew things.
In hindsight, I wish I had gone with my gut and given Edan all 0s for entering the IGF in the first place :(
And IGF judges understand this and don’t deliberately give extreme scores to skew the results, because they’re more mature than that. But if they’re going to start, then I guess we’ll have to try something else. Maybe an all-Cactus finalist list? :)
Having entered (and failed) both the IGF 2004 and 2006 competitions, let me say that indie wise things have never looked better at the IGF (check out the finalists - not just the winners from previous IGFs).
The list of 2009 finalists is pretty damn good - maybe the best ever. There’s a trend away from the casual indie games to the weird & edgie indie games. Innovation was rewarded as much as production value and effort, which is a hard thing to judge. All of the games listed deserve more attention, and represent the best that indie gaming has to offer.
While the visitors of http://www.jayisgames.com might disagree (rightfully), I would hesitate to change the judging process that determined these selections.