IGF 2010 – 306 Entries!

By: Derek Yu

On: November 3rd, 2009

A record number of entries were submitted to next year’s IGF Main Competition – 306, to be exact! This year there were 224 entries. In 2008 there were 173. In 2007 there were 143… you get the picture! Soon, the 2010 entries will be checked and distributed to 150 judges (the most ever), and the finalists will be announced in January. In March we’ll find out which of those finalists will win prizes at the illustrious IGF award show.

Man, I love seeing the new entries each year. As much as we enjoy stereotyping independent games as being one type of game or another, the IGF entries are always a really diverse bunch. I think it’s awesome (and I eagerly await whatever controversies come up in 2010!).

Congratulations to all the entrants!

Posted in Community, Competitions, Developers, IGF / GDC

http://www.roachpuppy.com Chris Zamanillo

Good luck to all the entrants, some very tough competition this year. I’m just glad I finally met an IGF deadline, even after an intense crunch.
what

That’s the wrong banner. Where is shirtless Dan Tabar. I demand more shirtless Dan Tabar. THE PEOPLE, DESERVE, MORE SHIRTLESS DAN TABAR.
KrakenSoup

It seems to arrive faster every year as well as considering its growth rate.
Praetor

Yeah, good luck to everyone who entered! I still can’t believe I managed to get get my game ready in time… I pretty much didn’t sleep this past week (almost had a heart attack when my ftp client was giving me issues at 3 hours until the deadline…). Looking at the list of games I don’t think I have much of a chance… but it’s worth a shot anyways.
Zaphos

The link in this post is to the 2007 entries … just changing 2007 to 2010 in the url gets to the right place though :)

Good luck everyone!
http://www.microwaving.net Alex

The IGF lost any and all credibility when they gave that piece of shit Blueberry Garden not only an award but the GRAND PRIZE. What a joke.

(P.S. EVEN IF YOU WON’T LOVE ME, AT LEAST PAY ATTENTION TO ME!)
Skofo

@Alex: Haha, seriously? I just played it a few days ago. I thought it was nice, but it wasn’t anything big or horribly creative so I thought it’d be more appropriate as a little Flash game. Blows my mind that it topped 223 other games.
http://www.leebleforest.wordpress.com Laura

Good luck to all the entrants! I also submitted at the very last minute and nearly flipped out when my normal ftp program wouldn’t connect properly an hour or two before the deadline! I’m quite relieved that it finally uploaded though :) Regardless of what happens with the contest, it was really nice to have a focal point… trying to meet that deadline encouraged me to do a ton of work in a very short amount of time.
Leonardo

Whoa, that’s a lot of entries.
I’m seeing a judge or two losing his girlfriend because of nights he’ll spend “reviewing” games…
http://ghook.speedrungames.com SpeedRunGames

Wow. 306 Entries. Chances are high, that there are some real gems between them. :)

I’m already looking forward visiting San Francisco and the IGF next year.
Sergio

Observations:

1) Limbo is seemingly real. (Yay!)

2) Edmund submitted many games! (Perhaps too many…?)

3) So many of these great games will go virtually unrecognised… (;_;)
http://arm42.com/ ARme

I agree with you Laura and Praetor !
I probably more advanced in my project these last two weeks than over one regular month.
Some entries have quite a nice budget and great team I must say.
http://0xdeadc0de.org Eclipse

@Alex: was you banned from the forums and now you decided to troll here?

From the list i think that the best games are Closure and possibly Cactus new weird platformer, but there are so many that seems interesting. Good luck!
I really wish Konjak to win a prize, the new Chalk looks lovely. And Xerus too with Verge!
Derek

I fail at linking once again! It’s fixed now, though. Thanks, Zaphos.
The Monster King Ren

I hope they check the games out just a little bit more, I heard Barkley: Shut up and Jam Gaiden was praised as a nice usage of RPG Maker
http://cymonsgames.com/ Cymon

Glee! I’m so excited to be in this year. Sure, I’m one of those likely to get passed over. I think with the size of the competition now there needs to be, I don’t know, tiers, or increase the number of IGFs annually. Something to allow more people to compete and really feel like they’re “in”.
simonc

Monster King Ren: That RPG Maker thing was a goofed engine feedback presumption on a judge’s (actually, my) part last year, but wasn’t score affecting.

Anyhow, as you may have heard, we have 150 judges this year and counting, so we’re assigning at least 7 judges per game.

So we’re trying for a LOT more feedback to entrants (written anonymous judge feedback is now compulsory), because that’s valuable for quoting and game improvement purposes. We care about this type of thing.

Simon@IGF.
http://vacuumflowers.com/ Sparky

Best wishes to everyone entering next year’s IGF. I hope to see some of you there!

simonc- I’m really glad to hear about the increased emphasis on making sure games get played by enough judges and that adequate feedback is given. That seems really positive.
Hypersapien

Miegakure sounds insane. I want to play that so badly.
Paul Eres

i think games who begin with an early letter of the alphabet have an advantage because of people getting tired looking at 300 games and only remembering the early ones, haha

mostly joking

although my game does begin with an ‘s’ and is near the end
http://www.leebleforest.wordpress.com Laura

@Paul: Haha… we were just talking about that earlier! I was wondering if people actually ever name their games with that in mind. Mine starts with an “M” so you kind of have to click through a few times, but I don’t think I’d ever mind so long as the title had some personal meaning to me :)
Nerv

@Paul: I agree! xD People all around is talking about games listed on the first 2 pages :( Our game is named ‘The Last Dance’ and it’s almost at the end.
Bad Luck! Next game we’ll choose a better name like 0000_shoter, or aaaaa_peaceMaker :P
Yakov

2 weeks without normal sleep and it’s not enough ready… hope my game will not be reviewed in near 2 weeks )
magallanes

WTF?????

Limbo is in the list, even when the project never was released (and this was years ago). Is Limbo a vaporware or the author decided to give a new life?
Anthony Flack

Being turned into a creepy poster is almost a punishment for winning.
http://cymonsgames.com/ Cymon

@magallanes brings up an interesting questions.

Can a game get anywhere in the IGF based on screenshots and intro videos alone? I can list more than a few games in the indie community that people get all excited about with less. I mean I doubt they’re going to deny anyone the opportunity to pay the $95 entry fee.
Frank

Hopefully something that deserves to win actually wins this year.
!CE-9

@Paul Eres: the lexicographical advantage things seems to be real. I really would’ve welcomed links to groups of games (50’s of them / beginning with the same letter / whatever).

Did I BMcC’s game? Also, Increpare & Dock seems to not have submitted their game ‘Pirouette’.=(

That said, there’s so many good quality games in there.

(It’s been interesting to see Nothing and Limbo show up too.)
Anthony Flack

“Hopefully something that deserves to win actually wins this year.”

I see that “Don’t Shit Your Pants” is in contention!
calculator

Pretty soon the entry fees will cover the prize money, and everyone can just have a lottery instead.