![]() |
Games: 6,612 | Reviews: 6,583 | Previews: 8,425 | News: 12,867 | Images: 196,233 | Videos: 13,034
![]() IGF 2012 finalists revealed"Fez, Johann Sebastian Joust, Spelunky, Frozen Synapse, Dear Esther nominated for top prize at 14th annual Independent Games Festival." While the Game Developer Choice Awards celebrate the best in the world of established, mainstream gaming, the Independent Games Festival honors the AAA industry's upstart counterparts, often titles in need of all the exposure they can get. Today, the group raised the profile of a number of such games, laying out its finalists for the seven main IGF Award categories, including the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. ![]() Last year's IGF Award grand prize went to Minecraft. Perhaps you've heard of it. The first-person ghost story Dear Esther led all games with four nominations, including nods for the Grand Prize as well as Excellence in Visual Art, Excellence in Audio, and the Nuovo Award, intended "to honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development." Other titles picking up multiple nominations included Mossmouth's arcade-style action game Spelunky (three nominations), Polytron's multidimensional platformer Fez (two nominations), Mode 7's strategy game Frozen Synapse (two nominations), and Die Gute Fabrik's video-less PlayStation Move game Johann Sebastian Joust (two nominations). All of the aforementioned games are also up for the Seumas McNally award. This year's IGF finalists faced more competition than ever before, as the festival attracted close to 570 entrants. The stakes are also higher this year, as Microsoft has worked with organizers to create an XBLA Prize category in which the winner gets a publishing deal to release the game on the Xbox 360, PC, and Windows Phone 7. The 2012 Independent Games Festival takes place March 5-9 in San Francisco as part of the annual Game Developers Conference. Recent IGF award-winning titles that have seen commercial releases include Minecraft, Limbo, Machinarium, and more.
Excellence in Visual Art
Technical Excellence
Excellence in Design
Excellence in Audio
Best Mobile Game
Nuovo Award
Seumas McNally Grand Prize Posted on Jan 10, 2012 Source: GameSpot.com ![]() |
![]() |