News: IGF Entrants List Posted

[Matthew]

A lot to dig through:

http://www.igf.com/2006entrants.shtml

[Gnatinator]

Great. :D

I see a lot of familiar names in there. Good luck to all who've entered!

[DrWilloughby]

A huge list. The fact that Luxor was entered gave me a chuckle. Does that count as indie?

Lots of good games and plenty that sound intriguing that I had never heard of. Seems like there's stiff competition this year.

My money goes to Darwinia taking Art and Game Design -- all in all a really solid (though occassionally flawed) entry. I'm hoping my entry makes it to the finals...

Good luck to everyone else! May the best games win!

[kimkallstrom1]

Had tried out a few. Sea of Chaos (http://www.digipen.edu/~llenhart/sea/) is pretty impressive for a freeware title!

Tim W.
Independent Gaming (http://indygamer.blogspot.com/)

[ERoberts]

The fact that Luxor was entered gave me a chuckle. Does that count as indie?


Why wouldn't it? Sometimes I get the feeling that some peoples definition of indie game is "a game that is not successful". Figures.

[Ricardo C]

Actually, I've found that people who question Luxor's (or Zuma's, or Diner Dash's, etc.) status as an indie game do so because of the exponentially larger budgets and staff these games were made with, not any sort of inferiority complex/professional envy/whatever else your little comment meant to imply. This has been discussed in the past, but thanks for the troll anyway.

[terin]

If ANY of the entrants need to be questioned it is:

Dangerous Waters
Sonalysts Combat Simulations (Sonalysts Inc.)

A retail published title that really doesn't have an ounce of what makes an indie title. I'm still not a fan of the method they use to declare indies.

That was the only title I noticed (maybe Rubies of Evantide, but I don't think that game is good enough to win and it technically IS indie in my mind... but only just barely)

-Joe

[Hiro_Antagonist]

A retail published title that really doesn't have an ounce of what makes an indie title. I'm still not a fan of the method they use to declare indies.
Heh, well, recently they've had Savage, Yo Ho Ho Puzzle Pirates, and Alien Hominid. This certainly isn't a new trend. =)

-Hiro_Antagonist

[simonc]

Hey guys - I'm Chairman of the IGF, and am definitely interested in your feedback. There are _lots_ of great games posted this year, and the 'is this indie?' question always comes up, of course.

We actually added a tickbox this year with a kind of 'pledge of allegiance' when people submitted - essentially, a 'think carefully - are you really indie?' check, and I feel like that at least makes people think. In addition, I feel like games such as Alien Hominid really _do_ show the spirit of indie - heck, it was developed with the founders' money from remortgaging their houses.

I also believe that games such as Dangerous Waters show the indie aesthetic pretty clearly as well, even if they were developed by veterans, especially since simulations are retreating into what I'd definitely called an indie niche - and Dangerous Waters only very recently got some fairly limited retail distribution, I believe? In any case, it technically qualified and spiritually qualifies, for me.

Anyhow, I will try to check in here occasionally to answer any more questions - but now I have to go check 118 games to make sure they work before the judges get their hands on them - uhoh!

[Andy]

Heh, well, recently they've had Savage, Yo Ho Ho Puzzle Pirates, and Alien Hominid. This certainly isn't a new trend. =)

-Hiro_Antagonist

I have nothing against the competition of good games. They just need to remove Independent of their title. And don't get annoyed my email box with their newsletter anymore. :D

[PoV]

Goody... Impulse sounds vaguely familiar. ;)

It's my own fault for not doing something with PB until recently. Meh.

[DrWilloughby]

Anyone else with bets on the winners? (or at least finalists?)

Reflexive declined to enter this year (though they didn't have any major releases, so far as I can remember) partly because there was a bit of outcry in Wik being entered. Seems like an honorable thing to do to me!

Alien Hominid def. counts as indie! That's one where their success critcally actually translated into a publisher deal. Horray for trailblazers like them!

And Puzzle Pirates, though its gotten a bit less press, is actually even more of a success story. Those guys put everything on the line (like the AH guys), and two years later, they are bringing in a VERY significant revenue stream. AND they've got a captive MMO audience in a growing market niche. Impressive. All self published too.

[Phil Steinmeyer]

Interesting to note that Mumbo's entries, Luxor and Chainz 2, are listed at $50K budgets each, and 4 and 3 months dev time, respectively. If those are accurate, that's pretty good, considering their success, and definitely puts them in the indie category as far as budget goes.

[kimkallstrom1]

Played just about all the entries for this year's competition. Will post my thoughts about the good ones on my blog.

Tim W.
Independent Gaming (http://indygamer.blogspot.com/)

[James C. Smith]

Reflexive declined to enter this year (though they didn't have any major releases, so far as I can remember).

Reflexive has 3 games that could have been entered. One was publicly released in December/January (Big Kahuna Reef) and the other two are close enough to being finished that they could have been entered. But none of them seemed to be in the spirit of the IGF.

[DrWilloughby]

Ah, I didn't realize BKR was this year. While I love to stand in the company of the Reflexive talent, I'd rather not when it comes to judgement day... (igf-wise, that is)