The Independent Games Festival (IGF) has chosen
finalists out of a record 141 entries for its ninth annual competition celebrating
the most innovative creations to come out of the independent and student game
communities. Selected by a jury made up of developers from Foundation 9, Ubisoft,
Crytek, Midway, Sony, Microsoft, Vivendi and Gearbox, as well as journalists
from Wired, Slashdot, Joystiq, Kotaku, Penny Arcade and the BBC, the finalists
will compete for more than $50,000 in prizes, including a $2,500 Audience Award
determined by fan votes. Nominated games will be
exhibited at the IGF Pavilion, March 7-9, 2007, at this year's Game Developers
Conference (GDC). GDC, CMP Technology's annual conference dedicated to the art,
science and business of games, takes place March 5-9, 2007 at the Moscone Convention
Center in San Francisco. Winners will be announced at the Conference's IGF Awards
Ceremony on March 7, 2007.
IGF finalists were led by Bit Blot's dreamlike 2D underwater adventure title
Aquaria, which garnered four nominations, including one for the Seumas McNally
Game of the Year. Game of the Year nominees also include Queasy Games' abstract
shoot-em-up, Everyday Shooter, which grabbed three nominations in total, as well
as complex physics puzzle game Armadillo Run, Wild West strategy MMO Bang! Howdy
and Xbox Live Arcade action-puzzler Roboblitz, each of which received two nods.
The finalists for the 2007 Independent Games Festival are:
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
Aquaria - Bit Blot
Armadillo Run - Peter Stock
Bang! Howdy - Three Rings Design
Everyday Shooter - Queasy Games
Roboblitz - Naked Sky Entertainment
Best Web Browser Game
Bubble Islands - dot-invasion
Gamma Bros - Pixeljam
Samorost 2 - Amanita Design
Design Innovation Award
Armadillo Run - Peter Stock
Aquaria - Bit Blot
Everyday Shooter - Queasy Games
Toblo - Digipen Institute of Technology
Toribash - NABI Software
Excellence In Visual Art
Aquaria - Bit Blot
Castle Crashers - The Behemoth
Golf? - Luke Hetherington Company
Roboblitz - Naked Sky Entertainment
Samorost 2 - Amanita Design
Excellence In Audio
Aquaria - Bit Blot
Bone: The Great Cow Race - Telltale Games
Everyday Shooter - Queasy Games
FizzBall - Grubby Games
Racing Pitch - Skinflake
Technical Excellence
Arcane Legions: A Rising Shadow - Slitherine Software
Armada Online - EvStream
Bang! Howdy - Three Rings Design
Blast Miner - Cryptic Sea
Bugs Of War - NinjaBee
You can learn more at
www.gdconf.com
.
