San Francisco, Calif. - The organizers of the 14th Annual Independent Games Festival-the longest-running and largest festival relating to independent games worldwide-announced another year of record entry numbers for IGF 2012's Main Competition.
In total, this year's Main Competition took in nearly 570 game entries from both indie developers and first-time entrants, a more than 45 percent jump over 2011's total entries. Entries for mobile hardware like the iPhone, iPad, DS, PSP and Android devices--now integrated into the festival and eligible for their own unique Best Mobile Game award--nearly doubled over the prior year, proving the platform's increasing importance for independent development.
Some of the titles entered in the IGF Main Competition this year include: Ed Key and David Kanaga's Proteus, an adventure game that dynamically generates its ambient soundtrack as you explore;
Waking Mars, the action-gardening game from former IGF Mobile winner Tiger Style; and
Super T.I.M.E. Force, a time-twisting shooter from
Critter Crunch,
Clash of Heroes, and
Sword & Sworcery
EP developer Capy.
In addition, a number of returning developers previously honored at the Independent Games Festival have entered new games, including Prison Architect, a previously unannounced game from 2006 Seumas McNally Grand Prize winners Introversion;
Jesus Vs Dinosaurs, an arcade game co-developed by Crayon Physics creator Petri Purho; and two new games from the team behind 2007 Grand Prize winner
Aquaria: Infinite Ammo's
Alone and
Spelunky, a revamped version of Mossmouth's cult favorite rogue-like platformer.
Other notable entries this year include ____ (Four Letter Word) from
VVVVVV developer Terry Cavanagh;
Storyteller, an experimental visual-narrative game from former Nuovo finalist Daniel Benmergui; and mobile debuts from a number of beloved indie regulars: Vlambeer's
Ridiculous Fishing,
Rockfish, from
Cave Story creator Daisuke 'Pixel' Amaya, and
English Country Tune from Stephen 'Increpare' Lavelle.
"The continued growth of both the Independent Games Festival and of independent games as a cultural force is incredibly heartening," says Brandon Boyer, festival chairman. "The diversity--and the plain overwhelming number--of entries in the festival this year is proof positive that we're in the midst of a true renaissance in games history."
This year's IGF entries will be distributed to more than 150 notable industry judges for evaluation, and their highest recommendations passed on to a set of discipline-specific juries for each award, who will debate and vote on their favorites, before finalists are announced in January 2012.
In turn, winners will be awarded on stage during the IGF Awards ceremony during the Game Developers Conference 2012 in San Francisco next March, and all finalists in the Main Competition (including the art-centric Nuovo Award) and the Student Showcase (which is due for submission by October 31st) will be showcased in the IGF Pavilion on the GDC Expo Floor from March 7th-9th, immediately following the 5th Annual Independent Games Summit on March 5th and 6th.