San Francisco - The 2009 Independent Games Festival (IGF) has announced the 10 winners in the Student Showcase for its 11th annual awards, with games from three continents spanning ecological, paint-splattering, and fantasy exercise games to be shown at GDC this year. Chosen from a new record of 145 Student Showcase entries, these games will go on to compete for an overall Best Student Game prize, to be awarded at the IGF Awards Ceremony on the evening of March 25, 2009.
Among the year's Student Showcase winners are: CMU's active play exercise-centered game Winds Of Orbis, quirky Danish first-person dishcleaning game Dish Washington, and ecological management puzzle game City Rain from Brazilian students.
Also honored are titles including USC's abstract painting game The Unfinished Swan and reality-manipulating sidescrolling shooter Zeit Squared.
All IGF finalist games will be exhibited at the IGF Pavilion at this year's Game Developers Conference. GDC, ThinkServices' annual conference dedicated to the art, science, and business of games, takes place March 23 through 27 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.
Each finalist in the IGF Student Showcase will receive a $500 travel stipend to help aid expenses for the trip to GDC 2009. The winner of the IGF Best Student Game Award will receive a special trophy and $2500 cash prize during the ceremony.
The Student Showcase games and game mods that will be considered for the 2009 Best Student Game Award are all highlighted on the IGF Web site, and the full list of finalists follows:
Tag: The Power Of Paint (DigiPen Institute Of Technology, Seattle)
Feist (Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland)
Winds Of Orbis (Carnegie Mellon - Entertainment Technology Center, Pittsburgh)
Dish Washington (The National Academy of Digital, Interactive Entertainment, Denmark)
The Unfinished Swan (University of Southern California)
Where Is My Heart? (Universität Ulm, Germany)
The Color Of Doom (The Guildhall at SMU, Texas)
City Rain - Building Sustainability (Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil)
Kid The World Saver (University Of Southern California)
Zeit Squared (Technische Universität Berlin, Germany)