By John Walker on February 21st, 2008 at 9:46 am.
The results are in, with the winners announced for the 2008 IGF Awards.
The standard of entries this year was just stunning, and when we’ve tried to pick out our favourite of the top prize entries, it’s been impossible. For us it came down to three. Audiosurf has taken over our lunchtimes (and mornings and afternoons and evenings) this week, and is obviously a triumphant achievement. Crayon Physics Deluxe is so charming and serene, while letting you feel like a wizard as your drawings come to life. And World of Goo evoked memories in us of the first time we played Lemmings (a high compliment indeed). Winners lie beyond.
In the end, the Seumas McNally Grand Prize winner was Crayon Physics Deluxe. Many congratulations go to Petri Purho, for what is a remarkable and deserving winner.
The full list of winners are as follows:
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
Crayon Physics Deluxe by Kloonigames
Best Web Browser Game
Iron Dukes by One Ton Ghost
Design Innovation Award
World Of Goo by 2D Boy
Excellence in Visual Art
Fez by Kokoromi
Excellence in Audio
Audiosurf by Invisible Handlebar
Technical Excellence
World Of Goo by 2D Boy
Best Student Game
Synaesthete by DigiPen Institute of Technology
Audience Award
Audiosurf by Invisible Handlebar
Gleemie Awards
First Place: Desktop Power Defense by Handdrawngames
Second Place: Skyrates by Team Skyrates
Third Place: Quadradius by Quadradius
Congrats to all. It’s great to see Fez and World of Goo receiving deserved awards – games we’re now desperate to get our hands on.
Also, huge kudos to everyone behind the scenes at the IGF Awards. It’s an enormously complicated process, juggling 173 entries and a dozen judges, and once again you’ve done us proud.
I find it funny that Audiosurf was awarded for excellence in audio even though its forte really is visualizing other people’s (often) excellent audio.
Well, I have to admit that “Excellence in Visualization of Audio” might be a bit unlikely category.
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I didn’t even notice which were the games and which were the devs so thought audiosurf had been overlooked!
Excellent choices though
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Kevlmess: It’s more about how it uses the audio than what the audio actually is, at least in the case of Audiosurf.
I’m a tad bemused by the “Gleemie Awards”, which seem to just be an advertising exercise – one that hopefully won’t be repeated next year (though it’ll probably end up being someone elses “awards”)
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But Audiosurf does have its own audio, and creating this such that it does not ruin the songs you are listening to is an achievement.
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I don’t think excellence in audio is simply limited to what the game offers anyway. I mean brog is right but it’s also in how it utilises audio to improve the gameplay experience (or just ‘the game’). In this case it’s using your own music as an input for visual feedback.
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Proof that you should never take betting advice from me.
KG
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Hurrah for Iron Dukes winning. Hurrah!
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Oh, World of Goo, I’ve only played your first chapter, but already I love you enough to have your sticky man-babies.
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so the only game I’m interested in (world of goo) isn’t even finished yet.
Bah.
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Surprise surprise! Digipen won the student competition they sponsor again this year. I wonder if it could have something to do with the Digipen faculty judging the games.
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I find it baffling that Penumbra didn’t claim technical excellence. It’s light years ahead of all the other games technically and was made by just two guys.
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@Joe:
Probably because Penumbra used the source engine as its core. I agree its an impressive achievement, but its not ‘all their own work’.
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@Disgruntled Student:
details on the IGF juries are public. Also note that the Student Showcase has a separate jury, made up either entirely or almost entirely of academics, including instructors from leading US game design schools, but the only DigiPen instructor is on the other jury.
If you want a conspiracy, then maybe this note at the bottom will help:
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So how does this work when half the games on the list aren’t out or finished yet?
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