They Could Be Heroes: IGF 2012 Finalists

Aaaaand hot off the presses is the rather long list of exciting finalists for this year’s exciting Independent Games Festival. A truly corking selection of indie games here, and a chance to take bets, guesstimations and wild speculations on what might go home with a gong or two. They haven’t nominated my game, I note. Maybe I should have actually made one.

Excellence In Visual Art

Botanicula (Amanita Design)
Dear Esther (thechineseroom)
Lume (State Of Play Games)
Mirage (Mario von Rickenbach)
Wonderputt (Damp Gnat)

Technical Excellence

Antichamber (Demruth)
Fez (Polytron)
Prom Week (Expressive Intelligence Studio, UC Santa Cruz)
Realm of the Mad God (Wild Shadow Studios & Spry Fox)
Spelunky (Mossmouth)

Excellence In Design

Atom Zombie Smasher (Blendo Games)
English Country Tune (Stephen Lavelle)
Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games)
Gunpoint (Tom Francis, John Roberts and Fabian van Dommelen)
Spelunky (Mossmouth)

Well done friend-of-RPS Tom Francis! And all the other guys, obv.

Excellence In Audio

Botanicula (Amanita Design)
Dear Esther (thechineseroom)
Pugs Luv Beats (Lucky Frame)
To The Moon (Freebird Games)
Waking Mars (Tiger Style)

Best Mobile Game

ASYNC Corp (Powerhead Games)
Beat Sneak Bandit (Simogo)
Faraway (Steph Thirion)
Ridiculous Fishing (Vlambeer)
Waking Mars (Tiger Style)

Nuovo Award
[Designed ‘to honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development’.]

At a Distance (Terry Cavanagh)
Dear Esther (thechineseroom)
Fingle (Game Oven Studios)
GIRP (Bennett Foddy)
Proteus (Ed Key and David Kanaga)
Johann Sebastian Joust (Die Gute Fabrik)
Storyteller (Daniel Benmergui)
Way (CoCo & Co.)

And the big one:

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

Dear Esther (thechineseroom)
Fez (Polytron)
Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games)
Johann Sebastian Joust (Die Gute Fabrik)
Spelunky (Mossmouth)

Of those, the only two I’ve not played are Fez, because it’s not out yet, and Johann Sebastian Joust, because I haven’t been in the right place at the right time. I have heard amazing things about it, but until I’ve played it I think I’d like to see Frozen Synapse take this one. BUT THAT’S JUST ME.

Also, it’s a big fat shame that the Pirate Kart isn’t in there anywhere. And SpaceChem too (though it did get an honourable mention). Bah! Nonetheless, huge congratulations to everyone that made it onto the finalists list, everyone who submitted a game to the IGF this year, and anyone who’s made a game ever, apart from the guys behind X-COM: Enforcer.