The 18th Annual Independent Games Festival Awards have just wrapped up, with the 16th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards to follow shortly. I was at the ceremony, which took place in a preposterously large ballroom within the conference centre in San Francisco. You can find a full list of the winners, nominees and my thoughts on the outcome below.
I’m an Independent Games Festival judge every year, and it’s like Christmas for a game journalist – hundreds of indie games, released and unreleased, waiting to be downloaded and played and thought about. It’s through this process that I first played FTL, months before its Kickstarter, and over the years it’s led me to similarly find dozens of games I might have otherwise missed.
This year’s judging just came to an end, and for me, it felt like a weak year. It’s got me questioning what the IGF awards are really for.
When it comes to award ceremonies, there aren’t many to take seriously. But with all its internal and external fighting, perhaps those at the annual Game Developers Conference tend to hold the most weight. We’re talking relatively, here. Both the Game Developers Choice Awards, and the Independent Games Festival Awards are given away on the Wednesday evening of the week, this year falling on the 27th March. Both ceremonies now have an Audience Award, and you can begin orchestrating elaborate ways to fix those votes now.
It also means it’s time to play: How Many Games In The IGF Audience Award Can’t Actually Be Played By The Audience?!
2012’s IGF Awards caused not a small amount of consternation behind the scenes. A good deal of this was bad sportsmanship, with developers claiming it was rigged against them in various ways that it absolutely was not. But other issues like games that had already won being re-entered did become a more serious issue. However, even before this year’s awards, IGF bossman Brandon Boyer has said that this shall no longer be allowed, with any finalists disqualified for another go. And he scraps the mobile category. And yet, even now, still bloody well ignores writing.
