To: Luke
From: Crecente
Re: ChildBeard

ChildBeard!!! Sounds like someone needs a puppy!

As you've probably noticed. I've long been a big fan and, in my own way, supporter of the independent games movement. I love checking out the raw acts of creation that are the result of not a focus group or a company but a team or maybe even one person. And I'm not the only one. I think all of us love watching these quirky games struggle through the layers of anonymity to become discovered, and often enjoyed by others. Ash did that great write up about the future of Independent Games Festival winners. McWhertor, I think it was him, came up with the whole Hot Flashes idea for posts about cool flash games. Maggie covers the crap out of the serious games initiative and find loads of cool indie goodies to talk about.

So I was genuinely excited when I received an email earlier this week to say that the official judging for next year's Independent Games Festival was officially underway. As one of many of the judges, I have the pleasure of playing through 11 games and scoring them to help see if they should be finalists. Often some of these games end up as titles on consoles, PC, iPhone or what have you. Always there's at least one game that just blows me away.

I'm giddy.

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