The 11th Annual Independent Games Festival opened their doors today, saying they're officially ready to start taking submissions for the annual festival.

Submissions to the contest are due by this November with finalists expected to be announced in January.

In addition to the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize and the awards the festival already gives out for audio, art direction, design and technology, this time around the IGF will also be presenting a new Innovation Award. The award is "intended to honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development."

As always, I expect to see a slew of interesting titles as I help judge the competition. Previous years have seen such greats as Everyday Shooter, Audiosurf and World of Goo.

IGF

Indies Bringing A Sense Of Wonder To TGS

The Independent Games Festival has proven itself a breeding ground for innovative new ideas, some of which end up changing the paradigm for the larger commercial industry. Now it looks like the Tokyo Game Show is getting its own version of the IGF, called the Sense of Wonder Night 2008, to be held on October 10th.

Ten titles will be selected for consideration, with the finalists' list to be revealed on September 16th. According to Wired, the committee has warned potential applicants against showing up with more of the same - they want technological and storytelling innovation that directly impacts gameplay. In with the new, then!

Should be interesting to see what turns up - by the by, Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi is one of the people on the selection committee, aptly.

Tokyo Game Show Throws Party for Innovative Games [Wired via GameSetWatch]

It's the Sundance of gaming. Or is it? That was bandied about (and overheard) a lot at this year's Independent Games Festival. Sure, the festival has been around for ten years, but this year, things were different. What, with the PlayStation Network, Xbox LIVE Arcade and WiiWare providing very real outlets for indie games, these games suddenly have a market with publishers are looking for the next Everyday Shooter.

"This year was kind of a perfect storm for the IGF," says Wired Magazine editor Chris Baker. "For one thing, we're well-ensconced in the current generation of game consoles, so there were no big surprises."

Independent games, however, are a breath of fresh air. And with digital distribution coming into its own, something that just continues to grow.

"I think this year further reinforced that indie game creators are getting better and better at conceptualizing ideas that likely aren't 'mainstream' enough to thrive in a $60 AAA Xbox 360 game," says IGF judge and Gamasutra editor Simon Carless, "and making them into totally fun, extremely playable titles."

Year after year, indie games are looking more and more polished. Slick, even.

"Tools are only getting easier to use, and digital distribution is increasing in scope and popularity every day," points out Andrew Maneri, character designer and AI developer for Synaesthete. "These were the two big barriers to entry for many developers."

But what about the winners of this year's IGF? Did anyone get any deals? Advance their career? We chatted up some of the winners, and got a glimpse of why deals don't really matter and how IGF changed their lives. Or didn't.

Oh, and we totally forgot to ask about indie gaming groupies. Sorry.

2D/3D platformer and IGF winner Fez is more than just a little bit of awesome, and now you can own Gomez the game's hero. Site A Little Bit of Awesome points out that these Gomez plushies can be had for just $10. They can be found over on the Etsy page of the site's girlfriend.

YaYaLuvsCupcakes [Etsy, via A Little Bit of Awesome]

Mega64's Independent Games Festival Clips Are Hilarious

During the course of the handing out of awards at last week's Independent Games Festival, audiences were treated to exclusive Mega64 produced videos between acceptance speeches. They weren't the typical game parodies played out in real life, but clips that spoke to the audience on hand. The production above, shown after the intro after the jump, was my personal favorite.

For a somewhat startling, volume lowering surprise from artist Dan Paladin of Alien Hominid fame, make the jump. Just make sure the kids are out of the room.

Hot Flashes: Tri-achnid

I ended up doing a nearly all-nighter earlier this week so I could play through the finalists for the Independent Games Festival. There are, as always, a number of fantastic games in the mix. Most of them, unfortunately, can't be played by the public. What can be played are the finalists for best Web game. My personal choice for the best of the lot? Tri-Achnid.

In the game you control a three-legged spider by clicking on its feet and moving the legs. The feet cling to things you touch them to and the ball of a body sort of follows along. Later on you also get to spin webs and attack things. The object of the game is to care for your egg sack, typically by carrying it from place to place in your mouth. Yes, the idea gives me the willies too, but at least it doesn't involve accidentally drinking an entire spider.

Tri-Achnid

Making Video Games With 5th Graders

IGF Focus: World of Goo

The Independent Games Festival today announced the dozen finalists for the Student Showcase. The 12 finalists will all receive a $500 travel stipend to help them get to GDC 2008 in San Francisco and the winner of the IGF Best Student Game Award will receive a $2,500 cash prize.

All of the games will also be shown off at the IGF Pavillion during the show. Here's the list:

Crayon Physics Deluxe, by Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia, Finland
Empyreal Nocturne, by DigiPen Institute of Technology
Gesundheit!, by Sheridan Institute
Galaxy Scraper, by Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
Mayhem Intergalactic, by The Australian National University
Poesysteme, by ENJMIN, France
Polarity, by Carnegie Mellon University
Ruckblende, by Uni Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Synaesthete, by DigiPen Institute of Technology
The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom, by University of Southern California- School of Cinematic Arts- Interactive Media Program
Flipside (Half-Life 2 Modification), by National Academy of Digital, Interactive Entertainment, Denmark
Foamzilla (Unreal Tournament 2004 Modification), by Vancouver Film School

Among the short-list is a Half-Life 2 mod called Flipside which has me very intriguied. I haven't had a chance to play it yet... mostly because I'm sitting in a van writing this on an energy-efficient, but graphicically-crap laptop. But I plan to check it out in the new year just as soon as I get back home. You should do the same, same with the rest of these finalists. Remember, these are the sorts of games that can sing on the Playstation Network or Xbox Live Arcade.

IGF Award Winner Aquaria Released Today

Official Aquaria Web Site [Bit Blot - Thanks Kyle!]

The 2008 Independent Games Festival finalists for the main competition have been named and it doesn't look like a single one of the games I helped judge in the initial round made it to round two. Fortunately, now I, along with all of the other judges, get to play the finalists, something I'm quite looking forward to. Hit the jump for the breakdown of finalists.

I've spent the tail end of my vacation working through the games assigned to me for judging for the upcoming Independent Game Festival. The games run the gambit from amazing to pedestrian. One of my favorites among the batch of entries was Pocketwatch Games' Venture Arctic.

In Venture Arctic you control an arctic ecosystem as you try and meet goals liking increasing the population of the Timber Wolves or unlocking a particular animal. The game progresses through four seasons. Each season has special actions, such as making it snow, warming up an area, making animals mate. Each action can be performed at any time of the year, but if you perform it during it's season, it doesn't cost you anything.

Perform it out of season and you have to spend spirits, which you accrue from the animals that have died in the arctic. The whole thing has a very give-and-take feel to it. If you make too many rabbits they'll eat up all of your berries and your caribou will starve to death, but not enough and the timber wolves will start hunting the caribou because they're aren't enough rabbits around.

On top of that heating up and cooling down the land has a direct impact on how the animals and plants survive and thrive. It's all a very delicate balancing act. The whole game is played from a sort of Sim City, slanted top-down perspective and features over-sized, but well animated animals. It's certainly not high-def graphics, but I felt myself getting attached to the animals and their off-spring as I worked to try and, say, bring my caribou population up to 15.

With 22 different animals, all with realistic behavior, the game has a lot to teach you, but the thing is, you don't feel like you're learning things, instead you feel like you're having fun and that's where this game best succeeds, it makes learning about a very important and often forgotten part of the world entertaining.

Venture Arctic

IGF Student Showcase: Entries Now Up

IGF Student Showcase: Entries Close Monday

Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!

More than 173 games are competing in next year's Independent Games Festival, the 10th annual, and the full list just hit the web. GDC 08 will see $50,000 in prizes handed out to indie game developers, many of whom will end up landing publishing deals. It's all very exciting.

Once again, I am among the growing list of IGF judges this year, meaning I get to play a bunch of exciting new games and then give my impressions to both the festival organizers and the developers. Hit up the link to see the full list, or the jump to see the list of the game's I've been asked to take an early look at.

Independent Games Festival

Independent Games Festival Opens For Submissions

Samarost 2 Named Best Webby Online Game