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]

Announcing the "Pax 10"

Yesterday Penny Arcade announced The PAX 10, a showcase of independent games that will be displayed as part of the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) August 29-31, 2008 in cooperation with the DigiPen Institute of Technology.

They are looking for ten independent developers that are interested in seeing their games viewed by attendees, media and publishers at the Expo. A panel of 50 industry experts, including Penny Arcade's own Gabe and Tycho, will be selecting the ten submissions that they consider to be the best based on gameplay and "fun factor." Of the ten, one will be chosen "Audience Choice Award" by attendees.

Check out the details at the link below.

Brown Paper Tickets

Game Developers Choice Awards On Tonight

For those who didn't attend GDC last week, there's another chance to catch the Game Developers Choice Awards/Independent Games Festival Awards megashow. Condensed to a 30-minute segment for an X-Play time slot, to catch the event, set your DVRs for G4 at 8pm (eastern) tonight. (You could watch it in real time, but we were pretending you had plans or something.)

Not only is this the first developer-powered award show to make it to mainstream television, but everyone who attended was entertained by some extremely funny acceptance speeches. Tune in and enjoy.

G4 To Show Game Developers Choice Awards Tonight [Gamasutra]

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.

Getting Game Graphics On A Shoestring Budget

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.

IGF Student Showcase: Entries Now Up

Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!

The Independent Games Festival in SF is just around the corner and the site for the event is now showing a gargantuan list of 173 entries for the 2008 competition. I skimmed over the multi-page list until my eyes were crossing and i started running out of time and as always, there's some really great looking stuff as well as some craptacular ones. If you're haveing a lazy weekend and are looking for something to kill some time, head on over to the IGF website and check out some the entries. The list also includes links to the home sites of these games if you want to see any of them in more detail and some are even downloadable to try out. Anyone care to give some predictions?

IGF Entries [Independent Games Festival]

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

Timewasters: Top 27 'Art Games'

IGF Announces Student Showcase Winners

Feature: Satchell Talks Indie, Sony, Nintendo and Modding

2007 Independent Games Festival Finalists

GSW: My Cup Runneth Over