Desktop Dungeons has gone from relative obscurity to international indie success story very quickly. Don’t think I’m exaggerating here simply because of the game’s South African roots. Winning an award at the Independent Games Festival (IGF) is a huge deal for an indie developer.
On its path to the awards ceremony, Desktop Dungeons was in contention with 390 other indie titles. The finalists where whittled down, and Desktop Dungeons qualified for two categories – Excellence in Design and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize (aka IGF Indie game of the year).
There was strong competition in both categories, including the mammoth sleeper hit Minecraft, a game which took the coveted Seumas McNally award. However, Desktop Dungeons scooped the Excellence in Design award.
MyGaming managed to catch up with Rodain Joubert, the progenitor of Desktop Dungeons, and a member of the QCF Design team that brought the game into its current IGF competition ready state. He took the time to quickly fill us in on the experience before no doubt rushing off to appease many more members of the gaming press.
“We won! We won! We wooooooon! Woop! What else can I say? This is absolutely fantastic news for us and will hopefully translate into a step forward and rise in confidence for the local [game development] community at large,” said Joubert.
“As for specifics: we were nominated for two awards (Excellence in Design, Seumas McNally Grand Prize), and won the former, earning $2500 and a fancy trophy of awesome. We were up against the likes of Minecraft and Super Crate Box and the victory was somewhat… unexpected,” admits Joubert.
GDC and IGF media partner Gamespot has posted some footage of the event for those who want to catch the full ceremony. The QCF boys make their appearance at around the 14.00 mark.
Discuss Desktop Dungeon’s IGF award victory on the MyGaming forum.
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