The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is the longest running and largest indie gaming festival in the world, and it is currently heading into its 12th iteration. The festival is held in concurrence with the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) and will be taking place over 9 – 13 March 2010 in San Francisco.
The IGF plays host to an annual competition in which unpublished indie game developers are given the opportunity to compete for industry recognition. Entry submissions for the main competition of the event were recently closed with a record number of participants – 306 entries.
The gaming titles will be distributed to 150 judges with notable gaming industry experience for evaluation. The submissions will be whittled down to a list of finalists, to be announced in January 2010.
At the March 2010 event, the IGF will award over US$40 000 (±R310 000) in prizes for various categories. There are eight categories in which 5 selected finalists may compete. Excellence in Visual Art, Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Design, and Technical Achievement all offer an award of US$2 500 (±R19 300).
The Nuovo award of US$2 500 honours unique short-form, abstract and unconventional titles. The category allows such games to demonstrate their esoteric and experimental art styling without having to compete with a full title. The Seumas McNally Grand Prize of US$20 000 (±R155 000) goes to the best overall title in the competition.
The Audience award asks public voters to download demonstration versions of the finalist games and vote for their favourite. The winner receives US$2 500. The Direct2Drive award currently has no cash prize offering attached.
There are two other categories of the competition still open for submission. The Student Showcase Competition is open to student developers and mod makers. Ten games will be chosen for the Showcase Winner award, with the developers receiving US$500 (±R3850). The Best Student Game award winner will be picked from the ten Showcase nominees to receive US$2 500.
The IGF Mobile competition is entering into its third year, and will award a US$2 500 prize to one of the five finalists attending the event.
Aside from all of the cash prizes, the winners of all competitions will have the right to bear the distinguished award logo on their products, as well as receive much desired press coverage. Be sure to watch out for the results as numerous indie gaming gems emerge from the event.
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