Introversion's retro-stylish PC action-strategy title DARWINIA led the pack at the 2006 Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards, taking three prizes, including the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game. The winners were announced last night at the 8th Annual IGF Awards ceremony, hosted by the Game Developers Conference (GDC) at the San Jose Civic Auditorium in San Jose, California.
The IGF awards have been described as the Sundance Festival of the videogame world, and offer both global exposure and significant cash prizes to the winners. Other winners included groundbreaking time-manipulation platform title BRAID, which won for Innovation In Design, as well as cheeky Flash-based beat-em-up DAD 'N ME, which triumphed in the new Best Web Game category.
The first-ever IGF Modding Competition, which is awarding $10,000 in prizes to the best amateur modders for existing videogames, also saw outstanding winners, including cyberpunk mod DYSTOPIA for HALF-LIFE 2 and ancient Chinese mod PATH OF VENGEANCE for UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004, as well as console-style RPG mod ROSE OF ETERNITY - CHAPTER 1 for NEVERWINTER NIGHTS, and the visceral LAST MAN STANDING CO-OP for DOOM 3.
"Independent game development is in a very exciting place right now, as digital distribution helps change business models radically," said Simon Carless, chairman, IGF. "We're delighted to help support the innovation and risk-taking that indie developers take to advance their field and help shift gaming paradigms."
The IGF awarded the following games in each category in the main competition each received a cash prize of $2,500 as well as sponsor-related prizes, apart from the AdultSwim.com Award ($5,000) and the Grand Prize ($20,000):
Seumas McNally Grand PrizeDARWINIA
Best Web Browser GameDAD 'N ME
Innovation In Game DesignBRAID
Technical ExcellenceDARWINIA
Innovation In AudioWEIRD WORLDS: RETURN TO INFINITE SPACE
Innovation In Visual ArtDARWINIA
Audience AwardDOFUS
AdultSwim.com AwardDODGE THAT ANVIL
The Audience Award was conducted in association with IGF media sponsors GameSpot and Download.com. It was decided by popular ballot on a special section of the GameSpot site, which allowed gamers to download demos of the Main IGF finalists, and then vote on their favorite.
The IGF was established in 1998 by the CMP Game Group to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers, in the way Sundance Film Festival honors the independent film community. With a record-breaking 118 entries from all over the world, the 2006 IGF reflects how global the game development community has become.
For more information, visit www.igf.com.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
