miegakure posts

The Technical Excellence portion of the IGF is one that many people will never understand. Rather than being focused on measurable bits that are divest of the creation progress (for the most part), developers are having their games picked apart and forced into terrifying positions in order to determine which one is the most impressive from a coding standpoint. The judges have ruled and the jury is now in, so we must simply wait and see which of the following five games will be the best technical accomplishment.

This week there's been a bunch of game related events going on including IndieCade 2010. The Los Angeles based event that concentrates on the independent games movement is in its final day but earlier this week the festival announced which games had won awards for its 2010 season.

IndieGames.com has the full list of winners and as you can see it has a wide variety of titles It's likely that many of you may not have heard of most of these titles but there's still a lot of gaming goodness to be had from the games that are listed below:

Gameplay Innovation Award: Continuity
Technological Innovation Award: Miegakure
Sound Award: Limbo
World and Story Award: Games of Nonchalance
Documentary Award: The Cat and the Coup
Aesthetics Award: Spirits
Sublime Experience Award: Faraway
Fun and Compelling Award: VVVVVV
Wild Card Award: B.U.T.T.O.N.
Trailblazer Award: Tim Schafer
Virtuoso Award: A Slow Year
Vanguard Award: A Slow Year
A Slow Year Jury Award: Groping in the Dark

It's been quite a while since GameStop's Indie Game Challenge was announced, but today the list of 12 finalists (six professional, six non-professional) was announced at long last. Unlike the Independent Games Festival, there is also a public vote on the competition's web site that determines which of the finalists look the best to them (via a video only) and then they vote for which game they think should win the $10,000 Gamer's Choice prize. However the two big grand prizes of $100,000 each (one for the pro selections and one for the amateur selections) are selected by a panel of judges from GameStop, The Guildhall and Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. There are a few other prizes for specific areas of excellence (technical, art, design). You can check out the list of games, vote, and watch game videos on the official website.

The list of games covers many different genres, from puzzle to arcade. Four of the IGF finalists have a spot on the IGC list as well: Cogs, Miegakure, Vessel, and AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! Some other notable games include Gear, which was an honorable mention in the IGF student showcase, and the multiplayer arcade game Altitude, which had a recent launch on Steam.