spy-party posts

The grand prize finalists in the IGF are not, surprisingly enough, the cream of the crop. Rather, the games which end up in the Seamus McNally finalists are a hodgepodge of fantastic games, each of which is great in its own way. Where one person sees a cluster of retro-influenced pixels, another person sees deliberate designed minimalism to focus the game's intent. In other words, the grand prize is intended for games which can't really fit in only one or two categories category. Rather, these are the games which capture that elusive thing only known as "fun."

It may no longer be the only indie game competition in town, or even the one that has the biggest cash prize, but the annual Independent Games Festival is still the one that all the indie game developers want to win. The 13th annual IGF will be held as part of the Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco in early March and this week the IGF revealed all of the games that have been submitted to this year's event.

Over 400 games were submitted which is a new record. As usual it was a mix of previously released titles (such as Minecraft) and games that have yet to be released to the public such as Bastion, Skulls of the Shogun and Spy Party. The finalists for the IGF's various awards will be named in January.

Recently laid off EA Maxis worker Chris Hecker is clearly not moaning and groaning about his fate. Far from it. The developer, who helped to create the code that allowed for the extensive customization for their alien evolution sim Spore, is now working full time on a new indie game called SpyParty.

That's a very early screenshot from the game which Hecker describes as a "very different multiplayer espionage game." Basically the game has one player as a "spy" who must complete missions while also staying hidden in plain sight in a cocktail party full of AI driven characters. The other player is a "sniper" who merely observes the party and tries to find and shoot the "spy" in the crowd. There's no word on when the game will be ready for release.