To Counteract all the Bitter Posts

IGF Congratulations & Why IGC is Better

Today the IGF announced their "finalists" for this years competition, although Dark Horizons Lore Invasion will not be a repeat finalist I do want to take a few moments to congratulate two Torque based finalists that are also developed by a pair of great teams.

Tube Twist (Technical Excellence Finalist) by 21-6 Productions: A wildly wonderful 3D puzzle game of mind numbing addiction.

Venture Tycoon : Africa (Shamus McNally Grand Prize Finalist) by Andy Schantz: Probably one of the cooler Sims I have seen in years that doesn't bog you down with bullshit stats and features. Just raw sim game play :)


Awesome work guys and a cudos to the many Torque based games that entered into this competition and unfortunately did not make "finals". Everyone did an incredible job at showing what this community is capable of producing.

With that said now have a few things that I feel that I want to get off my chest about the IGFs competition for this year and why I think its crock of shit formatting needs to be throw out the door if the whole IGF competition wants to not look like some sort of hypocritical competition of commercialism.

1) Funding

The issue of funding and technicly what is and is not an "indie" is a hot issue that the IGF has tried balance itself on and has also always failed miserably. For example, you cannot submit a game that was funded by a publisher, but you can submit a game that was funded through vulture capital or other means such as funneling money from your porn site to fund your game.

On top of this there also seems to be little to no effort put in by the judges to properly compare what a low budget game such as HackIT or Virus Blaster has done in comparison to a big budget game like Dofus. As such you can be guarenteed 99 times out of 100 that the bigger budget that you have, the greater chance of success that you have of making finalists or even winning at all. Its just a sad truth of the IGF.

2) Games are Nominated for Awards!?

This year the IGF has made a departure where they have choosen and nominated a set number of games for certain awards, which I think is the dumbest thing they could have ever done. Why? Well its simple, you are basing which games go for which prizes on a submission from back in October instead of basing it on what the developers can bring come March. Thats six fucking months of development that they have bitch slapped out the door and said to every finalist "we don't fucking care if the game you bring in March dominates every category, we pigeon holed you already". Seriously IGF, this is one of the stupidest things that you have done. As such I sincerely hope that you fix this next year.

3) Innovation? What Innovation?

This years IGF we have two categories for Innovation: Art and Audio, and my though on this is "What the fuck!" Shouldn't innovation be based on game play and how it is presented? Isn't audio and art a key and integral part not only of one another but of the entire game experiance itself?

I have a better idea for IGF, just call these two categories "Best Bling in a Game that matches AAA game standards (ie. shaders)" and "Coolest game soundtrack" because this is honestly what they will be judged on.

4) Mod Competition

I vented about this before and I take some time to vent about it again...

A) Why the hell is there a competition for Mods in the first place? I don't see how a Mod requires anywhere near the dedication and hard work that it takes to actually create a whole game from scratch. I'm sorry but that's just how I feel.
B) Why is the mod competition limited only to select games? Isn't the whole idea of the IGF supposed to be to show case the best entries possible and as such isn't limiting Mods to a few select games essentially culling out a whole swack of other great Mods on the market? Sorry but this just reeks of bullshit and is so unfair that the Mod category should have been scrapped and he/she who submitted the idea should be bitch slapped around with a trout.

5) Joining the Open and Web Categories

In previous years there was an "Web" category (for games under 10mb and thus were downloaded and played from a web site) and "Open" (anything bigger than 10mb). This year, there is just the "Main Competition" and thus a great way for a lot of great products to get lost amongst the crowd.

The End Result: Why IGC Rules over IGF!

I hope that I do not sound too bitter after getting these items off of my chest, and I am very thankful that Lore was nominated as a finalist last year (and completely understand that it was beaten out by newer and better products this year), but I really have to wonder what the hell all the hype is about IGF? While the IGF should be about celebrating indie gaming and showing the big dogs that we too have a bark and a bite, it really is IMHO all about pandering to commercialism and all the things that make the AAA games market despised for its lack of innovation and creativity.

This is why I feel that Indie Games Con (IGC) is a better, if not the best, venue for Indie games on the face of the planet today. At IGC no one cares about commercialism or how much funding you had, all that matters is how enjoyable the game that you have brought is and your peers at the event rate it based on what it provides, not on how much bling that you have to offer because you could afford to muscle your way to the top.

IGC is the show case for real innovation in this industry and it will continue to be this way as long as the IGF continues down its path as it does. As such GarageGames should be given a pat on the back for the great effort that they have done to keep IGC a real bastion of "Indie Development" here in the world as it truely is one of the last places that we will honestly see it.