We’ve been going on and on about just how good a year 2012 was for games. Well if you’re memory is as patchy as mine, then you’ll be glad to know that the organisers of the Independent Games Festival have announced the finalists for 2013’s main category awards, it’s essentially a crib sheet for the brilliance that was 2012’s indie scene.
Here are all the finalists (shamelessly copy/pasted from the IGF announcement):
Excellence In Visual Art
Incredipede(Northway Games and Thomas Shahan) – It really is pretty, check out the release trailer.
Kentucky Route Zero(Cardboard Computer)
Guacalamelee!(Drinkbox Studios)
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime(Asteroid Base)
Year Walk(Simogo)
Excellence In Narrative
Thirty Flights of Loving(Blendo Games) – Phill was very taken with Thirty Flights.
Cart Life(Richard Hofmeier)
Kentucky Route Zero(Cardboard Computer)
Dys4ia(Auntie Pixelante)
Gone Home(The Fullbright Company)
Technical Excellence
StarForge(CodeHatch) – Paul was pretty amazed by what the small Starforge team have achieved.
Perspective(DigiPen Widdershins)
Little Inferno(Tomorrow Corporation) – A game about burning things, that is excellent, technically
Intrusion 2(Aleksey Abramenko)
LiquidSketch(Tobias Neukom)
Excellence In Design
Samurai Gunn(Beau Blyth)
FTL: Faster Than Light(Subset Games) – We’ve all sunk many hours into FTL. It’s ace.
Starseed Pilgrim(Droqen & Ryan Roth)
Super Hexagon(Terry Cavanagh) – I still haven’t put into words about how fantastic a game Super Hexagon is, here’s a trailer instead.
Super Space ______(David Scamehorn & Alexander Baard/DigiPen)
Excellence In Audio
Kentucky Route Zero(Cardboard Computer)
Bad Hotel(Lucky Frame)
140(Jeppe Carlsen)
Hotline Miami(Dennaton Games) – Check out the soundtrack for yourself.
Pixeljunk 4AM(Q-Games)
Nuovo Award
[Designed’to honor abstract… and unconventional game development’.]
Cart Life(Richard Hofmeier)
Spaceteam(Henry Smith)
Dys4ia(Auntie Pixelante)
Bientot l’ete(Tale of Tales)
7 Grand Steps(Mousechief)
MirrorMoon(SantaRagione + BloodyMonkey)
VESPER.5(Michael Brough)
Little Inferno(Tomorrow Corporation)
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
Hotline Miami(Dennaton Games)
FTL: Faster Than Light(Subset Games)
Cart Life(Richard Hofmeier)
Little Inferno(Tomorrow Corporation)
Kentucky Route Zero(Cardboard Computer)
GDC, when we’ll find out the winners of this little soiree, is still a ways off – not till the end of March – so it’ll be a while till we know exactly who is the most excellentest or the excellent.
