This is a great way to get the news from GDC out to the public.
Double Fine and iam8bit’s Day of the Devs: GDC Edition Direct went live today. Hosted by Tim Schafer and Greg Rice, the Day of the Devs: GDC Edition Direct, spotlighted twelve of the most promising indies of 2020, including the world premiere of playmestudios’ first-person mystery adventure, The Signifier. The full list of games featured in the showcase (in order of appearance), can be found below.
-
- by
- ION LANDS
-
- by
- Greg Lobanov and Friends
-
- by
- Kitty, JW, Terri & Dose
-
- Season
- by Inasa Fujio
-
- Bodies
- by 2pt Interactive
-
- by
- Terri Vellmann & Doseone
-
- by
- Pixel Reef
- by Studio Zevere
-
- by
- Glass Bottom Games
-
- by
- Playmestudio
You can find the full video on YouTube here.
A SHORT HIKE WINS THE SEUMAS MCNALLY GRAND PRIZE AT THE 22nd ANNUAL INDEPENDENT GAMES FESTIVAL AWARDS
A Short Hike also Honored with the Audience Award; Other Winners Include Mutazione, Heaven’s Vault, Patrick’s Parabox, Knights and Bikes and The Space Between
SAN FRANCISCO – March 18, 2020 – Adam Robinson-Yu’s A Short Hike won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game at the 22nd annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards tonight. Originally scheduled to take place during the now-postponed Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, the IGF Awards ceremony was reformatted as a virtual livestream to recognize some of the most innovative and excellent independent games of the past year.
In addition to the Grand Prize, A Short Hike also won the community-driven Audience Award, which is chosen by fans through a public voting process. A Short Hike uses a colorfully retro graphical style to present a vibrant exploration game that has players traversing the wilds of Hawk Peak Provincial Park, discovering hidden treasures, friendly hikers and the outside world in the process.
The full slate of 2020 IGF Award winners feature a slew of distinct creations, including the Excellence in Audio award winner, Die Gute Fabrik’s Mutazione, the “mutant soap opera” adventure game that delves into themes of community and personal connection amidst a curious land of lovable mutated creatures. Inkle Studio’s Heaven’s Vault, the winner for Excellence in Narrative, is an archaeological science-fiction adventure that lets players uncover history and deeper truths through puzzle-solving and conversations.
The Excellence in Design winner, Patrick’s Parabox by Patrick Traynor, is a game that plays with the presence and absence of space, creating elaborate puzzles out of recursion and infinities. The Excellence in Visual Art award went to Knights and Bikes, a colorfully hand-painted coming-of-age adventure by Foam Sword Games.
The Nuovo Award, which honors the title that makes jurors ‘think differently about games as a medium,’ went to developer Christoph Frey for The Space Between, a three act narrative experience using surreal motifs and a distinctly retro aesthetic to tell a story of a budding relationship between an architect named Martin and a woman named Clara. As the two explore the building site of the theatre that Martin is building, the two enter into a space where reality begins to subside and a dreamlike story of human relationships begins to unfold.
Finally, the Best Student Game winner, Goblin Rage’s Bore Dome, is a first-person exploration game that offers players a glimpse into beautiful imperfection.
The winners of the 22nd annual IGF Awards are:
Excellence in Visual Art ($2,000)
Knights and Bikes (Foam Sword)
Excellence in Audio ($2,000)
Mutazione (Die Gute Fabrik)
Excellence in Design ($2,000)
Patrick’s Parabox (Patrick Traynor)
Excellence in Narrative ($2,000)
Heaven’s Vault (Inkle)
Nuovo Award ($2,000)
The Space Between (Christoph Frey)
Best Student Game ($2,000)
Bore Dome (Goblin Rage)
Audience Award ($2,000)
A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu)
Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($10,000)
A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu)
The IGF was established in 1998 to recognize the best independent game developers and encourage creativity and excellence in independent games.
The awards were livestreamed on the official Twitch channel for the Game Developers Conference (GDC) at Twitch.tv/GDC and are archived both on Twitch and on the official GDC YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/gdconf
Organizers would like to thank the generous supporters of this year’s IGF, including ID@Xbox (Platinum Sponsor) and Gamasutra.com (IGF Media Partner).
For more information on the Independent Games Festival, please visit the official IGF website at www.igf.com. For more details on the Game Developers Conference, please visit the GDC’s official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.
UNTITLED GOOSE GAME SNEAKS AWAY WITH THE WIN FOR GAME OF THE YEAR AT
THE 20th ANNUAL
GAME DEVELOPERS CHOICE AWARDS
Remedy
Entertainment’s Control,
ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium and
Hempuli’s Baba is You Win
Multiple Awards
SAN FRANCISCO
– March 18, 2020 – House House’s runaway viral sensation, Untitled
Goose Game, was honored by the game development
community with the prize of Game of the Year at tonight’s 20th annual Game
Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) ceremony.
Originally
scheduled to take place during the now-postponed GDC, the Game Developers
Choice Awards ceremony was reformatted as a virtual livestream to recognize the
best and brightest games released in the last year.
Australian
developer House House’s Untitled Goose Game
has earned oodles of accolades and loving internet tributes for its charming
portrayal of a playfully malevolent goose on the loose. Tonight, the team added
the Game of the Year award to the list of goodies taken by the titular goose,
alongside a stolen radio, broom and gardener’s hat. Untitled
Goose Game won the hearts of game critics and fans alike
with its colorful game design which incorporated elements of puzzle-solving,
creative thinking and stealth gameplay.
The other
big winners of the night include Remedy Entertainment’s ambitious
action-adventure shooter, Control,
which won the awards for Best Technology, Best Audio and Best Visual Art. The
game expertly incorporates non-linear game progression and solid third-person
shooter mechanics with a unique story of supernatural powers, dark conspiracies
and transforming brutalist architecture. The narrative-driven role-playing
game, Disco Elysium, won
the awards for Best Narrative and Best Debut for developer ZA/UM. The game
incorporates elaborate dialogue-based gameplay mechanics that manage to balance
a carefully crafted story with full player agency over dialogue options and
player characteristics.
Elsewhere,
developer Hempuli’s imaginative puzzle game, Baba is
You, won the Innovation Award and the award for
Best Design. Baba is You uses
clever word manipulation to let players change the written rulesets of each
stage to change the objective to gain the upper hand, with each level
representing another ingenious take on the underlying premise.
The full
slate of winners of the 2020 GDCAs also includes the Best VR/AR Game, ILMxLAB
& Oculus Studios’ Vader Immortal: A
Star Wars VR Series, a VR
experience that sees users cross paths (and lightsabers) with the most feared
Sith Lord in the galaxy. The winner of Best Mobile Game went to developer
Triband’s What the Golf?,
the irreverently funny take on the usually staid sport of golf. And the
Audience Award went to thatgamecompany’s Sky:
Children of the Light, a beautifully artful and emotionally resonant
exploration game with unique cooperative multiplayer gameplay.
The Game
Developers Choice Awards honor the very best games of the year, and was created
for and voted on by developers. Winners in all categories except the Audience
Award and Special Awards are selected by the Game Developers Choice
Awards-specific International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), which is an
invitation-only organization, comprised of leading game creators from all parts
of the industry.
In
addition to the best games of the last year, the GDCAs also honor the dedicated
individuals who have helped further the art, science and craft of video games
with special awards. This year’s Ambassador Award, which honors those who help
video games advance to a better place through advocacy and action, went to Kate
Edwards, former head of the International Game Developers Association and
current Global Game Jam executive director. Kate is particularly known for
evangelizing the game community worldwide – both via speaking and mentoring at a
multitude of game industry events yearly – and helping new and diverse
initiatives across the entire worldwide community.
The
Pioneer Award, which recognizes breakthrough tech and game design milestones,
went to the trailblazing storyteller and game creator Roberta Williams, for her
influential work in the graphical adventure game genre with titles like Mystery
House, for creating the landmark King’s Quest game series and for co-founding
Sierra On-Line with her husband Ken Williams.
“We are
so happy to continue to honor the creative work of the finest game designers in
the world by hosting the Game Developers Choice Awards online this year,” said
Katie Stern, General Manager of the Game Developers Conference. “Games can help
us connect, they can inspire us to create, and sometimes they help us to
escape. There is perhaps no better time for us to appreciate what games mean to
us than in trying times like these.”
“Games
like Untitled Goose Game
and Baba is You are
unbridled in their joyful approach to play, while others like Control
and Disco Elysium
can offer compelling narrative experiences to delve into. We thank and honor
the winners, nominees and all creators for their part in creating some of the
best entertainment the world has to offer.”
The Game
Developers Choice Awards winners are:
Best Audio
Control (Remedy
Entertainment/505 Games)
Best Debut
ZA/UM (Disco
Elysium)
Best
Design
Baba is
You (Hempuli)
Best
Mobile Game
What the
Golf? (Triband/The Label Limited)
Innovation
Award
Baba is
You (Hempuli)
Best
Narrative
Disco
Elysium (ZA/UM)
Best
Technology
Control (Remedy
Entertainment/505 Games)
Best
Visual Art
Control (Remedy
Entertainment/505 Games)
Best
VR/AR Game
Vader Immortal: A
Star Wars VR Series (ILMxLAB
& Oculus Studios/Disney)
Audience
Award
Sky:
Children of the Light
(thatgamecompany)
Game of
the Year
Untitled
Goose Game (House House/Panic)
Pioneer
Award
Roberta
Williams
Ambassador
Award
Kate
Edwards
The awards
were livestreamed on the official Twitch channel for the Game Developers
Conference (GDC) at Twitch.tv/GDC and are archived both on Twitch and on the
official GDC YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/gdconf.
