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Independent Games Festival Finalists Announced

Posted by Zonk on from the who-doesn't-like-some-decent-goo dept.

GameSetWatch notes that the 2007 finalists for the Independent Games Festival have been announced. The IGF is an annual event meant to highlight and praise the work of independent game designers of all stripes; it's run by Slashdot Games editor alumni Simon Carless. Simon puts the spotlight on the Seamus McNally Grand Prize finalists, the 'best of the best' at this year's IGF. My vote goes to World of Goo: "Building off the concepts from Tower Of Goo, one of Kyle Gabler's projects from the Experimental Gameplay Project at CMU, the first game from Bay Area duo 2D Boy uses the hitherto unexplored structural ability of blobs to make an addictive construction-based puzzle action title. There's no release date or demo for the game yet (aside from Tower Of Goo, a kind of 'prequel'), but there's screenshots and a trailer on the official site."

8 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. Two things by Enderandrew · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is the 2008 awards, not the 2007 awards. Secondly, I hate when people link to an article that largely just links to another article. Here is the original article.

    http://www.igf.com/02finalists.html

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    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    1. Re:Two things by bateleur · · Score: 2, Informative

      Oh, come on... they just want advertisements hits too!

      Yeah, and he just wants the karma for the automatic +5 Informative, so it's all good.

  2. Tower of Goo by dazedNconfuzed · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Oh, Tower of Goo was hysterically fun, ideal for casual gaming.

    It was one of the offspring of the www.ExperimentalGamePlay.com project, an exploration of "starting from scratch, create a unique game in a week". Some of the results were very creative, some were valliant attempts that fell flat, and some were incredibly absorbing and enjoyable with really unique concepts and gameplay.

    I've been hoping for versions of those games with the rough edges polished up, as little things like odd/inconvenient window sizes kinda hindered play at times.

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    Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
    1. Re:Tower of Goo by flyingsquid · · Score: 2, Interesting
      It was interesting to see that a couple of the games (The Path, Tri-Achnid) have women listed as the head designer. I tried Tri-Achnid briefly... I found the interface a bit frustrating but the visual design and the world it created are weird and beautiful.

      Anyhow, it seems like people are always complaining that games don't do a good job of appealing to women, maybe having more women actually design some of the games is part of the solution.

  3. Battleships Forever by stoolpigeon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I just downloaded Battleships Forever and I'm really looking forward to playing it tonight. I also just downloaded the inspiration for BF - Warning Forever. Both look to be entertaining freeware games that should work on my laptop - always nice to find.

    I was checking the forums at the Battleships Forever site and saw that a tournament has been hosted by some folks over at the Penny Arcade forums. (Tournament Rules and the Tournament Results) What is cool about that is, they have the results linked to videos on youtube showing the actual battles. Very smooth.

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    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
  4. The best part about independent games.. by Cathoderoytube · · Score: 4, Funny

    You know the BEST part about independent games?

    If somebody give them a bad review the game maker can't have the reviewer fired.

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    I have nothing compelling to say
  5. For those who can't wait to play Goo... by clragon · · Score: 3, Informative

    you can try LiquidWars while you wait.

  6. Hammerfall is pretty amazing by dis+astranagant · · Score: 2, Interesting

    About 6 months ago an early version of Hammerfall was floating around various places and it was pretty amazing. It's a physics based game where you use the mouse to control this helicopterish contraption armed with upscaled versions of various medieval weapons. The weapons and shields all have their own momentum and inertia which greatly affect how the craft handles and your maneuvers help determine how the weapons move. The music and visual presentation is superb and there is quite a visceral feeling when you land a solid hit with a big axe or flail.