Author: by Staff

The 2008 Independent Games Festival (IGF) has announced the twelve finalists in the Student Showcase for its 10th annual set of awards. Chosen from a record 125 entries by a jury of experts from leading game design programs at universities across the world, these games will go on to compete for an overall Best Student Game prize, to be awarded at the IGF Awards Ceremony on February 20, 2008. Some of the finalists this year include USC Interactive Media Program’s quirky The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom, Sheridan Institute’s stylish booger-busting Gesundheit (pictured), and The National Academy of Digital Interactive Entertainment’s dual-perspective Half-Life 2 modification Flipside. All IGF finalist games will be exhibited at the IGF Pavilion, Feb. 20-22, 2008 at this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) Expo. GDC, CMP Technology’s annual conference dedicated to the art, science and business of games, takes place February 18-22, at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Each finalist in the IGF Student Showcase will receive a $500 travel stipend to help aid expenses for the trip to GDC 2008. The winner of the IGF Best Student Game Award will receive a $2,500 cash prize during the ceremony. The Student Showcase games and game mods that will be considered for the 2008 Best Student Game Award are all highlighted on the IGF website. The list of finalists is as follows: • Crayon Physics Deluxe, by Kloonigames, Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia, Finland • Empyreal Nocturne, by Double Hawk Productions, DigiPen Institute of Technology • Gesundheit!, by Underwater Base, Sheridan Institute • Galaxy Scraper, by GroundNut, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain • Mayhem Intergalactic, by Chris Pelling, The Australian National University • Poesysteme, by Poesysteme, ENJMIN, France • Polarity, by Team Polarity, Carnegie Mellon University • Ruckblende, by Nils Deneken, Uni Duisburg-Essen, Germany • Synaesthete, by Rolling Without Slipping, DigiPen Institute of Technology • The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom, by The Odd Gentlemen, University of Southern California- School of Cinematic Arts- Interactive Media Program • Flipside (Half-Life 2 Modification), by Team 3, National Academy of Digital, Interactive Entertainment, Denmark • Foamzilla (Unreal Tournament 2004 Modification), by Macrocosm, Vancouver Film School The IGF was established in 1998 by the CMP Game Group to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers, in the way that the Sundance Film Festival honors the independent film community. This year, the contest is supported by sponsors including Platinum Sponsor Gleemax.com, Silver Sponsors Sony and Microsoft, and Platinum Student Showcase Sponsor DigiPen Institute Of Technology, as well as IGF Mobile Platinum/Founding Sponsor Nvidia. GDC 2008 will continue its support of independent gaming with the return of the Independent Games Summit February 18-19. The IGF Pavilion, where GDC attendees can experience the finalist games in the IGF Main, Student, and Mobile Competitions, is open on the GDC show floor February 20-22. For more information on the Independent Games Festival and to register for GDC, please visit the official GDC website.