2008 Independent Games Festival Reveals Main Competition Entries

The organizers of the 10th annual Independent Games Festival (part of CMP, as is Gamasutra) have revealed a record 173 entries for the 2008 IGF Main Competition. The record entry numbers have seen a host of notable independent PC, web-based and even downloadable console games entering the contest - for which almost $50,000 prizes will be given out at GDC 2008 next February. A full list of IGF 2008 entries is now available on the official Independent Games Festival website, including screenshots and details on each of the entries. As always, many of the top IGF games will only come to the fore during the judging process - and there are many high-quality titles not listed below. However, some of the games entered this year from notable previous winners, or titles already well-known to the indie gaming public, include: - Axiom: Overdrive (Reflexive Entertainment) (From the creators of Wik & The Fable Of Souls, "...players grapple with unique physics-based game-play as they explore a mine's dark corridors and discover... they are not alone!") - Crayon Physics Deluxe (Kloonigames) ("Crayon Physics Deluxe is a 2D physics puzzle game that lets you experience what it would be like your drawings were magically transformed into real physical objects.") - DROD: The City Beneath (Caravel Games) ("Caravel's third major release in the DROD series will take you further inside a world of puzzles and adventures than any game you've played before!") - Fret Nice (Bits & Pieces Interactive) ("Fret Nice is a charming platformer designed for guitar controllers, giving the player the unique feeling of not only controlling the main character's every movement, but actually playing the game as if it was a rock song.") - Gish 2 (Cryptic Sea) ("Gish 2 is the long awaited sequel to the IGF 05 grand prize winner Gish. In Gish 2 you take the role of physics based blob whose movement and control are physically modeled around the shape and texture of his body. When his girlfriend Brea is murdered, Gish sets out to the Isle of the Dead to make a deal with Quietus (the god of death) to bring her back to life.") - Noitu Love 2: Devolution (Konjak) ("In "Noitu Love 2: Devolution" (pictured above) you're thrown into a classic action and beat-em-up scenario but with a twist to the gameplay that creates a new and fluent style of play using the mouse.") - Pixeljunk Racers (Q-Games) ("Simple addictive puzzle racing game based loosely on slot-car racing, with 32 types of game and up to 7 players simultaneously.") - Schizoid (Torpex Games) ("Schizoid is the most co-op game ever! One or two players control a red ship and a blue ship. Waves of red and blue enemies attack the ships of the opposite color; the two ships must work together closely to defend each other, and ram and burst all the enemies on over 100 levels.") - The Night Journey (USC Game Innovation Lab) ("The Night Journey is an experimental game created in collaboration with Bill Viola, an internationally acclaimed artist and MacArthur fellow, which uses game technologies to evoke the universal story of an individual’s journey towards enlightenment.") - The Path (Tale Of Tales) ("The Path is a short horror game inspired by Little Red Ridinghood. There is only one rule, and you must not follow it. There is only one goal, but if you attain it, you lose.") - World Of Goo (2D Boy) ("World of Goo is a physics based puzzle / construction game. But the millions of Goo Balls that live in the beautiful World of Goo don't know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious.") The complete list of entries, including many other notable games, is now available for viewing on the official website. The next deadlines for this year's IGF are October 15th (for entering titles in the Student Showcase), October 26th (for entering mobile, DS, and PSP titles in IGF Mobile, and December 3rd (when Main Competition finalists will be announced).