Organizers of the
2010 Independent Games Festival have revealed jurors for the $2,500 Nuovo Award, which is intended to honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which "advances the medium and the way we think about games."
The IGF's Nuovo Award, which was won (when called the Innovation/Nuovo Award) by Jason Rohrer's acclaimed abstract multiplayer title
Between in 2009, allows more esoteric 'art games' to compete on their own terms alongside longer-form indie titles.
For the 2010 Independent Games Festival, the IGF Main Competition judges, numbering over 160 in total, will recommend games
entered into the IGF Main Competition this year to be considered for this award.
But a separate panel of notable game and art world figures will decide the finalists and winner for the Nuovo Award in juried form, mirroring similar, artistically important awards in other industries.
Organizers have now announced the full jury for the award, which will be given out during the Independent Games Festival Awards on the evening of Thursday, March 11th, 2010 during
Game Developers Conference 2010.
It consists of the following notable individuals:
- Clint Hocking (Creative director of games including
Far Cry 2 at Ubisoft Montreal and GDC Advisory Board member.)
- Eric Zimmerman (co-founder of New York-based independent game studio and
Diner Dash creator Gamelab, teacher, game designer, and co-author of notable game book Rules Of Play.)
- Eddo Stern (Los Angeles-based artist and game designer behind machinima and interactive art exhibits like
Tekken Torture Tournament and
Waco Resurrection.)
- Frank Lantz (Veteran game designer and co-founder of crossmedia game company Area/Code, behind games like
Parking Wars, Sharkrunners, and
Spore Islands, and Director of the NYU Game Center.)
- Rod Humble (Head of The Sims label at major publisher Electronic Arts, as well as art-game practitioner with games like
The Marriage and
Stars Over Half Moon Bay.)
- Jason Rohrer (independent game developer of
Passage and
Between, which was the IGF’s Innovation/Nuovo Award winner in 2009.)
- Carl Goodman (Senior Deputy Director of the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, one of the first museums in the world to collect and exhibit video games.)
- Marcin Ramocki (director of the film ‘8 BIT: A Documentary about Art and Videogames’ and widely worldwide-exhibited new media artist.)
- Mare Sheppard (co-creator at Metanet Software of IGF winning indie game
N -- subsequently expanded into Xbox Live Arcade hit
N+ -- as well as the upcoming game
Robotology.)
- Jesper Juul (author of the MIT Press book ‘A Casual Revolution’, game design-centric writer and visiting professor at NYU.)
The five finalists for the IGF Nuovo Award will be announced -- alongside a jury statement detailing reasons for picking the finalists and honorable mentions -- on January 4th, 2010 on the
official Independent Games Festival website.
