Author: by Staff

[A reminder from the organizers of the Independent Games Festival 2010 on deadlines for this year's IGF, with new info on judges and indie-centric events for next March's GDC and beyond.] As the Independent Games Festival continues, we thought it might be a good idea to update periodically with the latest news on submissions, previous winners, judging, relevant events, and so on. Here's the final update before the November deadlines, with info on those dates, news from IGF China and the Independent Games Summit at GDC Austin, plus a new indie event that's debuting at GDC 2010. Deadline Reminders We've heard from a lot of you who are preparing to submit your game to this year's Independent Games Festival [part of Think Services, as is Gamasutra], so we know you're getting ready. But another reminder doesn't hurt -- and you'll need to submit by November 1st, 2009 for the IGF 2010 Main Competition, and by November 15th, 2009 for the IGF 2010 Student Showcase Competition. Don't be late! One notable new thing this year - several indies such as Resonance's Vince Twelve and Flywrench's Mark Essen are funding their IGF entrance fee and time to prepare their games for our Festival through the pledge-based website Kickstarter -- an interesting new method of bankrolling independent games. Also worth noting, for those who didn't see our recent announcement - the Independent Games Festival Mobile is returning for 2010, with handheld-specific submissions being accepted at the official IGF Mobile website through December 1st, 2009. We're looking forward to a host of interesting game entries for platforms like iPhone, cellphone, DSi, PSP, and even perhaps new platforms like Google's Android operating system. IGF China Finalists, IGS Austin Highlights While the main 2010 IGF in San Francisco in March 2010 is the chief focus of this blog, we've also been running competitions and events elsewhere in the world, and here's some notable recent highlights. In particular, we've recently announced the finalists for the first-ever IGF China event, honoring the best independent creations from Asia and Australasia. Over 100 entries from China, the Philippines, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Pakistan, Australia, Iran, South Korea and India were considered by judges from IGDA Shanghai, FZD School of Design, Activision and many more, and winners will be announced this weekend at GDC China in Shanghai, where indie-centric talks from the IGF's Simon Carless and Nicalis' Tyrone Rodriguez will also take place. Secondly, the Independent Games Summit -- formerly only taking place at the main GDC -- was also held at GDC Austin in Texas in September, and Gamasutra has provided key takeaways from some v.helpful indie talks. The first set includes notable lectures from NinjaBee's Brent Fox, Wolfire's John Graham, and Fantastic Contraption creator Colin Northway, and the second set features World Of Goo co-creator Ron Carmel, Mike Henry and Sean Riley from Austin-based indie Twisted Pixel, and Bunni's Daniel Cook . New Indie Goodness For GDC 2010: GAMMA While our focus is still on the Independent Games Festival's March 2010 event, we wanted to make sure you knew about another independent event that'll be presented at GDC 2010. As has just been announced, Montreal experimental game collective Kokoromi is partnering to bring the fourth edition of their renowned Gamma game showcase to GDC 2010 next March. The Gamma showcases, which are free for anyone to enter, present independent designers with constraint-based challenges and a public play environment that push the boundaries of game-making. Comparable to a longer-form, targeted version of the 'indie game jam' concept, previous years’ themes have included Gamma 01: Audio Feed (games driven by live audio), gamma 256 (games with extremely small pixel dimensions), and GAMMA 3D (games using red-blue stereoscopic 3D). Watch the Kokoromi site for more information on this latest showcase, with this year's theme and deadlines to debut November 2009. Judge Additions For IGF 2010, Pt.2 As mentioned last time, we're working really hard to bolster our judge roster for IGF 2010, with a host of notable experts (indie and mainstream game creators and commentators) playing through and voting on this year's games. We mentioned last time some of the 75 confirmed judges at that time. Our carefully selected IGF 2010 judge list has now reached over 135, featuring notables such as Dylan Fitterer (Audiosurf), Alex May (Dyson/Eufloria), Petri Purho (Crayon Physics), Didier Malenfant (Ready At Dawn), Vlad Ceraldi (Hothead), Kellee Santiago (ThatGameCompany), Clive Thompson (Wired), Alex Wiltshire (Edge), Tim Edwards (PC Gamer), and many more. This is why we're guaranteeing multiple pieces of judge feedback this year, which we hope will help out even those developers who don't make it as a finalist. Thanks again for reading If you have any questions about entering this year's competition, please follow up with us collectively at [email protected] - we'll be happy to address questions, concerns, and specifics about this year's IGF. Regards, Simon Carless, IGF Chairman; Kris Graft, IGF Content Director; Matthew Wegner & Steve Swink, IGF Co-Organizers