Indie Games Follow-up: The Class of 2000

The first Independent Games Festival in 1999 raised the bar on underground computer games, taking 15 incredible developers out of the basement and into the spotlight. As at Cannes or Sundance, thick contracts, hotel meetings and instant celebrity followed.

As noted in the story on the first year's finalists, however, it was not all champagne wishes and caviar dreams. Some companies split, some were disillusioned by the big business of game development, and some pushed away the cash bonuses and went back underground. The beauty of the IGF is that these developers had the opportunity to experience these extreme circumstances, to make tough choices and to enter doors previously closed.

The developers in the IGF 2000, like the second cast of CBS' Survivor, were more aware of what they were getting into than the finalists of the first IGF. They knew that success, failure or both were more possible now than ever, and that their once-underground projects would be given more exposure than possible before.

However, the finalists weren't the only people wiser after the first festival. The pressure was on for them to perform from everyone: the ambitious underground gaming community was expecting nothing less than cream-of-the-crop winners, and the press --particularly the electronic media-- were watching the event closely to spot the hottest up-and-coming designers. Perhaps the most dramatic change from the year before, however, was that the number of IGF finalists selected was almost cut in half.

With a good percentage of the first year finalists published by major labels or working on next-gen systems like PS2, the second group realized that more was at stake than ever. They also realized something that the first group didn't realize until after their nominations: This wasn't underground anymore.

A Final Dream

"In June of '99 my son Seumas had further surgery which confirmed that his life would soon be over. Rather than give up, Seumas wanted to finish Tread Marks, enter it in the IGF and strive to be accepted to lecture at the GDC... Everything was a special case for our company, given Seumas' illness and eventual death one week after the IGF."

Jim McNally, president of Longbow Digital Arts

Joseph Campbell, in his many writings about a hero's journey, said that one of the definitions of a hero is that he brings something new to the world. He also wrote that the hero always has an untimely death. By this or perhaps any measurement Seumas McNally, creator of the three-IGF award winner Tread Marks, was a hero.

For the three years before the 2000 IGF Seumas was in a fight against Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer that attacks the lymph nodes. His primary focus was on his creation Tread Marks, a first-person tank game with arcade-like graphics. One of his goals was to enter it into the IGF, and by summer 1999 it became clear that it would be a life-and-death struggle. Jim McNally, current president of LDA and Seumas' father, remembers how determined his son was to make his mark.

"In June of '99 my son Seumas had further surgery which confirmed that his life would soon be over. Rather than give up, Seumas wanted to finish Tread Marks, enter it in the IGF and strive to be accepted to lecture at the GDC," Jim said.

Seumas' project became a focus for the whole family, especially after Tread Marks made it to the final round. "Becoming finalists added an additional catalyst," Jim said. "With Seumas' health deteriorating we focused even more intensely on our goal of having the game finished well in advance, and I believe that we wrapped up work on Tread Marks by mid-December when Seumas started his final treatments." Jim, his mother Wendy and his brother Philippe all got involved in making the game happen.

Seumas' fought to make it to the IGF in mid-March and, in doing so, made history. In an IGF first, Tread Marks went on to win the awards for Game Design, Technical Achievement and the Grand Prize.

Seumas died Tuesday, March 21, a week after his IGF win. The gaming community reacted the loss, conducting a netwide memorial service and creating sites in Seumas' honor. The Seumas McNally Programming Award trust was also started, reminding future game developers of Seumas' insight and courage.

	Longbow's winning moment.

 

Even though the McNally family was happy to have one of Seumas' wishes fulfilled, it was still a difficult time, not only emotionally but from a financial standpoint as well. LDA was promised some things that never panned out. "Based on some promising words from a few publishers we started spending more money than we were making," Jim recalled, "I don't recommend this approach as it led to stress and tension as things got dragged out. When those promising words turned out to be hollow we were able to get ourselves back on track and back in the black. Be wary."

Jim took over as president after Seumas' death and, by fall 2000, things were back on track. LDA signed with AAAGame UK in August and started distributing Tread Marks in early December. LDA also expanded its number of programmers to tweak and update the Tread Marks originally seen at the IGF.

Now LDA is busy working on the TM2 engine, to be used in the Tread Marks sequel, as well as PS2 version of Tread Marks. With its fully-deformable terrain and complex graphics Tread Marks should be able to thrive on the next-generation systems.

In a final tribute to Seumas, the IGF Grand Prize was officially renamed the Seumas McNally award. "It's a wonderful tribute," Jim said. "We cherish our memories of Seumas and to have him honored in this way, touches us very deeply. We salute the IGF."

It is often said that the only legacy we leave behind after death is our creations. Seumas' work has gone beyond his physical departure and his honor through the IGF will live until the end of videogames themselves; in other words, forever.

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One for the Underground