GDC 2001: Shattered Galaxy, Space Ace 2, Hardwood Spades creators walk away with IGF wins

A packed house at the San Jose Civic Auditorium watched Thursday night as game developer Nexon received two Independent Games Festival awards, while Silver Creek Entertainment and Space Time Foam both won one award. "We were planning to come to the GDC to present our game and to show off the new elements," said David Huang, Nexon's Assistant Game Director. "We hoped to win, but this was certainly a surprise."

Nexon received both the Game Design and the Technical Award for its online RTS/RPG hybrid Shattered Galaxy.

Hardwood Spades creator Silver Creek Entertainment won its first IGF award, for visual arts, after being nominated last year for its previous effort, Hardwood Hearts.

"This is totally unexpected!" said Shauna Chambers from the Hardwood Spades team. "We were just happy to be here."

Space Time Foam, maker of the old-school shooter Chase Ace 2, also received an IGF award for best audio.

"I think it is fantastic," said Jeppe Juul, one of the sound engineers for Chase Ace 2. "I did half of the soundtrack. This is the biggest ego boost ever."

The four awards include an $1000 and a foot-high platinum-colored plaque. The Technical Excellence Award also includes a Pentium 4 workstation from Intel, who was a gold sponsor of the event. Microsoft (Platinum Sponsor), International Game Developers Association (Co-sponsor) and Gigex (Online Distribution Partner) also contributed to the event.

IGF Chairman Alex Dunne said he felt pride for all of the entrants, and especially the finalists. "I have these paternal feelings for the IGF games. I want all of them to get published, to get all the press coverage they deserve," he said. "All the games are so deserving."

Also honored were the five games in the first annual Student Showcase, which profiled independent titles from current university students. The showcase featured 3d Morris from Lobstersoft, Break Away 3-d from K. Olivero, GenJox from Team Titeware, Matrix Attack from M. Szlagor et al, and Vortex Next Generation from R. Bowling.

The two remaining IGF awards, the Audience Award and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize Award, will be presented Friday night at the Game Developer Conference Choice Awards in the San Jose Civic Auditorium. The Grand Prize is named after the president of Longbow Digital Arts, creator of IGF 2000 three-award winner Treadmarks, who succumed to Hodgkin's Lymphoma at age 22.

For more information on the IGF, visit http://www.indiegames.com.