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IGF, Direct2Drive Announce Finalists For $10,000 D2D Vision Award
by Staff [PC, Console/PC]
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February 25, 2010
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Independent Games Festival organizers and sponsor Direct2Drive have announced the finalists for the D2D Vision Award, with games including HurricaneX2 and Nyxquest competing for a $10,000 cash prize at the IGF Awards on March 11.
Digital game distribution site Direct2Drive, the event's official download partner, set up the Vision Award in 2009 to "honor independent developers whose games present the new ideas and concepts that will help spark innovation in gaming."
The winner, picked from the five finalists -- all indie games from the more than 300 IGF main competition entries -- will be presented live on stage by IGN on-air personality Jessica Chobot at the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival Awards.
The awards themselves take place on Thursday, March 11 during the 2010 Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. The winning team will receive a $10,000 prize from Direct2Drive.
The five finalists for the Direct2Drive Vision Award for this year are:
- HurricaneX2, a 3D martial arts brawler from You Yun Tech.
- Joe Danger, a build-it-yourself stuntman simulator from Hello Games.
- Nyxquest: Kindred Spirits, from Over The Top Games, which challenges players to fly, aim and shoot through a world inspired by Greek myths.
- Super Meat Boy, a platform game from Team Meat starring a lovable cube of meat who must race through dangerous obstacles to save his girlfriend.
- Max and the Magic Marker, a puzzle platform game from Press Play with a unique “magic marker” drawing mechanic.
More information about the finalists can be found on Direct2Drive’s D2D Vision Award website, and the digital distribution site has concurrently released a "Best of Indie" PC game bundle of IGF nominees and winners from previous years.
That bundle, released today and only available until March 12, includes ten games, including Osmos, Machinarium, Cogs, Braid, and many more, and is priced at $29.95 -- a savings of more than 75 percent relative to buying the games individually.
"The future of gaming hinges on the ability for developers to constantly innovate and entertain players of all types," said Direct2Drive digital content VP Sutton Trout in a statement. "Indie developers are continuously generating the new ideas and concepts that will help drive gaming forward. The Vision Award is one of the ways for us to recognize the community and these five incredible games."
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"Hurricane X2" is a blatant final fight clone which has been entered and won prizes in the last three annual XNA Dream, Build, Play game contests as well as China GDC last year; and note this has been the same underlying game with a new pixel shader and renamed each time. I'm sure we'll see it again next year and the next, and its a shame because there just might be some other interesting games that are not getting exposure that could really help.
The idea of "indie" as just a low budget version of development is also a disturbing trend. Since its announcement "Joe Danger" has been quite a calculated product with media coverage in EDGE and other people backing this game. But to be cynical it seems the real story behind "Joe Danger" is more of the indie fairytale of a few devs quitting their jobs and starting in an office than of the actual gameplay itself. And when one looks at that I can't but feel its not much more than Excite Bike or a less exciting version of Trials, complete with token gold coins and other rote conventions.
Also nothing inspiring or innovative about "Nyxquests" gameplay and I suppose a whole generation who missed out playing "Aladdin" or other 16-bit platformers may find something new. Otherwise from what I can go on, its just same ol' level design, push blocks, lift stuff up, that's been copied over and over again without any new facets of game design since "Lost Vikings". How is it that a game like "Lost Winds" on the same platform doesn't win these same awards for seemingly innovative gameplay.?
Same goes for "Super Meat Boy" which is another super-polished entry into the already bloated genre of cute quirky 2D platformers. Love the replay at the end of each level which is a fantastic idea, though let's be honest -- the game is one that we've all played to death already and even the SF2 joke has been done before.! Lastly, "Max and the Magic Marker" has to be called out as a facsimile of "Crayon Physics" with a different character but the exact same game mechanics.
Are we so devoid of good ideas that now it's all about playing dress-up with different permutations? Come on, there's so much at our disposal in terms of technology, interface, advanced design of data structures, inter-operability and we're gunning for the same ol' same ol' game design from 20 years ago.? I suppose much of the problem of innovation is that in the effort to be self-sustaining and running a business "indie" developers are trying to outguess the marketplace and would rather deliver a polished turd than a dirty truffle. At least the money is there and its going to help folks but don't call it "innovative" when it doesn't seek to be ..
-- Chuan
Thanks for clearing that up. I still wish we could champion new alternative ideas that really excite and inspire, as the whole "indie" games moniker now seems to represent both small companies making very conservative games with a bunch of Popcap style polish and also another camp which is more concerned with new different types of game design.
I get the feeling that the former will find attention + success anyway because of their perogative while alot of interesting or 'experimental' concepts and protoypes might not get any attention at all. I keep hoping to see something cool like "Rittai Kakushi E Attakoreda" amongst the IGF finalists but end up feeling a bit disappointed. Perhaps "Sense of Wonder" is more along the lines of what inspires ..
-- Chuan