IGF Recognizes Top Modders, Excellence and Innovation in Game Design
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Introversion's retro-stylish PC
action-strategy title Darwinia led the pack at the 2006 Independent Games
Festival (IGF) Awards, taking three prizes, including the $20,000 Seumas
McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game. The winners were announced
last night at the 8th Annual IGF Awards ceremony, hosted by the Game
Developers Conference (GDC) at the San Jose Civic Auditorium in San Jose,
Calif.
The IGF awards have been described as the Sundance Festival of the video
game world, and offer both global exposure and significant cash prizes to the
lucky winners. Other winners included groundbreaking time-manipulation
platform title Braid, which won for Innovation In Design, as well as cheeky
Flash-based beat-em-up Dad 'N Me, which triumphed in the new Best Web Game
category.
The first-ever IGF Modding Competition, which is awarding $10,000 in
prizes to the best amateur 'modders' for existing video games, also saw
outstanding winners, including cyberpunk mod Dystopia for Half-Life 2 and
ancient Chinese mod Path Of Vengeance for Unreal Tournament 2004, as well as
console-style RPG mod Rose Of Eternity -- Chapter 1 for Neverwinter Nights,
and the visceral Last Man Standing Co-Op for Doom 3.
"Independent game development is in a very exciting place right now, as
digital distribution helps change business models radically," said Simon
Carless, chairman, IGF. "We're delighted to help support the innovation and
risk-taking that indie developers take to advance their field and help shift
gaming paradigms."
The IGF awarded the following games in each category in the main
competition -- each received a cash prize of $2,500 as well as sponsor-related
prizes, apart from the AdultSwim.com Award ($5,000) and the Grand Prize
($20,000):
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
Darwinia
Best Web Browser Game
Dad 'N Me
Innovation In Game Design
Braid
Technical Excellence
Darwinia
Innovation In Audio
Weird Worlds: Return To Infinite Space
Innovation In Visual Art
Darwinia
Audience Award
Dofus
AdultSwim.com Award
Dodge That Anvil
As previously mentioned, the winners of the new IGF Modding Competition
were also announced at the IGF awards ceremony last night, and were awarded
$2,500 each in the four game categories. The IGF Modding Competition
acknowledges the most innovative and original modifications in independent
game development, in an effort to recognize the importance modding has carried
in PC games.
The IGF recognized the following in the Modding Competition:
Unreal Tournament 2004
Path Of Vengeance
Half-Life 2
Dystopia
NeverWinter Nights
Rose Of Eternity -- Chapter 1
Doom 3
Last Man Standing Co-Op
The Audience Award was conducted in association with IGF media sponsors
GameSpot and Download.com. It was decided by popular ballot on a special
section of the GameSpot site, which allowed gamers to download demos of the
Main IGF finalists, and then vote on their favorite.
The IGF was established in 1998 by the CMP Game Group to encourage
innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game
developers, in the way Sundance Film Festival honors the independent film
community. With a record-breaking 118 entries from all over the world, the
2006 IGF reflects how global the game development community has become.
The 8th annual Independent Games Festival was sponsored by: AdultSwim.com,
Microsoft, Moondance Games, Epic Games, Ageia and Digipen; the premier media
sponsors were GameSpot and Download.com.
For more information about the IGF, the finalists and the winners, please
visit http://www.igf.com.
About the CMP Game Group (http://www.cmpgame.com)
A core provider of essential information to the professional game
industry, the CMP Game Group offers market-defining content, and drives
community through the Game Developers Conference, GDC Europe, the Serious
Games Summit D.C., GDC Mobile, GDC Asia, Game Developer magazine,
Gamasutra.com, the Independent Games Festival, the Game Developers Choice
Awards, and GDCTV. For more information, please visit http://www.cmpgame.com.
About CMP Media (http://www.cmp.com)
CMP Media is a marketing solutions company serving the technology,
healthcare and lifestyles industries. Through its market-leading portfolio of
trusted information brands, CMP Media has earned the confidence of more
professionals and enthusiasts in these fields than any other media company.
As a result, CMP is the premier provider of access, insight and actionable
programs designed to connect sellers and buyers in each of these industries in
ways that yield superior return on investment. CMP Media is a subsidiary of
United Business Media (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com), a global provider
of news distribution and specialist information services with a market
capitalization of more than $3 billion.
SOURCE CMP Game Group
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Related links:
http://www.cmpgame.com
http://www.igf.com
CONTACT:
Sibel Sunar of The Bohle Company,
+1-310-785-0515, ext. 271, sibel@bohle.com, for CMP Game Group;
or Tara Gibb of CMP Game Group, +1-415-947-6219, tgibb@cmp.com
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