IGF And GDC Awards Presented

Wednesday night at the GDC means awards time, for the Game Developer's Choice Awards. The nominees are chosen by members of the IDGA, and then voted on by every member of the organization. Some very deserving games got the nod last night, and Gamasutra has coverage on the winners. They also have a piece looking at the winners of the Independent Game Festival, a program looking at the best games from outside the normal commercial experience. The winners from that event not only get recognition, but a cash reward to continue their development. From that article: "Dan Paladin and Tom Fulp's stylish Flash game Dad 'N Me won for Best Web Browser Game, and the Audience Award, which was conducted by GameSpot and saw over 2000 votes, was won by French strategy-MMO Dofus. Elsewhere, the $5,000 AdultSwim.com award was given to RabidLab, who developed finalist Dodge That Anvil!."

Game of the year?

[yanos]

Shadow of the Colossus deserve attention for it's unique gameplay, mood and originality (compared to most stuff on the market anyway), but it can't possibly win game of the year. I'm almost at the end of the game (13th colossus defeated) and, despite some moment of pure aweness, the lack of good control of the character, the bad camera angles just when you are in the heat of the action, mixed with the horrible frame rate of the game definitely ruins a good part of the fun. The best game of the year can't possibly have that much defect IMO. Beside, Guitar Hero is MUCH more fun.

Awards to pretty games

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like the pretty games get the awards. "Dad n Me" for best web game? It's a side-scrolling beat-em-up with nice animation. Not exactly innovative.

I find crap like this totally undermines this whole "Indie gamers can get creative and experiment" claims. It's not true. Just look who get's the awards. CLONES of 20 year old concepts! ("Dad n Me" = "Double Dragon")

Re:Game of the year?

[jettoki]

Yes, but these are awarded by an international community of game developers. They don't really reflect the consumer opinion, they're just meant to acknowledge games that developers admire. I can definitely see how SotC wins in this area, as the concept is very inspiring.