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!."

Stupid category.

[KDR_11k]

FTA:
Last Man Standing Co-Op won for best Doom 3 Mod

Um, what other major Doom 3 mods are there? Dungeon Doom maybe but that's pretty much it.

Re:Stupid category.

[Kingrames]

"Last Man Standing Co-Op"? ...That sounds like FUN!

Direct Download

[glenrm]

From FTA:
Darwinia, which is now being distributed via Valve's Steam service...
This is the coolest part of all we are seeing a number of digital marketplaces emerge to support arcade style and independent game development. You have steam, 360 live arcade, MMOs, and more. The $$$ going right from the customer to the developer will produce more and better games for more diverse platforms then ever before...

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 po

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.

Re:Game of the year?

[cgenman]

Thanks.

But Shadow of the Colossus was a highly experimental game in a lot of ways. It developed a gameplay style that was highly original. Artistically and aesthetically it is probably the closest we've come to "art" this year. While it failed in some key areas, there aren't any areas where it wasn't at least trying something majorly new. And everything in the game was keyed around aesthetics and kinesthetics that haven't really been explored before. How often have you felt sympathy for the bosses you're fighting? How often have you questioned your own motivations in a game?

For the voting game developers, originality and pushing the art forward are key, and Shadow lacks in neither area.

If we had to lose, I'm glad we lost to them. And we did walk home with three freakin' awards, and tons of people were throwing up the horns. That's pretty gratifying right there.

Re:Game of the year?

[Norfair]

I think the reason it may have appealed to the developers more was that it was the kind of game that makes any gamer think, "Now why didn't I think of that first?". The concept was simple enough that anyone could have come up with it. It may have it's flaws (I've yet to play it, but intend to get my hands on it soon), but those were ignored for the fact that it was as close to art as the current-gen of games will possibly ever get.

Doofus? No thx

[Jack9]

Doofus is pretty. Lots of games are pretty...the gameplay is completely and utterly BORING and decidedly un-fun. It was undeserving, at best.

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")

Nintendogs won in multiple categories

[WillAffleckUW]

And deservedly so, since it represents the wave of the future of gaming.

Braid? What's that?

[Mozai]

I keep hearing about "Braid," and now it's won an award, but where is it?
The official link is "http://none", and the publisher's website says "nothing to see here."

Sure, independent developers don't have the marketing/promotion engines of the big houses, but this seems as if the publisher is hiding.