And Maw! This

My IGF picks

September 12th, 2006

The 2007 IGF entries have been posted and there are some great games in the list. Here are my current picks for finalists.

• Armadillo Run – Excellent physics based puzzle game. Innovation.
• Bang howdy – Online strategy game from the puzzle pirates creators.
• Braid – Braid was my favorite IGF game last year, but unless it is seriously revamped I don’t see the judges picking it to come back again. Gish was in IGF two years in a row, winning the grand prize the second year, but Gish went through major changes between 2004 and 2005. Braid one the other hand won the innovation prize in 2006 and was a very complete game in terms of gameplay and content. It could definitely benefit from more polish and better artwork, but unless the game has changed radically I don’t see it coming back.
• Castle Crashers – A Behemoth title. Visual art nomination, perhaps grand prize.
• Dangerous Highschool Girls in Trouble – Mousechief’s (Witches Yarn) innovative RPG about 1920s school girls. I recently played the demo and its a lot of fun. I wouldn’t be surprised if this doesn’t make the finals but I would be dissappointed.
• Eets: Hunger. Its Emotional – I like this game a lot, but I don’t know if its strong enough in anyone category or innovative enough to make the finals.
• Penumbra – First person survival horror. Very likely to get a tech nomination.
• Red Orchestra: Ostfront – Unreal mod turned full game. This will probably be the “but that’s not indie enough!” game of this year’s IGF because of its history as a Unreal mod and the fact that its a WWII FPS (currently lowest on the innovation totem pole.)
• Toribash – Turn based 3D ragdoll fighting game. Innovation, perhaps tech.
• Venture Arctic – Sequel to Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa.

There are also a ton of games that I haven’t played or heard of, most of the MMORTS games. Is it just me or does IGF always seem to get flooded with “innovative MMORTS” games that rarely make it to the finals? A few more games that look interesting but I haven’t played recent versions or don’t know about.

• TimS‘ Blobyrinth – I played a very early beta of this game months ago. I can’t judge it because I don’t know how far along it is at this point. Goodluck Tim!
• Golf? – I played a very early beta of this a year (or years?) ago. At that point it wasn’t a very interesting game, basically a 3D sandbox with Golf clubs and a cart. I like the minimalist art style and I’ve heard good things, but based on that early demo I can’t comment.
• Minions of Mirth – Played it a long time ago. The impressive thing about this game is its a MMORPG (and a massively single player RPG!) with no subscription fees made by one guy (and his girlfriend?)! Unfortuanately it played like a MMORPG with no subscription fees made by one guy… When it comes to RPGs made by couples, Mount and Blade blows this game away. I’m still mentioning it because a lot of people think it will get a nomination.
• Virtual Villagers – Casual life sim\strategy game. Really need to check this one out…
• Tune – Looks like a very interesting concept, I’ll play it as soon as I get home and update this entry.

Finally, a couple of games that I really like or looked cool but might be too small and “mini-gamish” to compete against the other entries.

• Plasma Pong – I’d like to see it get some innovation or tech nomination for the use of fluids.
• Gamma Bros. – Very fun flash shooter, but not very innovative or complex. Looks like these guys are based in Chicago as well. They should come to the meetup sometime!
• Everyday Shooter – Saw this at the experimental gameplay workshop. It looked like a good abstract shooter but I’m not sure if it has enough to differentiate itself.

These don’t necessarily represent the games I like the most. Braid, Armadillo Run, Plasma Pong, Gamma Bros., Dangerous Highschool Girls and Eets are all personal favorites, but hte others are there because they are popular or technically impressive and many I haven’t played. I think Aveyond and Kudos are both excellent games, but they just don’t seem like IGF finalist games. This is mostly because of the way the IGF is judged, your game has a better chance of succeeding if it excels in one area rather than being pretty good in all areas. It is also because of the IGF’s innovation bias. Kudos will be seen as a Sims or Alter Ego clone, and Aveyond is really just another JRPG.

That said, there are tons of great entries and I wish all entrants the best of luck.

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