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Getting Some Play: IGF Time

IGF!

Those who follow the indie game scene (scenes would be more appropriate), today is one of the most exciting days of the year. The IGF (Independent Game Festival) awardees and nominees have just been named, and if you’ve been feeling sad about the state of the game industry lately, it’ll pick you right up.

Games are nominated across five categories (with five nominees and several runners-up, save for new category the “Nuovo award”), and all nominated games are eligible for prize money and Steam deals.

The nominees are:

Excellence In Visual Art

Incredipede (Northway Games and Thomas Shahan)

Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)

Guacalamelee! (Drinkbox Studios)

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (Asteroid Base)

Year Walk (Simogo)

Honorable mentions: Fly’n (Ankama Play); Eleven (Christoffer Hedborg, Datahowler); The Bridge (Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda); Thomas Was Alone (Mike Bithell, David Housden and Danny Wallace); Hundreds (Semi Secret feat. aeiowu)

Excellence In Narrative

Thirty Flights of Loving (Blendo Games)

Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)

Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)

Dys4ia (Auntie Pixelante)

Gone Home (The Fullbright Company)

Honorable mentions: Goblet Grotto (thecatamites, j chastain, NEW VADERS); Analogue: A Hate Story (Christine Love); Papo & Yo (Minority Media); The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe); 7 Grand Steps (Mousechief)

Technical Excellence

StarForge (CodeHatch)

Perspective (DigiPen Widdershins)

Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)

Intrusion 2 (Aleksey Abramenko)

LiquidSketch (Tobias Neukom)

Honorable mentions: Mobiloid (Monty Melby); Skulls Of The Shogun (17-BIT); Foldit (University of Washington); 140 (Jeppe Carlsen); Gateways (Smudged Cat Games)

Excellence In Design

Samurai Gunn (Beau Blyth)

FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)

Starseed Pilgrim (Droqen & Ryan Roth)

Super Hexagon (Terry Cavanagh)

Super Space (David Scamehorn & Alexander Baard/DigiPen)

Honorable mentions: Spaceteam (Henry Smith); Helix (Michael Brough); Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation); Rymdkapsel (Martin Jonasson, Grapefrukt Games); Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games)

Excellence In Audio

Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)

Bad Hotel (Lucky Frame)

140 (Jeppe Carlsen)

Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games)

Pixeljunk 4AM (Q-Games)

Honorable mentions: Thomas Was Alone (Mike Bithell, David Housden and Danny Wallace); Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation); Gone Home (The Fullbright Company); Fract OSC (Phosfiend Systems); Dust: An Elysian Tale (Humble Hearts)

Nuovo Award

[Designed ‘to honor abstract… and unconventional game development’.]

Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)

Spaceteam (Henry Smith)

Dys4ia (Auntie Pixelante)

Bientot l’ete (Tale of Tales)

7 Grand Steps (Mousechief)

MirrorMoon (SantaRagione + BloodyMonkey)

VESPER.5 (Michael Brough)

Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)

Honorable mentions: Renga (wallFour); Starseed Pilgrim (Droqen & Ryan Roth); Frog Fractions (Twinbeard); Thirty Flights of Loving (Blendo Games); The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games)

FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)

Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)

Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)

Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)

Honorable mentions: Gone Home (The Fullbright Company); Thirty Flights of Loving (Blendo Games); The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe); Super Hexagon (Terry Cavanagh); Starseed Pilgrim (Droqen & Ryan Roth)

Any and all winter blahs can be successfully bested by playing almost any of these. Also note — Anna Anthropy’s (Auntie Pixelante) incredible Dys4ia — a personal game based on Anthropy’s experiences as a transwoman — is nominated in multiple categories. Gaming is finally growing up.

Incoming!

January has traditionally been a slower month, but there are still a couple of interesting possibilities coming up.

First up for gamers with little ones (or drug habits) is Sesame Street Kinect TV Season 2 (for Kinect) — basically an interactive version of the beloved kid’s series. This edition boasts eight 30-minute episodes, and releases today.

Anarchy Reigns finally arrives in the US on January 8 for the PS3 and 360. It’s a sort of Platinum Games (Bayonetta, MadWorld, Vanquish) brawler mash-up featuring characters from some of the developer’s previous titles.

Also on the action list (and arriving on January 15on the PS3 and 360) is DmC — the Devil May Cry reboot from Ninja Theory. Here’s the forecast, from GamesRadar:

We’ve been following Ninja Theory’s Devil May Cry (DmC) reboot for a while, and now it’s time to see if this alternate-reality take on Capcom’s demon-slaying series can live up to the hype. DmC finds a younger, more punk-rock Dante fighting a hangover and massive demonic invasion in a twisted land called Limbo City. In addition to his trademark moves and combos, Dante will have the aid of an Angel Mode and Devil Mode that will gives him the ability to fight fast and furious or slow and stylish, respectively.

On a completely different note, the PS3 will get Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch on January 22. It’s a colorful RPG from Level 5 and the insanely talented animators at Studio Ghilbi (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke).

Finally, Sims fans will be able to relive the “Groovy 70s”, “Awesome 80s” and “Grunge 90s” with The Sims 3 70s, 80s and 90s Stuff. It’s out for PC on January 22.

That’s all, folks. Tune back in next time for the latest!

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