The 24th annual Independent Games Festival is just around the corner and after a year filled with countless critically acclaimed indie games, the competition is pretty fierce. However, after sifting through a catalog of over 400 entries, the organizers behind the 2022 Game Developers Conference have revealed which independent titles are up for some of the festival's most prestigious awards.
Leading the pack in award nominations are Daniel Mullins Games' eerie deck-builder Inscryption and Witch Beam's heartfelt puzzle game Unpacking, two games very different in content but both celebrated for their unique mechanics and interesting narrative. Both titles have four nomination each in the same categories: excellence in audio, excellence in design, excellence in narrative, and, last but not least, the Seumas McNally grand prize.
You can read up on every game nominated for an IGF award--as well as all the honorable mentions--over on the festival's official webpage. Here's a list of the contenders for the showcase's top five categories:
Stewart Gilray, the CEO and founder of Just Add Water and an industry veteran from the 1980s has passed away aged 51. Having started as a freelancer in 1988 and worked as a programmer at Psygnosis, Bullfrog, EA, Argonaut and more, he moved into production roles at 21st Century Entertainment, Grolier Interactive, Revolution and Runecraft. Stewart founded Yorkshire-based Just Add Water in 2006, a company that has worked on a wide variety of games in partnership with a range of developers in its 15 years, including Oddworld New ‘n’ Tasty, Volume: Coda, Sniper Elite VR and Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality. There was even a PS minis collaboration with TheSixthAxis co-founder Alex Carroll! As someone with such a long history within the industry, his legacy is obviously felt in far more ways than just the games that he worked on and released, and there are many tributes to him being shared on Twitter. Our condolences and thoughts go out to Stewart Gilray’s wife Bec, their children, his friends and colleagues. The news of Stewart’s passing came from his long-term friend Shahid Kamal Ahmad – possibly best known to PlayStation fans for his time at Sony bringing great indie games to PS Vita and PS4 in the early 2010s. Heartbroken and utterly devastated to have lost my beloved friend @stewartgilray. pic.twitter.com/vbDBUWk78R — Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) January 6, 2022 Shahid had been tweeting regular updates on Stewart’s condition as he was hospitalised with Covid-19 and following complications. It’s a reminder that, while the latest variant is speculated to be milder, we do need to continue to be cautious in everyday life, get vaccinated and try to stay safe.
As Australian comic creator Shaun Keenan starts to focus more on building his publishing imprint COMICS2MOVIES up as an attractive home for other indie creators, he's concerned about making sure he's able to make an attractive offer to creators interested in publishing through him. In this mastermind style session, a round table of ComixLaunch Pros facilitated by Tyler James shares what creators REALLY want (and absolutely do NOT want) from a small press publisher they might consider working with.
A lot of people mistake crowdfunding for means of raising money online. However, it is a bit more than that. There are different types of crowdfunding businesses on the internet, and there’s a handful of successful businesses as well. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be successful in starting a crowdfunding business. Then again, it must be done right if you want to launch it successfully. In this article, we’ll discuss how to start a crowdfunding business, and we’ll also discuss how to do it properly so you can profit from it. Let’s get started! How to Start Crowdfunding […]
What are Rivals of Aethers? Why everyone has been talking about it? Is it better and funnier than Super Smash Bros.? Keep reading. We’ll answer these questions down below. RoA Review: What Is Rivals of Aether? Is It Worth It In 2021? Rivals of Aether is a 16-bit platform fighting game based on […]
Award-winning comic book colorist and creator Wes Hartman joins Tyler for a discussion about serializing his “Bigfoot in space” series SAVAGE SASQUANAUT on...
