The Air-Speed Velocity of Unladen Gaming

Independent Games Festival 2003

By Brad Wardell

This year I was once again one of the judges for the Independent Games Festival. It's a really enjoyable experience as you get to see some truly remarkable and imaginative games.

One things that most people don't realize about the IGF is that judging focuses strongly on innovation. Innovation in design, innovation in sound, innovation in visuals. So even if you cranked out the world's best game, it may not necessarily win since innovation is the key here.

This year's winners were:

Grand Prize: Wild Earth

Innovation in Audio: Terraformers

Technical Excellence: Samurai

There were 10 finalists and I thought I'd go through and talk about each of these excellent games and comment on what they did right or wrong (at least in my view).

BaseGolf
This was one of my favorite games. Essentially, as the name implies, it's a combination of baseball and golf. A pitcher throws the ball and you hit it and try to get it onto the green. It's fun and interesting. From a design point of view, it was very innovative. It didn't focus on sound and graphics that much (i.e. it's as good as any other game).

Furcadia
This is a massively multiplayer on-line game. I must confess I didn't quite "get" this game, although it does have a considerable following. But from an IGF point of view, it had a tough road since there are other games similar to it. Also, its sound and graphics are more along the lines of an enhanced MUD. But I recommend checking it out and deciding for yourself.

Mr. Bigshot
This was one of the cleverest games I saw this year. It reminded me of "You Don't Know Jack" but with stocks and markets.

Pontifex 2
If you haven't tried out this game, do so now. Pontifex 2 should simply be called "Crack: The Game". It's evil because it's so addictive. You load it up and it looks so unimpressive. Sounds is almost non-existent. You build bridges and see if your design works. Then 8 hours later you look up and realize this bastard game has sucked you in. That night you can't sleep because you keep dreaming of ways to solve that last bridge design problem. It won the audience award for good reason. But again, from an IGF point of view, it had steep hurdles since innovation in design is strong. However, Pontifex 2 is a sequel.

Reiner Knizia's Samurai
This game won technical excellence which surprised me somewhat. Not because it wasn't a good game -- of all the games, this was one of the strongest -- but because it's based on an existing board game. Nevertheless, it was still very enjoyable and addictive.

Strange Adventures in Infinite Space
This game was remarkably enjoyable. Imagine a game that combines a bit of Star Control II and Master of Orion, but meant to be started and finished over lunch.

Teenager Lawnmower
Okay, I'll admit it: I liked this game the best from a fun/humor point of view. You're a teen who lives in a white trash household. Each day you go out and have to make money to pay for some problem caused by your floozy mom's irresponsibility. The game would make a pretty good arcade game. It reminds me of Paperboy in some ways, but it's fully 3D. But the real fun, for me, was the ongoing story of the teen as you uncover the smarmy back story about your mom and her live in boyfriend and how she gets pregnant and so on.

Terraformers
This game won innovation in audio. It has features that helped sight disabled people navigate the game world. It's essentially a 3D shooter with a lot of good audio features.

Wild Earth
This is the game I predicted would win and it did. That's because it nailed all three categories quite well. First, it is an interesting premise - you are a photographer for a nature TV show and you go to various locations taking pictures of the wild life. Secondly, it is visually stunning. It looks like an nVidia 3D demo or something, except it has gameplay. Third, it has really good audio. Also, it's just very well polished. Did I think this was "best" game? Not necessarily. But again, IGF focuses on combining innovation and fun together. Some may not agree, but that's what the organization has always been about. I will say my kids love Wild Earth. It's a game that anyone can play, it's just neat to look at, and it's very polished.

Word Ninja
Last year these guys did Kung-Fu Chess, which was one of the best games of 2002. Word Ninja is basically real-time Scrabble. There are no turns; you put words down as fast as you can. It's immensely enjoyable and obviously original. I would love to meet the developers of these games and shake their hands. I strongly suggest anyone who is into Scrabble to check this one out. Though we'll never hear from you again...

Overall this year's titles were really good. Even better than last year's, in my opinion. There were some games I wish could have made it into the finals, games that I think would have made it into the finals in other years. For instance one game called "Best Friends" was particularly enjoyable. Last year it would have definitely made it into the finals. But this year, with so much innovation, the festival was so much more competitive.

To all ten finalists, congratulations. Even those who didn't win this year have a lot to be proud of. Having played a lot of pre-finalist games, I can say that competition was quite stiff.

Visit IGF's site to get links to all the finalists.