Fez wins IGF 2012 Grand Prize

The movers and shakers of the indie scene came together at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last night for the 2012 Independent Games Festival awards ceremony, where prizes aplenty were handed out to this year's winners and future stars.

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The movers and shakers of the indie scene came together at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last night for the 2012 Independent Games Festival awards ceremony, where prizes aplenty were handed out to this year's winners and future stars. Polytron's eternally in-development puzzle-platformer Fez lifted the Grand Prize and $30,000, four years after it won an IGF award for Excellence In Visual Art. Other notable winners include Dear Esther, Frozen Synapse, and Spelunky. The majority of the winners were decided by the hundreds of IGF judges and jurors, while the Audience Award was chosen by a vote on IGN, and the XBLA Prize was decided by a separate jury with Microsoft. Over $60,000 was awarded as prize money in total. GameSpot recorded the ceremony if you want to see it unfold, speeches and all, but here are your 2012 IGF winners. Best Student Game - $3,000 Winner:
  • Way (Carnegie Mellon University, Entertainment Technology Center)
Runners-up:
  • The Bridge (Case Western Reserve University)
  • Dust (Art Institute of Phoenix)
  • The Floor Is Jelly (Kansas City Art Institute)
  • Nous (DigiPen Institute of Technology)
  • One and One Story (Liceo Scientifico G.B. Morgagni)
  • Pixi (DigiPen Institute of Technology - Singapore)
  • The Snowfield (Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab)

Way

Technical Excellence - $3,000 Winner: Runners-up:
  • Fez by Polytron
  • Prom Week by Expressive Intelligence Studio, UC Santa Cruz
  • Realm of the Mad God by Wild Shadow Studios & Spry Fox
  • Spelunky by Mossmouth

Antichamber

Excellence In Design - $3,000 Winner: Runners-up:

Spelunky

Best Mobile Game - $3,000 Winner: Runners-up:
  • ASYNC Corp by Powerhead Games
  • Faraway by Steph Thirion
  • Ridiculous Fishing by Vlambeer
  • Waking Mars by Tiger Style

Beat Sneak Bandit

Excellence In Visual Art - $3,000 Winner: Runners-up:
  • Botanicula by Amanita Design
  • Lume by State Of Play Games
  • Mirage by Mario von Rickenbach
  • Wonderputt by Damp Gnat

Dear Esther

Excellence In Audio - $3,000 Winner: Runners-up:
  • Dear Esther by thechineseroom
  • Pugs Luv Beats by Lucky Frame
  • To The Moon by Freebird Games
  • Waking Mars by Tiger Style

Botanicula

Audience Award - $3,000 Winner:

Frozen Synapse

XBLA Award The winner picks up an XBLA publishing deal and funding from Microsoft. Winner:

Super T.I.M.E. Force

Nuovo Award - $5,000 Winner: Runners-up:

Storyteller

Seumas McNally Grand Prize - $30,000 Winner:
  • Fez by Polytron
Runners-up:

Fez

From The Chatty
  • reply
    March 8, 2012 7:00 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Fez wins IGF 2012 Grand Prize.

    The movers and shakers of the indie scene came together at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last night for the 2012 Independent Games Festival awards ceremony, where prizes aplenty were handed out to this year's winners and future stars.

    • reply
      March 8, 2012 7:20 AM

      [deleted]

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        March 8, 2012 7:30 AM

        I find it odd that they have awards for unreleased games.

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          March 8, 2012 8:03 AM

          I never thought of it like that, but you're right that doesn't make any sense.

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          March 8, 2012 8:07 AM

          Most awards are about giving all the big, famous things a pat on the back. There's an element of that in the IGF, but it's also a lot about discovering exciting new things and bringing them to people's attention.

          I like this setup a lot more than conventional awards.

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          March 8, 2012 7:45 AM

          This nailed how flawed the IGF is. I'm glad it exists but it needs a lot of work. Hopefully 2013 is better.

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          March 8, 2012 7:52 AM

          [deleted]

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            March 8, 2012 7:56 AM

            I don't even understand why it's taking so long to make. Isn't just a platformer? It hasn't redesigned it's art style either.

            Everything the guy says makes him sound like a massive douche caught up in the hype surrounding his game that we really don't know much about.

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            March 8, 2012 7:58 AM

            What? Why fuck that guy? He's risked a shit ton of cash and time making this game, by the looks of it, he's got every right to push it as hard as he can.

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            March 8, 2012 12:14 PM

            I don't see anything wrong with what the guy is saying... he's broke and he's been working on this game forever to make it as perfect as he can.. and he intends on doing whatever he can to make the game successful and get back as much of that money as he can. I don't see anything wrong with that.

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              March 9, 2012 7:57 AM

              do you see anything wrong with him and three of his close friends being jurors?

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                March 9, 2012 8:19 AM

                Oh, yeah, well.. that's less 'ok' I guess. I didn't know about that.

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          March 8, 2012 8:12 AM

          "Anthropy feels that outsiders, the people who really need access to an audience via these sorts of events, are being left out. They’re being left out, she argues, in favour of established names.
          “Phil Fish – he’s already won,” she says. “He’s already got a contract. He’s already got money. Someone who is working out of their bedroom to who – whatever the prize is, like $5000 [the Grand Prize is actually a stunning $30,000] – would be something life-changing for them. This would be an opportunity to get more press than they’ve ever got in their lives but instead the press is regurgitated back to the people who already got the most of it and I think that’s really sad. And I think all that does is keep more people out, more of the people that I’d like to be in, that I’d like to be involved. "


          I ran into the same problem with some of my subscribed 3D design websites. At first it was about people that held 3D as a hobby and struggled to make it a professional career (like me), but now it's all about professional artists with high-paying jobs getting/ taking/ stealing the spotlight. $3000 would certainly be life-changing for me, but for some of the artists I see it's just a drop in the bucket.

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        March 8, 2012 7:37 AM

        Yeah it's kind of bullshit.

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        March 8, 2012 8:11 AM

        After all this kerfuffle, IGF is planning to change the rules so previous finalists can't re-enter the same game: http://www.gdconf.com/news/independent_games_festival/letter_from_the_chairman_welco.html

        Or, they're making a rule that none of 2012's final games can be entered into the 2013 festival. How far that rule will spread (whether 2012 finalists could enter in 2014, or whatnot), we'll see.

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          March 9, 2012 7:58 AM

          this is, of course, after the 'transitional year' where they allowed their friend's game reenter, a game three of the jurors were a part of at one point.

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      March 8, 2012 8:01 AM

      I'm starting to think this game is never coming out. I was excited when I saw the first trailer years ago and the idea was fresh. Now I couldn't give a fuck and the guy behind it isn't winning me over with his recent press.

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        March 8, 2012 12:17 PM

        I played the game at PAX last year and it looks a plays awesome. It's coming out... and it'll be great. It's just taking a lot of time.

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      March 8, 2012 8:03 AM

      I played Dear Esther and... I don't get it. The dialogue appears to have been translated from English to Japanese, then Japanese to German, then back to English.

    • reply
      March 8, 2012 8:08 AM

      Fez looks neat, reminds me of cave story.

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