Submissions are now officially open for the 2018 Independent Games Festival, the signature competition for indie games, to be held for its 20th year during GDC 2018 in San Francisco next March.
The deadline for all submissions to the IGF this year will be October 2nd, with finalists announced in early January 2018. Finalists’ games will once again be playable at the packed IGF Pavilion on the Game Developers Conference 2018 Expo Floor, and will compete for over $ 50,000 in prizes.
As per normal, these awards include the Excellence in Visual Art, Audio, Design and Narrative Awards, which will have six finalists each, with the winner getting $ 3,000 in each category. There will also be six finalists for the $ 30,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.
This year also sees the return of the Best Student Game award ($ 3,000 prize), and the special Nuovo Award ($ 3,000, eight finalists) will be offered again to honor the game title that ‘makes the jurors think differently about games as a medium’. Finally, the IGF Audience Award ($ 3,000 prize) will be decided by a public vote from all of the competition finalists.
Organizers are also welcoming the return of the alt.ctrl.GDC Award ($ 3,000), an affiliated award to be given out during the IGF ceremony, honoring intriguing and inventive games using unique one-of-a-kind controllers. Finalists and the winner for this award will be picked from entries into the popular on-site GDC exhibit, which will open a little later in 2017.
The Independent Games Festival is the longest-running and highest profile independent video game festival, summit and showcase. It has served as a springboard for several games that have gone on to become critical and cultural hits. Previous IGF prize winners from the past 19 years include Quadrilateral Cowboy, Her Story, Papers, Please, Spelunky, Minecraft, Limbo, World of Goo, Braid, Castle Crashers, Everyday Shooter and many more of the game industry’s breakthrough independent titles.
Winners will be announced on stage at the high-profile Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday, March 21st, 2018, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with the IGF Pavilion open from March 21st-23rd, and the sister Independent Games Summit event taking place on March 19th and 20th.
The Independent Games Festival is a part of the 2018 Game Developers Conference, which will be held from March 19th through March 23rd, 2018 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. IGF continues to be the largest annual gathering of independent video game developers, showcasing top talent across the industry and keeping a pulse on the future of independent games.
Submissions to the competition are now open to all independent game developers; here are the important dates you should mark on your calendar as you prepare for IGF 2018:
• July 24, 2017 – Submissions are Open
• October 2, 2017 – Submission Deadline
• Early January, 2018 – IGF Finalists Announced
• March 19 – March 23, 2018 – Game Developers Conference 2018
• March 19 – March 20, 2018 – Independent Games Summit @ GDC 2018
• March 21 – March 23, 2018 – IGF Pavilion @ GDC 2018
• March 21, 2018 – IGF Awards Ceremony (Winners announced!)
For a complete list of information on the 2018 Independent Games Festival, including submission specifics and frequently asked questions, please visit the official Independent Games Festival website.
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