IGF Bet Redux

#1 OF course, Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa will win in ALL categories, due to the innovative AI, unique resource management, and stunning visual art, but here are my initial picks for IGF 2006.

Game of the Year: Darwinia -- I'm sticking by this one. In many ways, it deserves it, in others, it doesn't. But they've also done a great job marketing it, so I think it will win. Honorable mentions: Tribal Trouble, Ocular Ink, Tube Twist

Innovation in Game Design: TubeTwist -- It won last year's IGC Most Innovative, I see no reason it can't win this year's IGF in this category. I haven't played it, but I've only heard good things! Honorable Mentions: Mobiloid (haven't played it, sounds interesting), Flash Bios (ditto); Dark Horizons: Lore for all sorts of cool extra community features, and Ocular Ink for general wackiness and a cohesive gesture based attack system that really belongs on the DS.

Innovation in Audio: Bubble Symphony -- I'm picking this because its by Mind Control, makers of Oasis, though I've never seen it. None of the games I've actually played this year did anything innovative with sound, though many had very high quality SFX and music. Honorable Mention: Mexican Motor Mafia and Rumble Box for kickass soundtracks.

Innovation in Visual Art: Darwinia -- This is the one category where I think it really deserves to win. The game looks great, its fresh, and its cohesive. Honorable Mention: Tribal Trouble is as sharp as it gets, in a normal sort of way.

Technical Achievement: Dark Horizons: Lore -- Does the tech get any better than this? Technical widgets abound here. And the engine sure looks sharp. Who made this one again?

Web Browser game: Haven't played any, don't know which ones are browser games, so no picks here!

#2 I just tried Darwina and the first thing i thought is that the art is realy bad, no textures at all, or is my pc playing up?. I found it hard to get into because it looked so bad.

I vote for Bit Shifter(Flash Bios), because it looks great and is realy fun for me.

I bet you 7 32 bit data words that these will win.

Game of the Year: Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa

Innovation in Game Design: Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa

Innovation in Audio: Bubble Symphony

Innovation in Visual Art: Dofus

Technical Achievement: Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa

Web Browser game: Dofus

What about Audience Award:Ill give this to Bit Shifter

#3 HA! Cool! I hope no sarcasm is intended... :)

And yeah, Dofus does look pretty nice despite the terrible English translation. And the title.

#4 Hey Paul -- Flash Bios is cool! I just downloaded it and gave it a shot. I can't wait to see more. Funny that I put my money on Darwinia and your game has a very similar setting at least in terms of story/basic strategy. When yours is further along I suspect it will be something I am far more likely to play than Darwinia. Nicely done!

By the way -- I'll add a couple of Honorable Mentions to the technical category -- Legion Arena and Rubies of Eventide -- though those are both quite high budget. RoE has a 4 million dollar budget! I noticed another naval combat game in there with a 2 million dollar budget as well.

#5 Me, sarcastic,,, no chance :)
Ill even put my chips(bits) on the table..
00100110100110110111011011011011*7

Yes I thought that about Darwina when i played it.
So who stole who's idea?

#6 So I'm confused here...how are these projects with millions of dollars of budget competing in the Independent Games Festival?

#7 Yeah Stephen I don't find that very fair either. That's like Insomniac Games putting Ratchet & Clank or their upcoming PS3 game in IGF just because they are considered independant.

Quote:RoE has a 4 million dollar budget!

Wow really? That's amazing, I would have never guessed it. Well where did all that money go, because it definatley didn't go into the 'in game' art department. Why would anyone spend a whole 4 million for their game to just end up looking like that.
-Ajari-

#8 I dunno. I dont think that budgets should be a restricting factor. If guys decide to mortgage their houses and grannies, take credit and rob a liquor store to come up with 4 mills, its fine with me, thats independent.
If money is given by fat dude in suit who comes regulary to your office and tells you change this change that, thats not independent.
Thats all.

#9 I guess your right. And it's not like 4 million is going to automatically give you great graphics or an all around perfect game. Look at RoE. I'm sure it's not a horrible game. I hope it plays better than it looks, but for 4 million I'm sure they could have done a little better in the graphics department. They would have been better off with TGE for everything. Networking, graphics, lighting, physics.
-Ajari-

#10 Id say these people are very rich before they decided to make there own game. Say If you inherited 1 bil from your dad, why not spend 4 mil on something you love.
Take Howard Hughes, he inherited a huge fortune and an oil drill bit company when he was 20 years old, so he started making movies, he spent millions on movies.

#11 One of 'em? Maybe. 3+...I really don't think so (although I could be wrong).

#12 It definitely makes you feel like a long shot when you are lower budget -- a game like Alien Hominid was much higher budget than most, but they mortaged their homes to do it. Three Rings raised a couple million dollars for Puzzle Pirates, I believe. So it's kinda all part of the contest. No one has really come up with a satisfying definition for indie and nobody probably will, so we just have to make sure we push to keep the vague idea of the "spirit" of an indie alive in the IGF. The IGF commitee is aware of these issues, and I think they will continue to try to protect it.

#13 Well, the budget graphs vary so wildly also because indies use different criteria deciding how much their games cost.
For example, those same Alien Hominid guys later told that they included rought figure of their times worth. They didnt spend all that sum in cash, they simply included the "lost" money they might have earned by working mundane contract work.
Some indies include cost of tools, while others (like Paul) skip it, since the same tools have been owned before and are used on $$$work as well.

#14 While the IGF submission guidelines were not clear on the tools issue, they were very clear on the income issue.

Budget calculations should not contains "virtual money" like estimated income (which is what Alien Mominid seems to have done).

I myself have taken tools and licenses into account.

-- Markus

#15 Yeah, I wondered about some of these budgets and how much was 'lost earnings'.

now Alien Hominid looks pretty damn sweet. but having said that i would never in a million years morgage my house to fund an independant game. never never never. oh my god. i can't believe someone would do that. i guess that i am just a cheap bastard or something. i gamble with my time and effort but i wouldn't gamble with a house. that's too much. too much for me. and it's not the money. it's the fact that if the game flopped that i would be spending decades paying off a morgage. decades. that's too much risk for me. i'll give up a lot to get where I want to go (metaphorically speaking) but that just sounds like a prison sentence waiting to happen.

i probably am just a cheap bastard. but i spend money i have. i would never want to owe money to make a game. i would rather keep working a day job than do that. i have know too many professional artists who have told me what happens to 99% of the artists who put all of their eggs in one basket and it isn't pretty. there's having faith and then there's losing your house and getting divorced because your wife is tired of being married to an idiot.

i like the way the GG guys say to do it. right size your life.

i don't know the whole story with those Alien Hominid guys and it looks like it worked for them... but jeesh... not unless i had a track record of hits and knew that i could always get a job with the big boys and make up for the morgage payments. sheesh.

sorry, just my thoughts on that unrelated subject.