IGF Confirms New Judges For 10th Annual Competition

Author: by Staff

The organizers of the Independent Games Festival have announced the new judges for this year's 10th annual IGF competition, including high-profile journalists such as Newsweek's N'Gai Croal and indie creators including Derek Yu (Aquaria) and Don Wurster (Small Arms). The full list of new judges thus far confirmed for the Independent Games Festival this year include: - N'Gai Croal (Newsweek - veteran journalist) - Brian Robbins (Fuel Industries - long-time independent game stalwart) - Don Wurster (Gastronaut Studios - co-creator of XBLA title Small Arms) - Derek Yu (Bit-Blot - co-creator of IGF Grand Prize-winning Aquaria and TIGSource.com blogger) - Alec Holowka (Bit-Blot - co-creator of Aquaria) - Stephen Totilo (MTV News - veteran journalist) - Chris Rausch (Super Villain Studios - indie-centric developer of Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony) A separate announcement next week will reveal the multitude of regular judges and additional names returning to the IGF for this year's event, including some familiar names from the worlds of journalism, indie games, and mainstream game development. As for the competition itself, the IGF ceremony will take place February 2008 at Game Developers Conference, with all finalists playable on the GDC show floor, and an Independent Games Summit again running alongside the main festival. In addition, the 2008 IGF Main Competition will again be open to all independent developers to submit their games - whether it be on PC, console digital download, Web browser, or other more exotic formats. The prizes again total nearly $50,000, with a $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize, and the deadline to enter the Main Competition is Monday, October 1st 2007. The 2008 IGF Student Competition will once again award the best student games, and this year will also include student 'mods' to existing games. As a result, the number of Student Showcase winners has been increased to 12. The deadline to enter the Student Competition is Monday, October 15th, 2007.