Recently the Independent Games Festival were held during the annual Game Developers Conference. The best indie games were awarded with notable cash prizes and exposure in the 10th Annual IGF Awards Ceremony on February 20th, 2008. I'm going to feature some of the big winners of the night, as well as some of the best looking modern games of the indie scene. I possibly couldn't feature all the great games that were entered this year, so I picked some of my personal favorites. You can see the full list of the finalists and winners of the IGF this year in their home page.

Crayon Physics Deluxe
 by Kloonigames
The big winner of the IGF 2008 is no doubt Crayon Physics Deluxe, winning the main award, Seumas McNally Game Of The Year and claiming the $20,000 grand prize.

Crayon Physics Deluxe is a sequel to the popular 2D puzzle game Crayon Physics. Like in its predecessor, the idea is to draw objects that then come to life and interact with the enviroment, only this time around the idea is much more polished and flexible. It's hard to describe how great this game looks and sounds (yes, the single track that plays over and over in the game is just so awesome). No words that I could write here would do justice for the game, so instead I'll be showing you a video. Like they say a picture will say more than a thousand words. Enjoy!



If the game plays anywhere near as good as it looks you're up for one hell of a gaming experience. Hell even if the gameplay sucked if the soundtrack will be anything like the song in the video in the final game I don't care.

Audiosurf
 by Invisible Handlebar
I don't think this game needs introduction. You all know it and you all love it, but here it is anyway. Audiosurf is the winner of two categories, Excellence In Audio as well as Audience Award. It was also nominated for the grand prize of the Seumas McNally Game Of The Year.

Audiosurf falls in an interesting genre, it's a music puzzle racer. Your objective is to get points by clustering together blocks of the same color on the highway, that's automatically generated from your own selection of music. The concept works amazingly well, it really feels like you're riding the music. What really distinguishes this game from other similiar games is that Audiosurf truly offers almost infinite replay value, without having to create the tracks yourselves like many other music based rhytm or puzzle games require you to do. As long as you don't run out of music you'll be cruising on the highway of music for a good while.

You can buy Audiosurf for the low prize of $9.95 from Steam.

World of Goo
 by 2D Boy
One of my favorite entries this year, World of Goo was also a winner of two categories in the IGF 2008. It won the Design Innovation Award as well as the Technical Excellence Award. It, just like the previous two games, was also nominated for the grand prize.

World of Goo is a physics based puzzle / construction game based on the concept developed by Kyle Gabler for the Experimental Gameplay Project. The "goo" was first introduced in games Tower of Goo and its improved, unlimited version Tower of Goo Unlimited. It seems that puzzle games have really gathered their strength this year in the IGF, because this is already the third puzzle game that was nominated for the grand prize in IGF 2008. Not that it's a bad thing, I for one am a sucker for puzzle games, especially when they're mixed with awesome physics and.. Goo balls. So the World of Goo is no exception. Anyone who played the concept game Tower of Goo knows how much potential the idea has when you're not limited by a seven day deadline and can utilize the idea to its fullest in a bigger and better enviroment. If you aren't convinced, just watch the trailer:


You can pre-order World of Goo for $19.95. If you pre-order now you'll get an early preview of the Chapter 1 of World of Goo.

Fez
 by KOKOROMI
The last game that I'll feature today is called Fez. It's most likely the least known out of the games featured here, and also the only game not nominated for the grand prize. But that doesn't mean anything, because this game is my favorite of all the games I've featured in this article. Fez won the Excellence in Visual Art award. I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE THINKING. Don't let the screenshot fool you. Read on..

Fez is an adventure / puzzle (surprise!) game. The story of the game is more or less "Gomez, a 2-dimensional being who finds out his world has an extra dimension and sets out to explore it.". What makes this game so distinguishable from other games of the genre is how marvelously it combines retro 2D graphic with a 3D world. You move the character in a 2D world, but you can freely look around the world in 3D and switch the perspective from which the game is projected between the four predefined directions. The basic concept of the game really reminds me of the newest Paper Mario for the Wii, but that's where the similiarities end. Fez seems to feature a much more open world, which opens a lot of opportunities for puzzles and adventuring. The world is in 3D, but you always explore it in 2D. This is how I'd liked Paper Mario to be. Check out the teaser and a longer feature of the game below:






That's all this time!

Hopefully you enjoyed reading about the feature as much as I enjoyed writing it and see you next time.