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GoNNER is a tough as hell score-based procedurally-generated platformer with roguelike elements. GoNNER is also a story about friendship between Ikk, Death, and a space whale named Sally.

Post news Report RSS These Are The 2017 Independent Games Festival Winners

Here are the winners in each category for the 2017 IGF.

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igf featured


Yesterday, the Independent Games Festival awards took place at GDC 2017 in San Francisco, finally revealing the winners after first being announced just under two months ago. The categories were divided into Best Student Game, Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Design, Excellence in Narrative, Excellence in Visual Art, the Nuovo Award, and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Congratulations to all the winners, and to all those whose games were selected to be featured in this year’s competition!

Best Student Game

Un Pas Fragile

PAF Team


Excellence in Audio

GoNNER

Art in Heart


Excellence in Design

Quadrilateral Cowboy

Blendo Games


Excellence in Narrative

Ladykiller in a Bind

Love Conquers All Games


Excellence in Visual Art

Hyper Light Drifter

Heart Machine


Nuovo Award

Oiκοςpiel

David Kanaga

Image 4


Seumas McNally Grand Prize

Quadrilateral Cowboy

Blendo Games


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brunocar
brunocar

how the **** is ladykiller in a bind among these games, its the writers worst work by far and the art is mediocre at best

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OnyeNacho
OnyeNacho

Say what you will about the writing but if you seriously think their artwork is "mediocre at best" then you seriously lack artistic integrity.

The characters are not my fancy (especially the facial features), but the artwork they've done overall is actually very good, especially the lighting and shading of their scenery - their greatest strength. You'd have to be either blind or an outsider who doesn't understand art quality at all to say otherwise.

It looks like you're here to rip on the developers of Ladykiller in a Bind than you are to actually speak your objections about it. I'm not one to judge on personal gripes (as I have them myself with Primal Carnage and Depression Quest) but at least be smart about it instead of making extremely biased judgement on the project.

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brunocar
brunocar

biased? i actually love the writter's other games, the writting is just repetitive and each character has no personality beyond one trait in particular and a backstory, but the art looks bearly at the quality level of something like katawa shoujo (which is free and better written) and nowhere near something like nekopara or the sakura games, both of which are either free or cheaper, thats another thing, even if it was at the level of quality of those other games, the price of admition is still bigger.

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OnyeNacho
OnyeNacho

So more so, it seems you were just disappointed at the art style of Ladykiller in a Bind. I guess I don't blame you for that. But that does not mean the art itself is mediocre, its still great in general. With other indie games I've seen in my time, it's still worth the sight compared to other ones that are visually cringeworthy (like World In Danger). They even went so far as to pressure me to give up game development because of it and one even had the gall to criticize me for being upset at demotivative criticism. Not that I am against CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, I just dont take kindly of some phompous ******* telling me to give up what I loved because HE/SHE does approve of my artwork.

Sorry if I got all over you on the last comment. I just got tired of artists or moronic gamers who are used to AAA quality art style that they forget of the indies or newcomers.

I learned this the hard way with my first game at Polycount. These were veteran AAA devs and digital artists in general who've spend their days working AAA art that they're just no longer use to any artwork below their quality. Their standards have increased drastically that if you even meet average indie quality art, they'll still rip you apart. They don't even give a **** about a fun game, they'll gladly accept interactive movies and tech demos branded as "games" these days - a huge turn from what used to be a Quake 1 mod website (Remember QuakeRealm anyone?).

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brunocar
brunocar

dunno what happened surrounding the game and what it has to do with you, but my critisism of the art is that for a VN as expensive as DOOM 2016 during a sale, or for a more fair comparasion something like FTL or nuclear throne, to look like that, which is not bad but also not amazing, is kinda nuts, if the game was half the price its right now i would have forgiven its art compleatly, since then for a game of that price point art of this level of quality is more than enough.

on a more personal note i also thought that the hair on some characters looked a bit weird, but thats just me.

in the end the art doesnt matter that much for a VN as long as its not awful (which its not), but my main critisism was the writing, which is the reason i got the game on the first place, Love's other games where amazing.

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OnyeNacho
OnyeNacho

Army Men III's minor controversy was a long story and quite a personal one, but let's just say, there's a DAMN GOOD reason I tread carefully around Polycount with ANY of my future works now. What AM3 suffered serves as a cautionary tale for myself and my future works like Maze Qore - if you're even unsure if your art is AAA-worthy, stay the hell away from that website. They'll rip on you regardless but at least AAA artwork has a greatly reduced risk of too much backlash. I don't even feel Maze Qore will suffice to those people.

Fun fact, the backlash of Polycount even made me skeptical and OCD about AM3's quality that I started panicking trying to find the right art style during development and even turned down devs that actually fit my game's art style because of my fears of another Polycount scenario - that "criticism" from Polycount made me lose focus on art direction, the similar way fat-shaming women makes them take extremes towards anorexia and bulimia.

As for LiaB, I guess I see your point perfectly now. Price tags can make gamers extremely skeptical and critical of a product if not properly adjusted, but even so, sometimes I try to overlook that if and when I see a game trying to adjust its price properly to fit its overall quality.

After all, gameplay should always supersede graphics - the old school way of game dev. Graphics can be great and all, but in the end of the day, I paid for an actual video game, not an interactive movie or a tech demo that holds hands (but I digress).

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brunocar
brunocar

what happened with army men 3? i knew the game existed because im somewhat familiar with the series, but what happened? now im geniutly curious

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OnyeNacho
OnyeNacho

Indiedb.com

Long story short, I lost my motivation to work on it any further, at least not without the IP to the franchise AND the support to help me pull through. My health suffered working on the game as well as too many betrayals, even from my voice cast. Finally my creative director finally lost faith and wished to move on with his life, so I decided I'd do the same as well (not that I had much choice anyway but I'd rather work on a new slate of my own domain for a change).

Have to admit. With the luck on my second game, it feels like I am starting entirely new since I was in high school, only much more difficult.

Indiedb.com

At least AM3 had a fanbase from the Army Men series, but my new game is totally foreign. No one knows jack-**** about it and even showcasing it at a game-con had very little effect so I struggle terribly with marketing and such that I even decided to accept the criticism of AAA and indie devs convincing me to ditch UDK and move to UE4. I hope I made the right choice.

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brunocar
brunocar

hmm, i see, thanks for explaining, i hope you luck on your future endevours

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