2010 Independent Games Festival submissions welcomed

Submissions are now open officially open for the 2010 Independent Games Festival. Nominees for both the main categories and the student showcase need to be submitted by of this year, with the main competition finalists to be announced on January 4, 2010. As always, those games selected as finalists will available in playable form on the Game Developers Conference IGF pavilion and will compete for nearly $50,000 in prizes divided among a number of categories including Excellence in Design, Art, the Audience Award. All will be competing for the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Winners will be announced on stage at the Independent Games Festival Awards show on Wednesday, March 11, 2010, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco - right before the Game Developers Choice Awards. A list of important deadlines can be found below:

July 1st, 2009 - Submissions are Open

November 1st, 2009 - Submission Deadline, Main Competition

November 15th, 2009 - Submission Deadline, Student Competition

January 4th, 2010 - Finalists Announced, Main Competition

January 11th, 2010 - Finalists Announced, Student Competition

March 9th-13th, 2010 - Game Developer’s Conference 2010

March 9th-10th, 2010 - Indie Games Summit @ GDC

March 11-13th, 2010 - IGF Pavilion @ GDC

March 11th, 2010 - IGF Awards Ceremony (Winners Announced!)

For more information, check out the IGF web site. thanks, indiegames.com

Gameforge CEO to keynote GDC Europe

Klaas Kersting, CEO of German browser game company Gameforge, will deliver a track keynote at the 2009 Game Developers Conference Europe. The keynote, “Changes in the Games Industry - Free-to-play vs. Payment Models,” will look at the success of the free-to-play model that is used by Gameforge. That model allows gamers to play games for free, while premium items within the game or specific services are that enhance the play experience cost a small amount of money.

GDC Europe will take place from August 17-19, 2009 at the Cologne Congress East Center in Cologne, Germany. With an expected 1,500 attendees from 48 countries, GDC Europe will be Europe’s most important game developers conference. Learn more about GDC Europe at www.GDCEurope.com.

Remedy’s Matias Myllyrinne to keynote GDC Europe

Matias Myllyrinne, Managing Director of Finnish-based Remedy Entertainment, the development studio behind the Max Payne series and the upcoming Xbox 360 exclusive Alan Wake, will deliver a keynote at this year’s Game Developers Conference Europe (GDC Europe). In his keynote address entitled, “From Max Payne to Alan Wake: Creating Intellectual Properties the Remedy Way,” Myllyrinne will share the key principles that have guided the company over the years in developing its games. He will touch on the company’s goal to remain small, independent, and passionate about creating new IP, and will try to answer a very important question: how can boutique European studios create large games, compete and succeed in a quickly changing and ever-growing games industry?

GDC Europe will take place August 17-19 at the Cologne Congress East Center in Cologne, Germany in conjunction with gamescom. To learn more about the keynotes and speaker line-up, registration and exhibits visit www.gdceurope.com.

Strong Bad Sales Double on Wii Storage Solution

TellTale Games says that sales of its WiiWare game, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, have doubled since Nintendo announced a new storage solution at the Game Developer’s Conference in March. Of course, we don’t know what number these sales doubled from because TellTale didn’t make that information available. Nevertheless, bully for them for earning some extra coin. It makes me wonder if there has been an upswing in sales for other developers and publishers of WiiWare games.

The Strong Bad series began releasing episodically on WiiWare in August 2008. The Strong Bad games can be downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel for 1,000 points each. For more information on Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People on WiiWare, check out www.telltalegames.com. The series is also available for PC from Telltale’s website. Telltale’s episodic offerings are expanding to Xbox LIVE Arcade this spring with Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures.

BioWare Founders Keynote GDC Canada

BioWare founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk will deliver a keynote address at the 2009 Game Developers Conference Canada (GDC Canada), organizer Think Services announced. The keynote, “Emotionally Engaging Narrative: Gaming’s New Frontier,” will take place on the morning of May 13, 2009. GDC Canada will take at the place Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre May 12-13, 2009.

Having the good doctors keynote the event makes sense, given that they run one of the most influential studios in the country. The company is currently working on Dragon Age: Origins, a fantasy RPG set for release on the PC and consoles.

You can learn more about this two day event by visiting www.gdc-canada.com.

Scott Jones GDC Panel Video, Audio

Our own Scott Jones served as Roastmaster General for the GDC panel “But What I Really Want to do is Make Games,” and it was good. And he rested. Selah. The panel featured some notable former journalists turned game developers talking about the transition from people that write about games for a living to people that make games.

The clips show some of the highlights of this panel, including some of the best advice I’ve heard from a game developer in my 11 years covering the business: “Don’t Be a Dick.” Of course one panelist didn’t agree with this advice. Check them out below, and if you want more check out the entire session in audio format at the very bottom of this story - after the break. Video provided the irrepressible Evan Narcisse.

Read the rest of this entry »

Killed by Friendly Fire: Game Critics Rant

Update: Evan Narcisse filmed various speakers during the panel session - you can find links to these clips after the jump sprinkled liberally throughout my notes..

We give you a rundown of one of the most explosive (and fun) panels at GDC - Killed by Friendly Fire: Critics Rant - and we give you the entire session in audio format so you can judge for yourselves. But first a rundown of all the dirty little details right after the break..

Read the rest of this entry »