The Independent Games Festival China has revealed the Main Competition and Student finalists for its 2014 award ceremony, which celebrates the most creative indie games from throughout the Pan-Pacific area. The GDC China co-located event is now in its fifth year, and this time around the finalists include indie games such as the rhythmic puzzler Duet, Q-Games’ multiplayer open-world platformer Nom Nom Galaxy and more. Drawing from a prize pool totaling 50,000 RMB (roughly $8,000), IGF China’s Main Competition will give away six distinguished awards, covering Excellence in Audio, Design, Technology, and Visual Arts, as well as the Best Mobile Game and Best Game awards. In addition to the prestige and prizes, winners will also receive two All-Access Passes for the upcoming GDC 2015 in San Francisco. Alongside IGF China’s Main Competition, the ceremony will also host the Student Competition, which honors six of the top regional student games, with teams this year hailing from across Mainland China and Singapore. This part of the competition includes two awards — for Best Student Game and Excellent Student Winners — and offers roughly 13,000 RMB (roughly $2,000) in cash prizes. Winners in both competitions will be chosen by a panel of expert jurors including Kevin Li (CEO, TipCat Interactive); Monte Singman (Main Coordinator, IGDA Shanghai Chapter); Xubo Yang (Professor, Director of Digital Art Lab; Shanghai Jiaotong University’s School of Software), Haipeng Yu (Producer, Tencent Shanghai); Chen Wang (Co-founder, Chuapp); Cloud Wu (Co-founder, Ejoy Tech) and jury chairman Simon Carless, IGF Chairman Emeritus and EVP of the GDC shows and Gamasutra. This year’s awards ceremony will take place the evening of October 20, and will run alongside the rest of GDC China, which will be held October 19-21 at the Shanghai International Convention Center in Shanghai, China. Here are the finalists for this year’s IGF China.
Main Competition
Battle Group 2, by Bane Games, Australia [Website, Video] Duet, by Kumobius, Australia [Website, Video] Ghost Blade, by Yushi Games, China [Website, Video] King’s League: Odyssey, by Kurechii, Malaysia [Website, Video] Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae, by Zenith Blue, Japan [Website, Video] Nom Nom Galaxy, by Q-Games, Japan [Website, Video] Sumoman, by Tequilabyte Studio, Russia [Website, Video] Zombie Commando, by Pixel Nuts Games, China [Website, Video]
Student
Team Boss, by NYU Game Center, China [Website, Video] Iris, by DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore, Singapore [Website, Video] Shadow of Life, by C4Cat, Hongkong, China [Website, Video] Lurking, by DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore, Singapore [Website, Video] Xi, by Communication University of China, Nanjing, China [Website, Video] Meowchine Mayhem, by DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore, Singapore [Website, Video] In addition to the awards ceremony, GDC China will also host its own dedicated Independent Games Summit, which offers a host of lectures covering some of the most pertinent issues in independent development. Featured speakers include folks like OUYA developer advocate Kellee Santiago, Monument Valley lead designer Ken Wong, Lab Zero Games lead animator Mariel Cartwright, and more. Those interested in attending either the IGF awards ceremony or the Independent Games Summit can do so by registering for a pass on the official GDC China website — see site for more details on deadlines and restrictions. For more information on GDC China, please visit the event’s official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech
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