(via TIG Source) The list of entrants to the 2008 Independent Games Festival competition has been published and boy, there sure are a many of them. The count is 173 and there naturally are some games that we all know in that list. Ti name a few, Understanding Games -flash-games about game design (which I wrote an entry on my reserach blog “All in the Game” a while ago), The Night Journey, which was presented by guys from USC in DiGRA2007, the multiplayer FPS Penguins Arena of which I wrote a short feature on, as I did on the 3D CRPG Esenthel and on the isometric strategic action RPG Depths of Peril as well as many titles that I’ve planned to write a feature or a review on, such as:

• Fez,
• Gish 2,
• Global Conflicts: Palestine,
• Penumbra: Overture,
• Schizoid,
• Virtual Villagers 2 and
• Vox Imperium to name a few.

So it is going to be a very busy Autumn, in a good kind of way: I will be introducing the IGF2008 entrants all Autumn while continuing my series of IGF2007 finalist reviews. Stay tuned is all I can say. BTW, the IGF2008 entrant list is so huge that I cannot imagine to be able to pick out every interesting item on there, so if you see anything interesting, let me know by posting a comment and I’ll write a feature about the game.

I’ve stumbled upon numerous blog entries about the DiGRA 2007 Conference, or as it is officially known: Situated Play, the 2007 Conference of the Digital Game Research Association, so I decided that I’ll make a post with a list of all the stuff I found. I hope this is of use to all of you. I’ll contribute with entries of my own, too, when I am able to.
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For my first series of themed blog entries I have chosen the finalist games of Independent Games Festival (IGF) 2007. Independent Games Festival is an event for indie game developers which is organized yearly during the Game Developers’ Conference. The main event of IGF is the indie game awards. This year the IGF was held in the beginning of March in San Francisco.

During the next few weeks I will go through as many IGF winners and finalists that I can and I’ll post reviews of all the games I have chance to try out. I’ll post the links to individual interviews to this entry also. You can check out this year’s winners and finalists for yourselves at the IGF website.

14.7.2007 klo 10-12, Normaalikoulun nouseva luokka: Alt+Pelit - Katsaus moninaisiin pelikulttuureihin, nouseviin genreihin ja pelisuunnittelun haasteisiin nyt ja tulevaisuudessa (Antti Kirjavainen)

That’s how it is described in the programme. In English, it’s something like: “Alt+Games - a look at game cultures, upcoming genres and the challenges of game design now and in the future”. Okay, then. I’m planning to take a look at games as a phenomenon from the Salen & Zimmerman systemic perspective, adding other kinds of descriptions of games into the mix. The other views will include the interactive loop, the MDA framework and some kind of cultural framework (including sessions, game communities etc.) to name a few. All of those will be demonstrated by lots of game examples, particularly from the “upcoming genres” mentioned in the speech description. By upcoming genres, btw, I mean these kinds of games that weren’t particularly popular (or in existence) in the past, but have/are starting to gain popularity right now.

Yeah, I think I have a good framework. And with two hours to burn I’ll have plenty of time for game examples. Maybe I’ll invite people from the audience to play (or use some friends as planted audience ).