TGO Daily | May 10, 2021 | IGF Nominees Revealed
TGO Daily | May 10, 2021
IGF Awards Nominations
The 23rd annual IGF (Independent Games Festival) Awards have revealed the finalists for all of this year’s categories. If you’re unfamiliar, the IGF awards are considered the biggest annual awards for indie games.
Here are the finalists for the top honour — the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.
Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games). Probably the most well known title of the bunch, Spiritfarer is about a girl named Stella who has taken over for Charon as ferrymaster. Stella meets spirits along her journey, helping them fulfill their final wishes before sending them to the afterlife. It’s a narrative driven resource management game. Released on August 18, 2020.
Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den). Noir in name and theme, this is a point-and-click adventure which takes the main character through “time and space.” It’s got a great aesthetic and a very ambitious setting. Released on March 26th.
Teardown (Tuxedo Labs). Using voxel graphics and a fully destructible world, Teardown is all about achieving your goal as fast as possible. Pull off complex heists by smashing away walls and blowing up ceilings…anywhere you want. It looks pretty neat. Currently in Early Access.
Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory Team). A top-down adventure game set in a colouring book. Not much else to say there — the previews look fantastically cute and adventurous, and it will be releasing this spring.
Paradise Killer (Kaizen Game Works). A detective game set in a vaporwave world. Need I say more? The game is known for allowing the player to investigate an open world as freely as they want, and accuse whoever they want after gathering the evidence. Looks really cool! Released on September 4, 2020.
Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital). A first-person photography simulator “in the shitty future.” Each photo taken judges the player’s artistry, which rewards you with cash to buy better equipment. All with a Jet Set Radio-like art style.
I learned about some of these for the first time, but I think they are all super cool! Something I really love about IGF is how they accept games that haven’t even been released yet, and aren’t afraid to nominate even the smallest games for the top award. Feel free to check out the other categories on your own.
The 2021 IGF Awards will be taking places at the Game Developers Conference on July 21st, which immediately precedes the GDC Awards.
Resident Evil Village Kicks Off
Resident Evil Village released last Friday, and it’s the talk of the town right now. On launch day it saw over 100,000 concurrent players on Steam, making it Capcom’s biggest PC launch for any Resident Evil game. At this pace, its set to be the company’s best selling game in the franchise to-date.
Considering how happy people have been with the recent releases, I’m looking forward to what they have in store for the future.
Lost Judgment Announced
A sequel to 2019’s Judgment has been announced called Lost Judgment. These are games developed by Sega’s Yakuza development team, and they star a detective trying to solve various murders. In Lost Judgment, the protagonist goes undercover at a local high school. Here’s a full length reveal that goes in-detail about the game.
While these games look a lot like Yakuza, they are standalone titles. The follow-up will have some new fighting styles and investigation options. It releases on both Xbox and PlayStation consoles (but not PC) on September 24th.
As an aside, it has also been confirmed that the Yakuza franchise will continue to be a turn-based RPG following the change in the most recent game.
The Grab-Bag
Gunpoint and Heat Signature dev announces Tactical Breach Wizards. A turn-based tactics game where wizards dress up as military men.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade exclusive to PS5 for at least six months.
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