Uptown funk you up.
Demonstrating superior judgement and exquisite taste in games yet again, the Independent Games Festival have released 2015’s awards finalists and there’s no small number of our favourite titles on the roster. There’s three finalists for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize that are on mobile or plan to be — that trophy comes with a $30,000 purse so it’s no small reward.
Besides the Grand Prize, the other IGF Awards are well stocked with mobile games, too. I’ll run them all down for you after the jump.
The six games in contention for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize are the following:
- 80 Days
- Invisible Inc.
- Outer Wilds
- The Talos Principle
- Metamorphabet
- This War of Mine
Of these, 80 Days is on iOS and Android already — and it’s the game that we named our own 2014 GOTY last month so no points for guessing which of these we’re rooting for here at PT HQ. This War of Mine isn’t on mobile yet, but it will be. It’s on PC right now and it’s absolutely excellent, plunging you into a modern warzone as the leader of a clutch of civilians trying to stay alive amidst the fighting and deprivation. Metamorphabet is “a playful, interactive alphabet for all ages” and it’s coming to iPad — the website says 2014 but that apparently didn’t happen yet.
I wouldn’t rule out Canadian studio Klei porting Invisible Inc. from PC to tablet either — the turn-based tactical heist game is perfectly suited for touchscreens.
What about the other awards?
Mini Metro
Excellence in Visual Art Honorable Mention, Excellence in Design Honorable Mention
I cannot express in mere words how much I love this game. If I grew a second heart I couldn’t possibly love it more than I already do. We first stumbled across this subway-engineering puzzle game back in March — it was originally due out for tablets in December, but when I talked to devs Dinosaur Polo Club yesterday they told me that it should be done by February. It’s on PC in early access and you will not be wasting your time by getting it now. Or rather, you will be wasting your time when you find that you can’t stop playing it.
Ice-Bound: A Novel of Reconfiguration
Excellence in Narrative Finalist, Nuovo Award Honorable Mention
Before anyone passes judgment, may I remind you — we are in the Arctic.
Ice-Bound is a new one for me. It’s a work of sci-fi interactive fiction set in “a dark future where human-level AIs have no human rights”. I mean, I’ve heard darker but apparently this is some good IF. Note that it’s nominated for the Nuovo Award, which is IGF’s award category for off-the-wall genre-bending stuff. Not out yet but will be sometime this year, presumably.
Beyond the apparently excellent narrative, this is also a uniquely multi-media project. It starts as an iPad app, but the second half of the story is told on a printed book with augmented reality triggers for the app.
The Sailor’s Dream
Excellence in Visual Art Honorable Mention, Excellence in Narrative Honorable Mention, Excellence in Audio Finalist, Grand Prize Honorable Mention
If you saw my review then you know that the latest release from Sweden’s vaunted Simogo left me entirely cold, but the IGF jury clearly doesn’t see it my way. I’m entirely open to the possibility that I temporarily lost my mind when I played this, as I seem to be the outlier in not giving The Sailor’s Dream the same praise I lavished on Simogo’s earlier stuff.
Deep Under the Sky
Excellence in Audio Honorable Mention
This surreal arcade game from Rebuild creator Sarah Northway’s husband Colin and collaborator Rich Edwards is absolutely beautiful to look at and listen to. It’s available for Android and iOS. Maybe I was under the influence of this when I reviewed Sailor’s Dream.
Coming Out Simulator 2014
Excellence in Narrative Finalist
Coming Out Simulator is a free web-based game by Nicky Case about telling your conservative parents that you’re gay. This is exactly the sort of empathetic teleportation that only games can do: for a few minutes, you can live an entirely different life and understand a new point of view. It’s funny and charming and scary and it works perfectly on your touchscreen device. Go play it.
Desert Golfing
Excellence in Design Honorable Mention, Nuovo Award Finalist
Desert Golfing is a 2D golf simulator with molecularly perfect controls and apparently an infinite series of holes. If it ends, nobody’s reported back to tell us yet. It’s also a one-way trip. No restarts, no save games — you’re stuck with whatever score you got on the last hole and just have to keep on marching. It’s soul-crushing and compelling all at once, just like real golf. It’s on iOS and on Android.
Framed
Excellence in Design Finalist
This comic book panel-rearranging puzzler got 4 stars out of Kelsey when he reviewed it last month. Delightful little soundtrack on this one.
Helix
Excellence in Design Honorable Mention
Perennial Pocket Tactics favorite Michael Brough (creator of Zaga-33 and 868-HACK) is also beloved by IGF juries, who hand him nominations every year by the fistful. We didn’t review the arcade-y Helix around here because it seemed just a shelf or two beyond our section of the library, gameplay-wise, but like all Brough creations it’s engrossing and elegant and deeper than it appears at first glance.
No comments:
Post a Comment