The 3rd Independent Games Festival China (IGF China 2011)
IGF China 2011 WINNERS ANNOUNCED!See the winners >> |
Overview
In 2010, the 2nd Independent Games Festival China garnered 81 high-quality entries (37 for the Main IGF and 44 for the Student IGF competitions). Entries received originated from China Mainland (37%), Hong Kong/Taiwan/Macao (7%), Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, India, Iran and other countries.
After the call for submissions and review period, the 2nd Independent Games Festival China Awards Ceremony was held on December 6, 2010, where 7 submissions from 12 finalists were awarded prizes for the Main IGF and the Student IGF competitions. The excellent independent developers who emerged from this competition shared the experiences, success stories and failures with other game developers and publishers onsite, and generated more passion and confidence for independent game development. The winner of “Best Game” in the Main IGF competition, Turtle Cream from Korea, is currently working on the commercial version of their winning game.
The 3rd Independent Games Festival China, featuring the IGF Main Competition and IGF Student Competition, will continue in 2011. There are three main elements to the event.
The Independent Games Summit
The Independent Games Summit will be held on November 13th (Sunday), the second day of GDC China 2011. The summit seeks to highlight the brightest and the best of indie development, with discussions ranging from indie game distribution methods through game design topics, guerrilla marketing concepts, student indie game discussions, to successful stories of IGF overseas winners.
The Independent Games Festival Pavilion
Located on the show floor at GDC China, and open to expo and conference pass holders, the IGF Pavilion will showcase all finalists for this year’s competition in playable formats. Members of the development team for each IGF finalist are on hand to discuss and demonstrate the game and talk to top game publishers and distributors attending the show.
The Independent Games Festival Awards Ceremony
When: 19:00-20:00, November 12, 2011 (Saturday)
Where: 2F, Western Hall No.2, Shanghai Exhibition Center
The IGF Awards will take place during GDC China, and is a major celebration of the best in indie gaming. Authorities and technologists from overseas and domestic game companies, the advisory board members and the speakers of GDC China, the jury judges of IGF China, etc. will be invited to attend the awards.
The 3rd Independent Games Festival China competitions will have a diverse, leading set of judges which include representatives of different backgrounds from the mainstream game industry, the press, academic institutions, and significant independent gaming websites.
IGF China Sponsors Game Jam
IGF China is a proud sponsor of the Beijing and Shanghai Game Jam. In the spirit of fostering local game development for independent developers and future game developers, IGF China offered prizes of complimentary passes to Game Jam winners to attend GDC China 2011.
Competition
IGF Main Competition
Who Is Eligible: Open to all independent game developers in Pan-Pacific Area (see specific rules)
Submissions Due: September 5th, 2011 at 11:59pm GMT+8
The 2011 IGF Main Competition will give out FIVE major awards:
- Best Game (RMB20, 000 ~ $3,060 USD)
- Mobile Best Game (RMB10, 000 ~ $1,530 USD)
- Excellence In Audio (RMB5,000 ~ $760 USD)
- Excellence In Technology (RMB5 000 ~ $760 USD)
- Excellence In Visual Arts (RMB5,000 ~ $760 USD)
There are EIGHT specifically named finalists in total. The winners will be selected from those finalists. All finalists will be given THREE free All Access Passes, SIX free Expo Passes and invited to attend the IGF awards ceremony at GDC China 2011 and showcase their game at the IGF Pavilion. In addition to the prestige and prizes, all winners will be offered TWO extra free All Access Passes to attend the 2011 Game Developers Conference held in San Francisco.
IGF Student Competition
Who Is Eligible: Open to all student game developers in Pan-Pacific Area (see student-specific rules)
Submissions Due: September 5th, 2011 at 11:59pm GMT+8
The IGF's Student Competition, the premiere competition highlighting top student-created indie games within the region, will give out the awards as follows:
- IGF Best Student Game (RMB10, 000 ~ $1,530 USD, 1 Winner)
- IGF Excellent Student Winner (RMB3, 000 ~$450 USD, 2 Winners)
There are SIX specifically named finalists in total with winners selected from these finalists. All finalists will be given TWO free All Access Passes, SIX free Expo Passes and invited to attend the IGF awards ceremony at GDC China 2011, as well as showcase their game at the IGF China Pavilion. In addition to the prestige and prizes, all winners will be offered opportunities of the priority recommendations to the famous overseas and domestic game companies.
Note: Individual income tax of the cash prize will be withheld and remitted by the “IGF China 2011 Committee”.
Click here to view entry rules. (Game submissions for IGF China 2011 are now closed. Thank you for your interest.)
Key Dates
Here are specific submission deadlines for the 2011 event:
| May 6, 2011 | Submissions are Open |
| September 5, 2011 | Submission Deadline |
| September 26, 2011 | Finalists Announced |
| November 12-14, 2011 | Game Developers Conference™ China 2011 |
| November 13, 2011 | Independent Games Summit @ GDC China |
| November 12, 2011 | IGF China Awards Ceremony (Winners Announced!) |
| November 12-13, 2011 | IGF China Pavilion @ GDC China |
IGF China Jury
Jury Chairman
 |
Simon Carless Simon Carless is the Chairman Emeritus of the Independent Games Festival and Executive Vice President of the UBM TechWeb Game Network, overseeing the GDC events worldwide, Game Developer magazine and Gamasutra.com. He has previously worked as a writer/editor for tech site Slashdot, and as a game designer for companies such as Eidos Interactive and Atari. |
Jury Members
 |
Haojian Chen Mr. Haojian Chen, a legend in China’s gaming industry, has worked on titles such as Legend of Mir and The World of Legend on development and operation. He was responsible for CPS transformation and sequel development as Product Director for Legend of Mir, and succeeded in planning and publishing the big hit sequel Legend of Mir 2, a single game generating double-digit revenue growth for 13 quarters, which created the history in online game development and game operation in China. Currently, he is Vice President and Producer of Shanda Games. |
 |
Kevin Li Mr. Kevin Li is the CEO of TipCat Interactive, which is a new social media company focusing on social game and mobile game development. Before, Kevin Li was the Exec. Director of ACTIVISION China and be in charge of the strategy growth in East Asia. Kevin joined UWINK (NASDAQ: UWNK), a Nolan Bushnell’s game company for video game production after turned back from L.A. in 2000. In 2003, Kevin founded Studios Qin, focusing on the production of MMOG and Console Online games. Studios Qin raised $4m VC in 2005 and was acquired by Vivendi Games in 2006. Kevin was named as the MD of the new born Sierra Online Shanghai. In 2008, after the M&A of Vivendi Games and Activision, Kevin was named Strategy Growth Director, Greater China of ACTIVISION. |
 |
Monte Singman
|
 |
Xubo Yang Dr. Xubo Yang is an associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He is now in charge of the Digital Art Lab at School of Software and the digital media educational program. In 1998, he received a Ph.D degree in computer science at the State Key Lab of CAD & CG in Zhejiang University. From 1998 to 2001 he was a research scientist in the Virtual Environment group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication (IMK) in Germany. From 2001 to 2003 Xubo worked as a senior researcher at the Mixed Reality Lab of National University of Singapore. His research interests focus on next-generation media art computing technologies in the context of computer graphics, computer vision, real-time rendering, augmented reality, virtual reality and novel media interaction. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers in the field of virtual and augmented reality, computer graphics, human computer interaction and entertainment computing. He is member of IEEE and ACM. |
 |
Haipeng Yu Mr. Yu Haipeng is currently working as producer in Tencent Shanghai. He used to be the producer of Ubisoft Shanghai and be in charge of next-gen original creation project. Mr. Yu has been working in gaming industry for more than 11 years, and especially experienced in console game development, with participation in next-gen games like Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, Rayman Raving Rabbids and etc. |
IGF China 2010 Winners
Check out the winners from last year's competition:
Best Game
Sugar Cube - Turtle Cream (South Korea)
Best Mobile Game
Train Conductor 2 -The Voxel Agents (Australia)
Excellence in Visual Arts
ButaVX: Justice Fighter - Nekomura Games (Singapore)
Excellence In Audio
Skillz: The DJ Game- Playpen Studios (Hong Kong)
IGF Best Student Game
The White Laboratory - Huazhong University of Science & Technology (China)
IGF Excellent Student Winner
Dead Steel - Media Design School, Auckland (New Zealand)
IGF Excellent Student Winner
Ponlai - National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (Taiwan)
IGF China 2009 Winners
Check out the winners from the 2009 competition:
Best Game
Captain Forever - Farbs (Australia)
Excellence In Art Direction
DONOVO - Magic Day Studio (China)
Technical Excellence
HurricaneX2 - You Yun Tech (China)
Excellence In Audio
Armor Valley - Protégé Production (Singapore)
IGF Best Student Game
Autumn Dynasty: Paper Generals - National University of Singapore students (Singapore)
IGF Excellent Student Winner
INK - Singapore Polytechnic students (Singapore)
IGF Excellent Student Winner
Bumper Halloween - Beijing University students (China)
Voices from IGF China 2010 Winners
The Best Student Game Winner of the Student Competition
Tao Xin from Huazhong University of Science & Technology (China)
"Though GDC China only lasted three days, it was so meaningful that I even would like to slow the days down. I met many domestic and overseas brilliant independent game developers, talented students, and industry veterans. I made friends, visited their companies, and learned a lot that could not be learnt from the school. I hope that one day I will have my own game studio, and my own game will appear on the shelves!"
The Best Mobile Game Winner of the Main Competition
Simon Joslin from The Voxel Agents (Australia)
"GDC China has been great for us. It's the first international award we've ever received and it helped to get noticed overseas. I had a great time meeting people on the expo floor, and it is always encouraging to receive recognition for the games we've made. Massive shout
out to the other winners!"
The Best Game Winner of the Main Competition
Sunyong Park from Turtle Cream (Korea)
"Attending GDC China was a fantastic experience to me!
I was very happy to share the ideas with other game developers and publishers. We got more passion and confidence on our games after this event, so we are developing commercial versions now! Thanks to GDC
China for letting our game out into a bigger world!"
Voices from IGF China 2009 Winners
The Best Student Game Winner of the Student Competition
Travis Ho from National University of Singapore (Singapore)
"Being able to attend the IGF and receive an award was a huge honor, but meeting all the other passionate and talented student and indie developers in the region was priceless! In just three days, I gained an appreciation for the cultural diversity behind gamers and game developers in the region: I met many people, learned much, and made great friends-- one day, we might collaborate across countries to make games together!"
The Technical Excellence Winner of the Main Competition
You Yun Tech (China)
"It is our great pleasure to be awarded as Technical Excellence on the 1st IGF China, and it was very nice to participate this event as we met many passionate and talented independent developers from other Asian countries to share the interesting experiences of developing games. In addition, we do draw the attention from some top publishers and are still negotiating with them about publishing the game worldwide."
The Best Game Winner of the Main Competition
Jarrad Woods from Farbs Farbs Farbs (Australia)
(back to top)"GDC China was great! Through the Independent
Games Festival I raised awareness of my game in both eastern and western media. Exhibiting in the expo helped me make contact with major publishers and distributors, and winning an award validated my game
in the eyes of players."
About the Independent Games Festival
UBM TechWeb, a division of United Business Media (UBM), established the Independent Games Festival (IGF) in 1998. After being held successfully for 11 years along with GDC San Francisco, IGF was introduced to Shanghai, China for the first time in 2009, to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers in the Pan-Pacific area. The award winners are not only displayed to the public on the official IGF and GDC China websites, but also shared with over 19, 000 attendees worldwide in GDC San Francisco. The flagship products of the UBM TechWeb Game Network also include the Game Developers Conference® (GDC), Game Developer Magazine, and the “Webby Award” winning Gamasutra.com and network of sites.
Success Stories
Since the Independent Games Festival & Summit started, there have been multiple major IGF prizewinners who have gained much exposure, garnered increased distribution, gained higher profiles, and increased gamers playing their art. Here are some of the highlights:
20112010
2009
2008
2007
2005
2004
2003
2000
1999
(back to top)
Supervising Unit:
Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China
Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China
Endorsing Units:
Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture, Radio, Film & TV
Shanghai Municipal Economic and Informatization Commission
Organizing/Co-Organizing Units:
UBM
UBM TechWeb Game Network
Shanghai Municipal Information Service Industry Association
Co-Sponsoring Unit:
Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC)
Hong Kong Cyberport
Taipei Computer Association (TCA)
Singapore Game Exchange Alliance (GXA)
