IncrediBots • Web • Grubby Games • www • Available now
Nominated for: Technical Excellence
Grubby Games is an IGF mainstay, having previously become a 2006 finalist with their retro-classic puzzler Professor Fizzwizzle. The sandbox feel of Fizzwizzle is taken to a hyper-logical extreme with IncrediBots, which is nothing less than a souped up version of early internet classic Soda Constructor meets The Incredible Machine, with even more direct control, more parts and level by level objectives that are all as liberating as its menu panels are daunting. A game that it’s all too easy to lose hours to.
Machinarium • PC • Amanita Design • www
Nominated for: Excellence in Visual Art
Amanita Design should hopefully need little introduction. The essentially solo company made up of Czech designer Jakub Dvorsky, it was responsible for earlier IGF winning adventures Samorost and Samorost 2, two games which redefined what a Flash game could be with lush photo-manipulated organic landscapes as alluring as they were alien and intricately conceived puzzle design.
After a hiatus creating promotional games for clients like Nike, BBC and, most wonderfully, Dallas glee-rockers The Polyphonic Spree, Machinarium looks to be, from the short demo provided to the IGF, as amazing a return to form as I could have imagined. This time comprised of a much more hand-drawn design, its as quietly expressive and deviously complex as Dvorsky’s previous work, and is a lock to be on a number of top 2009 lists.
The Maw • Xbox 360 • Twisted Pixel Games • www
Nominated for: Technical Excellence
Unfortunately another of the IGF games I don’t yet have the hardware to play, it is a game I’ve kept a mindful eye on since it was first announced in June of last year. Developer Twisted Pixel has a lot riding on it: it’s the first original IP to come out of the Madison studio who previously were responsible for Midway’s NBA Ballers franchise (and is, as you can tell, a radical departure from their previous work).
Like Naked Sky’s RoboBlitz (itself a former IGF finalist) and Rare’s recent port of Nintendo 64’s Banjo Kazooie, Twisted Pixel promise a lengthy 3D single player adventure downloadable via Xbox Live Arcade: still a rarity for Xbox Live Arcade, and one we highly anticipate.
Mightier • PC • Ratloop • www • Available now
Nominated for: Innovation Award
Certainly one of the most innovative on the list, Mightier is a simple platformer with an augmented twist: because all of the collectible objects necessary to proceed are at varying heights of each sector, it’s up to the player to design either print and draw each map, holding the finished product up to a webcam to proceed, or using the mouse to directly do the same within the game.
Watching the laser trace out each shape you’ve made is just the tiniest bit magical, and the game takes the player-controlled design even further by — ala 5th Cell’s Drawn To Life — letting you draw your own later unlockable characters.
Musaic Box • PC • KranX Productions • www
Nominated for: Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Design
Perhaps best described as a musical jigsaw or pentaminos meets sudoku, Musiac Box has you piecing together a multi-part instrumental version of classical songs by fitting blocks together on a board. The trick, aside from making a perfect fit, is that no colored block — representing one instrument — can occupy the same vertical space at any given moment along the measure, and hearing the finished result truly is its own reward.
