If you’re into indie games (and at Gamezebo, we very much are), the IGF awards are tantamount to the Oscars. Not only do they celebrate the best of everything worth playing right now / in the coming year, but they …
If you’re into indie games (and at Gamezebo, we very much are), the IGF awards are tantamount to the Oscars. Not only do they celebrate the best of everything worth playing right now / in the coming year, but they help to highlight some great games that you otherwise may have missed.
In the last few years, the IGF nominees lists have been a healthy mix of desktop and mobile games, with a smattering on console titles up for discussion too. Considering the playgrounds that indie devs play in, this made sense. Much to our surprise, though, the 2016 list is incredibly light on mobile entries.
Should we be surprised, though?
There seems to be something bubbling under the surface in certain indie circles; a backlash against the mobile marketplace, where the “all or nothing” formula is all-too-often resulting in “nothing” for smaller devs. Without naming names, I spoke with a solo developer in recent months who netted an App Store feature AND broke into the Top 100 paid games list, yet failed to translate this into anything more than 500 sales.
The pioneering spirit that pushed indies towards mobile seems largely exhausted at this point. Still, we’re pleased to see a few stand out mobile titles make the IGF nominees list this year, including Her Story (our iPad Game of the Year), Progress to 100, and the upcoming GNOG.
That said, only one of those games (Progress to 100) is exclusively mobile.
You can check out the full list (including the many non-mobile titles) at igf.com.
