Game Tunnel published an article on the IGF Awards Controversy. For those of you who don't know, the game Savage: The Battle for Newerth won the Technical Excellence, Audience, and Seamus McNally Grand Prize awards, a total of $17,000 in cash plus an Intel workstation, not to mention the associated recognition. The controversy stems from the fact that Savage had a $1.5MM budget and was commercially published, possibly changing its indie status. In fact, Savage was also up for the Rookie Studio award in the normal Game Developers Choice Awards.

I was an IGF judge this year, so deliberately or indeliberately I contributed to the outcome. I did abstain from voting on Savage because I couldn't get it to run on my computer. Abstaining from voting on a title for this reason was an approved course of action. Whether or not it makes me qualified to speak impartially, I'm not sure. But here are my comments on the controversy.

Russell D. Carroll, who wrote the Game Tunnel column, concluded:

What Russell says makes some sense. Indie festivals are supposed to be about unsigned talent -- "small budgets and big dreams," as the IGF page says. The goal of a game festival is to reward the kind of risk-taking that the industry doesn't take, and maybe to get some exceptional games out in the mainstream as a result. This, I will admit, is my conception of an indie game festival.

Some point out that Savage shouldn't be punished for their success. If you read the IGF FAQ, you'll find this entry:

According to Amazon.com, Savage was available on February 11, 2003, but Amazon usually presells titles. Other online sources show a release date of September 4, 2003, and others show September 9, 2003. The IGF submission deadline is September 1, 2003, so that's just after the wire. Savage's IGF submission form indicated that they had been developing since 9/13/2001, or "approximately two years," which would support the latter release date. It would seem that the commercial release of the game may or may not have preceeded its acceptance by the IGF, depending on who you ask. The developers' IGF submission form (I hope I'm not going to get blacklisted for sharing it) seems to support this:

I don't have enough information to draw a conclusion, but it does seem that the game was to be commercially released when the IGF submissions were due. However, the IGF FAQ says that entries must not have signed a deal "at the time you fill out the entry form." Was that the case for Savage? I don't know, and I don't want to suggest that the developers were trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the IGF... they made a successful game and they do deserve credit for that. Perhaps someone can clarify this issue for me and for our readers.

Also, who is Savage's publisher? Amazon.com and Best Buy list Tri Synergy, which isn't a traditional commercial game publisher. They call themselves a "retail co-publisher," although I'm not quite sure what that means. EBGames and other sources list iGames Publishing, about which I can't find any information that would help clarify this issue.

All that said, what is really at issue is the spirit of independents. How can we make sure that indies get a fair shot and get to showcase their work? I don't think there's a simple answer, but I do know that Alex Dunne, who runs the IGF, has been absolutely bombarded with questions about this controversy. My suspicion is that this may be an IGF growing pain. Perhaps next year there will be different categories for developer entries, or perhaps they should require games that get publishing deals to withdraw their entries from the IGF, but still get a chance to feature their games at the show. Without much deliberation, the latter idea sounds viable to me.

Another thing we have to consider is the fact that more and more AAA developers are going to start making indie games in their "spare time," insofar as such a thing exists. The IGF and future indie festivals will have to determine a way to regulate professional-indies as well.

Finally, in my mind the IGF is all about design innovation, not commercial polish. Whatever the solutions for the future, I hope the festival maintains this spirit.