Nearly 400 entrants for IGF 2011
Record total includes 150 titles for mobile platforms
The Independent Games Festival has announced that nearly 400 games have been entered in the main competition this year, to be decided next January.
The record-breaking list of competitors continues a year-on-year 30 per cent rise in applicants. Entrants range from one-man, first-time games to new games from established independent studios, with some of the games already available at retail.
Entrants include the famously profitable Minecraft, two entries from Gaijin Games' BIT.TRIP series and 8-bit GTA-homage Retro City Rampage.
One hundred and fifty of this year's games are for mobile and handheld platforms such as the Nintendo DS, and iPhone including successful iPhone to-do list/RPG crossover Epic Win.
"I'm thrilled with both the growth and the diversity that the Independent Games Festival has shown in its 13th year," said IGF chairman Brandon Boyer.
"This year's entrants happily cover the entire spectrum from more polished and commercial works to smaller, more personal and artistic statements to entries geared toward the resurgence of more social, new-arcade-type play. We're all looking forward to sitting down with each game and starting the conversation as we determine finalists!"
Several of the competition's previous winners have gone on to great commercial success; most famously World of Goo, Joe Danger and Limbo. The festival is seen as something of a showcase for future talent by many industry recruiters and publishers, with several studios signing publishing deals on the strength of their offerings.
All entrants will be judged by an extended panel of 150 industry figures, before highly recommended games are judged by a smaller panel to decide the prize winners. A full list of entrants is available on the IGF website.