Independent Games Festival

Date: February 28-March 4, 2011
City: San Francisco, CA
Location: Moscone Convention Center

Festival Hours

* See Game Developers Conference page

Registration Fees

* See Game Developers Conference page

About Independent Games Festival

Think Services (producer of Game Developer magazine, Gamasutra.com, and the Game Developers Conference) established the Independent Games Festival in 1998 to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers.

We wanted to create a similar event to Sundance for independent game developers - and that's just what we've succeeded in doing with the Independent Games Festival, which has awarded hundred of thousands of dollars in cash prizes (and brought major exposure and a much higher profile) to a multitude of indie and student game developers who enter. There are four main elements to the Festival itself:

- The Independent Games Festival Pavilion
Located on the show floor at Game Developers Conference, and open to any members of the public or game professionals who have bought an Expo Pass to the show or above, the IGF Pavilion showcases every single finalist for that year's Festival in playable form. Members of the development team for each IGF finalist are on hand to discuss and demonstrate the title and talk to top game publishers and distributors attending the show.

- The Independent Games Festival Awards
The IGF Awards take place on the Wednesday evening of Game Developers Conference, and are a major celebration of the best in indie gaming, with thousands watching the award presentation before the Game Developer's Choice Awards are presented. The 2008 IGF Awards, including custom interstitials from Mega64, are available for online viewing. All GDC visitors can attend the awards.

- The Independent Games Summit
The Independent Games 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. The second annual IGS was held February 18th and 19th 2008, during the first two days of GDC 2008. Next year's Summit is planned for GDC 2009 - please see the GDC website for pass pricing and information.

- Independent Games Festival Mobile
New for 2008, IGF Mobile is a new contest set up in 2008 to promote innovation in portable games, from cellphone and iPhone games all the way to indie PSP and DS titles. There are plenty of unique mobile-specific possibilities for games, and we're excited to help honor them - prizes for the 2009 total $30,000, including a new $10,000 'best iPhone game' contest.