A year in the making. A list of entries for the 2009 Independent Games Festival has finally been revealed. This year there are 226 entries in the Main Competition (last year there were 173 entries), and 145 Student Showcase entries (last year's was 125 entries). What a big jump in numbers! Now if only the IGF site can revamp their entry-browsing capability so users can actually navigate the list with ease...by we can always dream ;)

Joking aside, looking over the huge list of entries, first impression: there are a lot of good titles, but no "killer title" that stands above the rest...last year, there were a few games that were REALLY good and people somehow knew they were at least going to make it to the finalist round (like World of Goo or Noitu Love 2), there was that "spark" in them that made them shine. This year, while there are many fun games, nothing particularly stood out...or it could just be that the really good ones are still hiding in a sea of good-but-not-yet-there games. Or it could just be that I'm too ignorant to tell the good games from the bad ones, after all, a majority of the entries aren't even playable...which brings me to my second complaint (was there even a first complaint? lol)...

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The finalists for the 2008 Sense of Wonder Night were announced on September 16th. Never heard of Sense of Wonder Night? Earlier this year, Nintendo announced a new event that will take place during their annual Tokyo Game Show called Sense of Wonder Night, the Japanese equivalent of a cross between Independent Gaming Festival and Experimental Gameplay Workshop (the organizers said SoWN was inspired by the latter).

Just how awesome is SoWN? One of their criteria for entries states that the entry has to be "A 'terrific!' game, even though the reasons are not immediately clear: A game that at any rate gives a strong impression that 'this is terrific' as soon as you see it." How cool is that?

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