GDC continues to grow and had another record-breaking year with 24,000 people attending the show. To me, the best part about GDC is the Independent Games Festival. It’s a mix of indie games, student-made games, and stuff that dwells on the fringes of what is actually considered a game. Every year I hit the festival, come back and give out totally made-up awards. And so without further ado, here are this year’s winners!

Student Games

Best Excuse for Flunking Out of Med School
Rhythm Doctor 

Why get a medical degree, when you can get one in funkology? They say music has healing properties, and this game is proof. You play as an intern at a rhythm hospital and you’ve got to save patient’s lives…by hitting a button to the beat! This rhythm game stands out for a couple of reasons. One, the music is really, really good. The lush beats will pour into your ears like liquid bass. Two, it really is about the beat. There’s virtually no visual indicator telling you when to hit the button, so you have to actually listen to the music to figure it out. The game’s also got a lot of personality and charm, which will help the medicine (game’s intense difficulty) go down.

You can apply for an internship at the rhythm hospital right here!

Math Can Be Fun Award
Engare 

This is one of those games that’s easy to play, but hard to explain. But I will try. There’s a simple line drawing at the top of the screen. The bottom part of the screen has plain geographic shapes. The goal of the game is to recreate the line drawing on top. To do so, you place the curser somewhere on any of the shapes on the bottom of the screen. Once they start moving, your curser will start drawing. And if you’ve placed it correctly, it’ll draw something that matches the line drawing on top. The game is about understanding movement through mathematics. And it’s all based on Islamic art. Yeah, like I said, it’s kind of hard to explain. It’s really fun, though! 

You can follow the creator's blog, right here.

Most Realistic Fake Movie Hacking Game
Cyber Heist

If you watch movies, you’ll notice whenever there’s a hacking scene, it usually has slick graphics, cool music and lots of exciting moments. Hacking in real life is just a guy sitting in front of a computer, occasionally typing or waiting for something to load. It’s not very exciting to watch. This game takes that fake movie hacking idea and turns it into a two-player cooperative experience. One guy plays the hacker. He can unlock doors, disarm alarms and other useful things. But he can’t do anything without the thief, who’s actually on site. The thief helps the hacker locate items and puts down power pods to expand the hacker’s reach. Neither can see each other's screen, only their own. The goal is to go deep into an evil loan company and wipe out all student debts in one blow! Hacking hasn’t seemed this cool since the movie Hackers, starring Angelina Jolie!

You can pretend you’ve wiped out your student loans here.

The Rootinest, Tootinest Game This Side of the Netherlands
Westerado

Three-legged dog walks into a bar and says, “I’m looking for the man who shot my paw.” That’s the classic joke based on the cliché revenge Western movie plot, and that’s what this game is about. You’re a rough-and-tumble hombre who’s scouring the Wild West looking for the man who murdered his family. To get information, you’ll have to talk to the townsfolk. Some will ask you to do something for them in exchange for information. Others will take a little more coaxing. You can pull your gun to intimidate people into giving up info and even cock it for more pressure. Explore the west, find your man and bring him to justice! The game is a love letter to Spaghetti Westerns with delightfully retro graphics and a soundtrack that would do Ennio Morricone proud.

You can find out who shot your paw, right here.

Best Way to “Train” Your Brain
Symmetrain

Finally, a game that combines my love of trains, auto-runners and spot-the-difference games! FINALLY. One of the best part of the IGF is the various mash-ups of different genres, and this game’s a perfect example of that. You have a top-down view of a train running along its tracks. In order to keep it chugging along, you have to spot objects that are “out of place”—meaning, it doesn’t have a matching version on the opposite side of the tracks. It’s pretty easy when the train’s going slow, but when it picks up speed, look out. Great art design, cute music and a nice way to give your brain a little work out.

You can get on board this train, right here.

Indie Games

Best Game That I Probably Shouldn’t Write About
Luxuria Superbia

The goal of the game is to…uhh…well...there’s this tunnel…and a lady makes some noises…and…yeah, I probably shouldn’t write about this one. It has really good sound, though!

You can see why I shouldn’t write about his game, right here!

Congratulations, You’ve Done the Impossible Award
Papers, Please

I’ve always had a theory—you can make a video game about any subject exciting. Probably because I spent my childhood playing the Atari 2600, and some of those games were about exciting things like “serving root beer” or “making hamburgers.” Still, making a compelling video game about checking people’s paperwork takes some imagination! And not just making a game, making a game that won Grand Prize at the IGF awards.

This game is available now, you can pick it up here.

Trippin’ With Technology Award
Sound Self

This is definitely one of those games that pushes the boundary of what's considerd a game. It’s more of an experiment in sound and imagery. And it is a trip, brother, trust me. To go on your trip, first strap on the virtual reality headset. Put on the headphones and press the mic up to your throat. Then start humming and watch the light and sound react to your voice. The tripped-out visuals and deep resonating sound combined with the sensory deprivation effect of the VR goggles meld into something cosmic. It’s “far out” as the hippies used to say.

To enter a dimension of sight and sound, click here.

This Year’s Ooey-Gooey Game Award
Mushroom 11

Every year at GDC, there seems to be some kind of game involving a mushy puddle of goop you have to do something with. And this year, it’s Mushroom 11! Luckily, those types of games are usually pretty fun, because it’s fun to play with gooey stuff. In Mushroom 11, you have to guide a fungus-like pile of mush through levels filled with various obstacles and dangers. The twist is...this mush regrows. You can clop it off into a tiny piece, and it’ll grow back to its full size. While that’s an advantage, it’s also what makes the game difficult. It’s hard to push around something that falls apart so easily. And therein lies the challenge...and the fun.

You can learn more about this great gooey game, right here.

The “What The Heck Am I Supposed To Do?” Award
Paralect 

A lot of the games at the IGF area give you that “What the heck am I supposed to do?” feeling, and that’s half the fun. According to the guy promoting this game, it’s a “narrative game about culture shock.” I didn't exactly get that while playing it, but I could tell it's an artsy platformer where you traverse strange levels and talk to a variety of surreal characters. When you engage them, the screen changes so it’s a close up of the character with a big text blurb. But the little guy you play stays the same size, and you actually get to run around on the text on the screen. Making the text part of the platforming is an interesting idea. As the game goes on, you’ll learn more about the strange world and the characters in it. The writing in the game is excellent and makes exploring a lot more enjoyable.

Best in Show
Crypt of the NecroDancer

While Papers, Please won the big award, Crypt of the NecroDancer won my heart. It’s a delightfully whimsical mash-up of rhythm games and dungeon crawlers. How does that work? You must fight your way through dangerous dungeons littered with a variety of diabolical dancing denizens who move to the beat in specific patterns. To beat them, you’ve got to figure out their pattern and counter it so you’ll attack them the correct way. Add weapons, spells and healing items, and the game goes from a fun, wacky rhythm game to a contest of speed and wits. You can even dig out your old dance pad to use with the game and use your own MP3s if you want. Although I recommend listening to the game’s music, because it’s great and from the guy who made the hot jams in Super Meat Boy.

And that concludes the 2014 GDC Awards! Hope you enjoyed them, and please go to these people's sites and check out their games! Support indie games! 

by Urian Brown