The juries behind GDC 2015's Independent Games Festival continue to take form with an exciting lineup of highly lauded developers and industry professionals to decide the finalists for the awards this March.
2015 IGF Main Competition finalists will be announced later this week, but in advance of that, following the announcement of the jurors taking part in our Excellence in Design and Excellence in Audio panels, below you can find the confirmed jurors for our remaining juries.
These are Excellence in Visual Arts, and Excellence in Audio Awards, and our special Nuovo award, recognizing excellence in shorter-form, more esoteric games. The remaining juries being announced today are as follows:
The Excellence in Visual Art Award
The Visual Art award seeks to highlight the innovation and quality in visuals for indie games, and its jury consists of the following:
- Amanda Williams (Tiger Style's Spider, Waking Mars)
- Beth Maher (illustrator, designer and developer of games like Kreayshawn: the Game)
- Dorianne Dutrieux (artist on games including the IGF-winning Desktop Dungeons)
- G.P. Lackey (Ko-op Mode artist behind games including Skipping Stones)
- Greg Wohlwend (designer and artist on games like Threes & Ridiculous Fishing)
- Jane Ng (artist on Campo Santo's Firewatch & Double Fine's The Cave and Brutal Legend)
- Richard Hogg (artist on Honeyslug games including Poto & Cabenga, Frobisher Says & IGF finalist Hohokum)
- Samuel Boucher (Artist & designer on GNOG at Ko-op Mode)
- Scott Benson (animator & co-creator of Night In The Woods)
- Tasha Sounart (Pixar artist & animator, formerly artist on Double Fine's Brutal Legend & Costume Quest)
The Excellence in Narrative Award
The following jurors are among those chosen to lead the IGF's Excellence in Narrative award, now in its third year, which recognizes innovation, quality and excellent storytelling in a game:
- Anthony Burch (co-founder and co-writer for 'Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'' web series, Gearbox Software writer for Borderlands 2)
- Austin Grossman (novelist who began working with Looking Glass Studios in 1992 and has consulted on narratives for titles such as Deus Ex, Epic Mickey, and Dishonored)
- Christine Love (creator of Analogue: A Hate Story at Love Conquers All Games)
- Davey Wreden (writer and lead narrative designer on The Stanley Parable)
- Emily Short (lead developer on Versu storytelling project, author of interactive fiction works including Galatea and Alabaster)
- Jim Munroe (author, filmmaker, and writer of interactive works including Everybody Dies, Guilded Youth & Unmanned)
- Katharine Neil (worked on almost 20 titles shipped on PC and consoles from PSX to Xbox 360 and independently released Alone in the Park in 2013)
- Kristina Drzaic (narrative director for Halo, previously a writer on BioShock Infinite)
- Nick Breckon (lead writer at Telltale Games on games including The Walking Dead: 400 Days and The Walking Dead: Season Two)
- Wiley Wiggins (founder of Karakasa Games, currently producing iPad adventure Thunderbeam)
The Nuovo Award
Now in its seventh year, the Nuovo Award is intended as a celebration of more esoteric and shorter-form games.
The Nuovo jury will include the following:
- Alexander Martin (developer behind IGF 2013 Excellence in Design finalist and Seumas McNally Grand Prize honorable mention Starseed Pilgrim)
- Damian Sommer (writer and designer for the multi-IGF nominated game The Yawhg)
- Deirdra Kiai (writer, programmer, musician, and visual artist on games including the IGF nominated Dominique Pamplemousse)
- Heather Kelley (co-founder of the Kokoromi collective, Perfect Plum founder, GDC 2013 Women in Gaming Award recipient)
- Ian Bogost (Media Studies chair and professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, co-founder of Persuasive Games, creator of Cow Clicker and 2010 IGF Nuovo finalist A Slow Year)
- Ian Snyder (creator of IGF 2012 Student Showcase winner The Floor is Jelly)
- Jonathan Brodsky (Lucky Frame designer on IGF finalists Pugs Luv Beats & Bad Hotel)
- Lea Schonfelder (animator & designer on IGF finalists Perfect Woman & Ulitsa Dimitrova
- Liz Ryerson (designer, composer, writer, and digital artist on games like Problem Attic)
- Margaret Robertson (former editor of Edge Magazine and consultant, now game director at Playdots, Inc)
- Nicolai Troshinsky (illustrator, filmmaker, and creator of UFO on Tape and 2011 Nuovo finalist Loop Raccord)
- Pippin Barr (video game maker, critic, and author of 'How to Play a Video Game')
- Richard Perrin (developer on games including Kairo, Journal and the white chamber)
All entries in the 2015 Independent Games Festival are currently browsable at the IGF's official site, where you can also soon find more complete biographical information on all of this year's juries.
Main Competition finalists will be announced -- along with a jury statement detailing the thought process behind selecting its lineup -- in January 2015, with the winners announced on the evening of March 4th at the live-streamed, multi-thousand person attended IGF Awards ceremony during GDC 2015 -- for which registration is now open.
