A bit of a negative slant, no?

There have been a ton of really interesting, cool and fun British indie games this year.. I think that last paragraph might be just an itsy witsy bit of an over reading of our performance, don't you think? By your numbers, 5 good games are the difference between domination and a poor showing.

Anyway, let's celebrate some of the great indie work to be done in the UK this year which wasn't lucky enough to make the list.. here are a couple to start off, but let's build up a mega list :)

Kairo - http://kairo.lockeddoorpuzzle.com/
Proteus - http://www.visitproteus.com/
I get this call every day - http://www.davidsgallant.com/igtced.html

Mind you, Vatican City and Andorra have some serious catching up to do.

I'm not saying the UK indie scene is terrible - there are a number of quality games being released, including yours Mike! But compared to last year in terms of IGF nominations - the US is certainly trumping the UK with its output, and I think its fair to say it's a poor showing this year... (Of course you could argue a number of factors for US dominance here)

We're always very supportive of developers, but I don't think it should prevent me from posing questions sometimes.

But by all means if people disagree with the points made I'm obviously happy for people to post their concerns and debate it.

Dear ridiculously negative journalist who has a weird obsession with which country a game comes from when it comes to awards ceremonies:

Not only are there a TON of indie games developers based in the UK, but you're basing your assumption of a "poor showing" at an awards event that costs $100 to enter, for starters, which, given the cost of living in somewhere like the UK, isn't exactly going to bring everyone rushing in.

Secondly, in what bizarre world does it matter that the UK didn't dominate the nominations list? It seems like poor form to say that in an age where people of all backgrounds are making games about so many different issues, your preoccupation is with where someone comes from, rather than whether the game is any good.

Here are some games made by people in the UK that are flipping awesome, games you should be championing yourself, at Develop:

Proteus (as listed above by Bithell, who is responsible for...)
Thomas Was Alone
Lone Survivor

The full list is huge, and not all of them appeared because some of them weren't even entered. You seem to be under the distinct impression that games are nominated regardless of developer involvement, which is something that doesn't say much for logical thinking or fact-checking.

Some food for thought from someone whose enjoyment of games extends beyond "THOSE DAMN FOREIGNERS."

Well done, over-sensitive indie devs!

The piece is about the *IGF* not your cosy little club. The 'controversial' statement at the end is inferring a reduced UK indie dev output (hence the poor showing in the finalists) of late, not that there are no indie games made in the UK.

Maybe the expense of having to fly half way round the world means UK indies just don't go to IGF, and so don't really think to enter?

Hello!

If you want to write an article about the relative performance of UK indies, there are many better metrics you could use than 'how many UK games were nominated for the IGF' (perhaps you could use sales, or review scores, or Steam Greenlight stats).

Some problems with using IGF nominations as a basis:

- only games submitted to the IGF can be considered, rather than all games developed in a year.

- the IGF whittles down 500 odd games to 5 per category. Even if these were the definitive best 5 games in each category, they only represent 1% of the games entered into the IGF (let alone developed that year). You don't know the nationality of any of the games which were considered brilliant, but which didn't quite make it into the Jury's Top 5.

- IGF nominations are decided by a small team of Juries: a tiny subset of the people buying and playing indie games.

As a UK indie developer, IGF Jury Member and person-who-plays-lots-of-indie-games, I'd say that the UK Indie scene has never been healthier: to say is "North America is steaming ahead in the indie scene and leaving the UK and Europe behind." is spurious at best.

Who cares?
The IGF is a great competition for small arty trendy games. I didn't bother entering my latest game (www.gratuitousttankbattles.com) at all, because I knew from past experience its too mainstream a game for the IGF. Plus the last time i entered only one judge ran the game, and didn't even try the challenge part of it, rendering the whole thing a waste of $100.
The IGF isn't the be all and end all of indie games. far far from it.

"Poor geography skills for journalist as Ireland and New Zealand are claimed to be a part of the UK"

Michael and Terry are not from the UK.

Amazing bit of inverse-racism from Angry Developer No.4 above with the comment suggesting this is a 'no foreigners' agenda. Because, yes that's right, talking about *where something comes from* is immediately xenophobic. Proper, proper foolish thing to say. And offensive.

It's just a news story, boys - get over it.

To those who seem to assume I'm an idiot, or (lol) an over-sensitive indie dev:

Yes, it is worryingly idiotic to discard reason in favour of sounding negative because your country performed badly in an optional indie games awards competition.

I apologise if this basic concept offends you, but there is a considerable difference in between, say, being pro-UK during the Olympics, and then being pro-UK for a competition that has nothing to do with geography.

No one said talking about where a game comes from is xenophobic, but when your response to a list of games is "oh man, the UK did crap," you're being kinda silly. None of those developers were entering FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY, but I'm sure that as you've anonymously called me an idiot, my opinion must surely falter in the face of your confidence in your own. Have a good day, guys.