Eldest Child: "Here's a thread where people are explaining the plot of a videogame poorly, but I'm not sure what game to pick for my post."
Me: "You should do Promise Mascot Agency, even if you explain that plot well it'll sound like you're explaining it poorly."
While I didn't see anyone using LLMs as a mechanic this year, I did see more disclosures of using them during development, mostly during early-stage concepting/prototyping to try out high-risk designs, art direction, etc. at much higher speed and lower cost than the traditional methods.
Just to give folks a sense of the competitiveness of IGF, I personally rated 108 games (about 3/day over the one-month judging period!) and nominated 48 for at least one category, out of about 700 total submissions. This all gets boiled down to about 6 finalists + some Honorable Mentions per cat.
Every time, I see a few games saying why I should vote for them. While I personally chalk this up to people just misunderstanding the instructions, it does come across as pretentious (the dev telling the judge how to do their job). This is the judge's determination to make, let them make it. (2/2)
Here's a tip for what NOT to do when submitting your game to festivals. When writing up your game's description, don't try to make the case for why the game deserves an award nomination in each of several categories. Think like writing a cover letter: state your strengths as a candidate. (1/2)
IGF judges and juries will absolutely roast your $250M 400-person-dev-team AAA game, it will probably not get recognized even if production values are great because too many ppl will say it violates the spirit of IGF and should be in GDCA or TGA instead. Not naming names, you know who you are. (2/2)
The way IGF works, in particular, is they'll be happy to take your game's $75 entry fee without checking to see if you fit the eligibility criteria for entering in the first place (especially, making a judgment on "but are you actually Indie"). Anyone can enter. However... (1/2)
Ooh, this year's Polaris Reports are up. Probably at least one or two things there of interest to any game designer. polarisgamedesign.com/reports/
As a whole, IGF entrants seem to have figured out that LLMs tend to be terrible as a game mechanic. "RPG where all the NPCs are chatbots" or "adventure game where an LLM is building the map in real time" or whatever just don't work well. I saw a few of these in 2023-24, virtually none in 2025.
Judges also need to have enough faith that you'll be able to actually pull it off based on the demo. Otherwise the reaction will be "enjoyed this, looking forward to seeing the full game, hope they resubmit next year with something more complete so I can actually nominate it." (2/2)
IGF always gets a lot of pre-release "demo" submissions each year, but know that in IGF, it's VERY hard to get recognition at the demo level since you're going up against MANY quality full releases. If your game isn't complete, you MUST bring enough that judges instantly see where you're going.(1/2)
Example: If you're making Roguelite Pinball, your pinball table should be well designed, the physics snappy; if your pinball doesn't have top-tier game feel, the Roguelite elements will not be enough to save it. Ditto for Roguelite Mario Kart, Roguelite FPS, Roguelite Beat-em-up, you name it. (2/2)
Also regarding Roguelite / Vampire Survivor-likes: when combining with another genre, you have to really NAIL that other genre perfectly, to the point of being a stand-out game in that genre even without the other stuff, if you want to be recognized for it. (1/2)
Yeah, good point - in any progressive roguelike/roguelite, required grinding just to improve base stats to make a win possible goes against the core premise of "this is hard but possible, when you lose it's your fault for not knowing the systems well enough."
I think the mechanics of roguelites are fine, they work really well and it's not super hard to do it Well Enough, it's just that it's so overdone as to start feeling cliche at this point, IMHO.
Yeah, Slots&Daggers (and CloverPit) both leaned hard into RNG-as-progression. This makes it a lot easier for players to blame the dice when they lose, but comes at a cost of loss of perceived agency, but agency is central to roguelikes. Tough balancing act in those cases.
Another thing: There's starting to be some fatigue with Roguelite / Vampire Survivor-like mechanics and progression. It feels kind of like the contemporary version of what "indie platformer" felt like ten years ago - everyone is doing it and people are starting to roll their eyes a bit.
First: The Roguelite / Vampire Survivor-like space is VERY crowded now. Just saying "let's add run-based progression to Genre" doesn't count as innovative anymore, five other indie teams are doing that same exact thing, so you really have to be outstanding to, well, stand out. (2/2)
Okay, so I've kinda run out of IGF games from this year to post daily (what, did you think there were 365 of them that were that great?). But I will drop a few comments on trends and lessons learned. (1/2)
Today's indie game: War of the Western Deep (sunsgrove.games). Currently just a demo on Steam, but a competent old-school LucasArts style graphic adventure, with gorgeous art. For people nostalgic for those days, this is one to keep an eye on (among many other graphic adventures in IGF this year).
Today's indie game: Titanium Court (store.steampowered.com/app/2364580/...). Classic Match-3, but made by the Fae, so everything is a bit off. As you dive deeper things get weirder. If you like other "systems suspense" games (Frog Fractions, Candy Box, A Dark Room) you'll like this. "Coming Soon"
Today's IGF entry: Stretchmancer (stretchmancer.gg). Upcoming 3D puzzle-platformer (think Portal). Manipulate your environment by squashing or stretching things in one direction. Whole thing treated like a Warner Bros cartoon following the Principles of Animation. "Coming soon."
Today's indie game: Forbidden Solitaire (greyaliengames.com). Grey Alien makes games based on Solitaire but with Extra Video Game Stuff. This is their latest with dungeon-crawl vibes and an Inscryption-style "this isn't actually a game, it's a story ABOUT a fictional game" meta. Coming Q1 2026.
Today's IGF entry: Dead Horizon (pixelwestern.itch.io/dead-horizon...). Link is to a playable demo to try for yourself. Western-themed graphic adventure but with modernized mechanics that set it apart as an evolution of the genre. Looking forward to full version (listed as "coming soon" on Steam).
Today's indie game: The Drifter (store.steampowered.com/app/1170570/...). There were quite a few decent LucasArts-style graphic adventures this year and this is one of them. This stayss closer to the genre's roots than most (for better or worse) so much more likely to trigger nostalgia, at least.
Today's IGF entry game: CloverPit (store.steampowered.com/app/3314790/...). One of many Slay-the-Spirelikes based on gambling. This one leans hard into the gritty side (the devs cite Buckshot Roulette as an inspiraation) and while this feels more RNG-focused than most, I have to admire its style.
One IGF 2025 entry per day: Reality Break (elementgamesonline.com). Overhead-view ARPG IN SPAAAAACE. Nifty alternate-universe thing going on where you can modify the timeline (hence the game's name). If you were disappointed with Diablo 4 and miss the old school ARPGs, you'll probably like this.
Today's indie game: Wander Stars (papercastlegames.com). Ever watch any kind of martial-arts-themed anime where it seems like everyone has to shout out the name of their next move just before they attack? Here's an entire RPG based around this as the combat system.
Today's indie game: Below the Crown (misfitsattic.com/below-the-cr...). Chess-based Roguelite dungeon crawl that does expect you already are comfortable with Chess (and not a purist) but for those in it target audience it's well done. Just a demo when I judged IGF, but saw enough good to recommend.
Today's indie game: OFF - offtherpg.com - if you like weird quirky takes on JRPGs like Sword&Sworcery, Earthbound, and Undertale, this game is very much playing in that same space. It's an older game but recent remake for Steam and Switch. One of the inspirations of Undertale, still holds up today.
