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2014 - Multiple award winning Papers, Please is hailed by many - including renowned publications like Wired and The New Yorker - as the best game of the year. 2013 - Richard Hofmeier's Cart Life sweeps multiple awards including Grand Prize and becomes one of the year's most talked about games. 2012 - After a string of PC and console releases, Spelunky is quickly embraced as a speedrun & livestream community favorite and critically lauded for its smart use of procedurally generated levels. 2012 - Grand prize winner Fez is widely ported to consoles and handheld devices, where it cumulatively sells over one million copies. 2011 - Nidhogg becomes a live-event multiplayer mainstay and a regularly showcased game at fighting game tournament Evo. 2011 - Multiple award winner Minecraft has now sold almost 2 million copies and spawned a worldwide cult around its charming open-world game design. 2010 - Playdead's stark monochromatic platform title Limbo is a smash hit on Xbox Live Arcade, following its summer 2010 release, picking up a 2011 Game Developers Choice Award for Best Visual Arts. 2010 - The team behind 2009 Student Showcase finalist Tag: The Power of Paint are hired by Valve to implement new paint gun mechanics into Portal 2. 2009 - The Behemoth's follow-up to Alien Hominid, the IGF-winning Castle Crashers, tops XBLA charts to critical acclaim. 2009 - IGF multi-award winner World Of Goo launches as one of the best-selling, best-reviewed WiiWare titles of all time, alongside a popular PC version. 2009 - Petri Purho's Crayon Physics Deluxe spawns an iPhone version courtesy of Hudson, plus a popular PC downloadable version. 2008 - The team behind IGF Student Showcase finalist Narbacular Drop is hired by Valve. The game is reworked into Portal and goes on to win the coveted Game Developer's Choice "Best Game" award for 2008, as well as numerous game of the year accolades. 2008 - Design Innovation winner Braid debuts on Xbox Live Arcade to significant success. 2008 - Excellence in Audio winner Audiosurf launches on Valve's Steam distribution service and goes on to become the highest selling game of February, outselling even Valve's own Orange box (including Team Fortress 2 and Game Developer's Choice "Best Game" winner Portal.) 2007 - Design Innovation winner Everyday Shooter is signed by Sony for distribution on the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network, after Sony's John Hight plays the game at the IGF Pavilion during GDC 2007 - Everyday Shooter's Jon Mak also appears at the inaugural Independent Games Summit. 2006 - Grand prize winner Darwinia gets both digital distribution via Valve's Steam system and U.S. retail distribution from new indie label Cinemaware Marquee. 2005 - Multi award-winner Alien Hominid receives publishing deals in the U.S. (via O3 Publishing) and Europe(via Zoo Digital), much critical acclaim, and even spawns a mobile version. 2005 - Fan favorite N wins the audience award, and, as N+, releases as a hit XBLA title, as well as notable Nintendo DS and Sony PSP versions. 2004 - Innovative casual strategy game Oasis wins the web/downloadable grand prize, going on to launch on major online portals the following year. 2003 - Super X Studios' Wild Earth, a photographic game based around a worldwide safari, takes multiple prizes and subsequently becomes a motion simulator ride and eventually (in adapted form) a Wii title. 2000 - Tread Marks, created by the late Seumas McNally, which the IGF's grand prize is now named after, wins 3 major awards. 1999 - Vicarious Visions, now a major handheld / console developer, honored for Terminus. « IGF 2015 welcomes packed lineup of Main Competition entrants | Main An apology and a statement on IGF inclusivity Earlier today, one of our returning judges and jurors resigned from the festival following an extensive campaign from third parties regarding a tweet that was made some days ago -- claims about which we had already investigated and very quickly found to be made entirely in jest -- and we'd like to now offer an apology for and a clarification on our response. One of the reasons we invite hundreds of judges to take part in the first round of the IGF process is explicitly so that we can have a diversity of opinion from developers of games both large and small, academics, journalists, and other representatives of games culture at large. We believe that it is only through this diversity that the IGF can properly represent and celebrate the advancement and evolution of the medium, as more voices broaden the idea of what games can be. As we have stated above and elsewhere, the content of the original tweet in question was clearly -- to anyone that has ever been involved in the festival -- meant in jest, even on its face. To be clear, there is no concept of "downvoting" in IGF judging -- judges are able to either state that they would like to see a game nominated for a particular award, or express no judgment on it entirely. And we have always and continue to firmly believe that any individual judge should be able to fully express their own opinions and beliefs on any individual game, whether about its aesthetic, mechanical, narrative, or implicit or explicit political content. This is an essential, encouraged part of the process, both in the first-round judging process and particularly in the jurying phase, which exists entirely around taking a month for a drawn-out, long-form debate on the merits of particular games in the festival. The impact of the statement, though -- and what caused us concern -- was that it raised suspicions that judgment would be made on games without due diligence. We also take seriously the impact of our judges making public statements about the process of on-going proceedings, including which games a particular judge is assigned, impressions on unreleased games in the festival, or how any of our judges intend to vote in the festival. This latter concern is what the IGF reacted to early in the day. At no point was the IGF's intent to silence any particular judge's point of view or personal beliefs, and the idea that any of our statements made today could be construed to be in support of or a capitulation to a harassment campaign -- which itself has worked to to silence the exact kind of diversity we intend to celebrate with the IGF -- is enormously troubling. This is particularly concerning when it's those beliefs that have made the IGF and its organizers, judges, jurors and entrants themselves an ongoing target of that same harassment. We want to express our apologies to Mattie Brice in particular, as well as to any other judge, juror, or entrant that has been made to feel unsupported by or unsafe because of the statements made today. We want to unequivocally express our solidarity with all those who have endured harassment over the past several months, if not years. And we want to reiterate that the IGF welcomes all points of view, including Mattie's own, should she wish to return.