Fez was one of this year’s notable IGF standouts.

The 11th IGF kicks off submissions today, giving you until November to tweak your sweet indie game into something we’ll be talking about for months after you win that $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Finalists will be announced January 5 and playable on GDC show floor. Prizes in a variety of categories will be awarded on March 25 in a ceremony paired with the Game Developers Choice Awards. Check out this year’s winners here.

Indie developer Silverlode Interactive accosted me outside the press room at GDC to show me their new MMORTS (Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy) game, SAGA. The game looks interesting enough, and given the fact that it’s essentially free, it very well may be worth your time. I checked out the beta yesterday, and I have to say that I have no idea what I’m doing. There seemed to be plenty of people who did, however, so maybe I just missed something.

Either way, SAGA has just entered open beta for the public, so you can give the game a shot for yourself. Full press release after you click the link at the end of this sentence… wait for it… okay, now! Read more…

During GDC, the Ripten crew was privy to an exclusive invite-only shindig presented by the good people at D3Publishing. What did we do? Well, we sat down in front of some system-linked Xbox 360s and proceeded to tear the shit out of each other in a few rounds of Digital Extremes’ new game, Dark Sector. Read more…

Sony has surprisingly announced that Phil Harrison, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, will be resigning from his position this week on February 29, 2008. Read more…

The tenth floor of the St. Regis hotel offered up a Street Fighter IV journalist-only tournament, complete with an open bar and enough pizza to satisfy the great E-Honda.

Upon entering the hotel room you are greeted by a loop of Street Fighter II playing on a large wall mounted plasma, two linked arcade units, and plenty of journalists trying to cram in as much practice as they can before the tournament officially kicked off. Read more…

Now that the Game Developers Conference 2008 has come and gone, we here at Ripten are taking a look back on the past week using the magical art of photography. Hippity-hop to check out the gallery. Read more…

Our very first installment of Ripten Radio sums up the high (and sometimes low) points from this years Game Developers Conference.

This particular edition features the following Ripten super studs: Dan “90%” Landis, Jon “as seen on Ripten TV” Zungre, Emily “like a banshee” Balistrieri, and myself — for the purpose of this event known as: Chad “my feet still hurt” Lakkis. Enjoy it after the jump. Read more…

“Sorry about that. I’m a bit nervous so I just broke out into song,” joked Masahiro Sakurai, the designer of the Smash Bros. series, after regaling us with a few bars of the chanting trailer soundtrack. He gave an in-depth and very articulate look at the process of developing the latest installment’s character roster.

The line-up was pretty well finalized as early as 2005, with the exception of Sonic, who was added just last year. Characters were selected for their individuality, unique abilities, and balance of both the fighting and game series representation. Read more…

Our second installment of Ripten TV highlights the Star Wars Force Unleashed GDC session hosted by Haden Blackman. The presentation outlined many aspects of the teams growth as well as the struggles and successes during the development of the game. Have at our impressions after the jump. Read more…

Dave Jones Roxxorz our Soxxorz with APB

Well, I have to admit that I’m a little high off of that presentation. Dave Jones is a breath of fresh air for MMO design and it tastes good. He had a lot to say, and said it with strong belief. To find out what Dave (from the developer of Crackdown) had to talk about and his next game, the All Points Bulletin MMO, follow the jump. Read more…

As you may have noticed, Day Three exploits are going up a little later than usual. Unfortunately, we had a run-in with the Blaznatz chewing up our bandwidth, so we were unable to get a good connection. Damn him and his chainsaw bayonet…

We’ve decided to combine our day three info with day four, which would officially make this Ripten’s GDC 08 Coverage: Day Seven. Read on for all the goodness. Read more…

Takao Sawano, who works at Nintendo with Shigeru Miyamoto, gave a great lecture on how Wii Fit came to be– it turns out it was “in the center of Miyamoto’s brain as a concept even before the console was released.” Read more…

I heart Havok’s ragdoll physics and now they’re even better. Check out a video of their new tech after the jump. Read more…

Host Andy Schatz said of the indie game development scene, “The weather here is just fine,” and added that being an indie developer is not (always) just another stop on the road to the big time.

To prove it, he presented awards for the finest indie games of last year as selected by a jury of game industry greats. Check out the full list of winners after the jump! Read more…

The View From the Front Row

Chad just phoned me from the front row of the Microsoft keynote at GDC 08 where the word seems to be that Gears of War 2 will be officially announced at the end of the keynote. Read more…

Unlike most sequels, the Game Developers Conference Day 2 did not suck. The Ripten crew actually did stuff today! Amazing! Read more…

If you had ever wondered what it would be like to meet up with a bunch of nerds and go to the Game Developer’s Conference, then wonder no more. We’re here to walk you through the ins, outs, and slightly-to-the-lefts of GDC day one. Read more…

With GDC just around the corner, the rumour mill is running at full speed. Normally most of these rumours turn out to be nothing more than falsities or let downs, but this one seems to be carrying some weight.
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If you are a little bummed out about not being able to attend this years GDC, and you happen to be an XBL subscriber, you’re in luck. Read more…

According to a certain Nelson’s twitter profile, a conspicuous update hints at a special mid-week podcast, something that may turn out to be a major announcement from Microsoft’s gaming division. Conveniently enough, it’s happening right before GDC. Read more…