I didn’t even know this existed. That’s probably because I’m located in Los Angeles whereas this festival takes place in Australia — but I can easily say I wish I could go to Australia for the Freeplay Independent Games Festival. The FIGF awards are given in eight categories: Best Game, Best Design in a Game, Best On-Paper Design, Best Art in a Game, Best Concept Art, Best Technical Innovation, Best Game Writing and Best Audio.

The competition is accepting entries until 11:59pm on the 19th of July (although it isn’t specified as to what time zone this is in, one can speculate it’s relative to Australia). Winners will be announced on August 15th at the Freeplay Independent Games Festival. For full details on the competition, check out the official website. The festival itself will take place at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia on the 14th and 15th August 2010. Tickets will be priced at $20 and will be on sale in July.

“We’re very excited to be celebrating indie creativity with these awards. There’s been a lot of interest in the indie games scene in Melbourne especially, and there are many developers finding success with their indie projects. With these awards, we can acknowledge their hard work and creativity. Furthermore, with categories such as Best Concept Art and Best On-Paper Design, we can encourage developers and artists who are not currently involved in larger game projects, and those people who are at the prototyping stage.”

- Eve Penford Dennis, co-director of the Freeplay Independent Games Festival

Check out the press release below for more info.

Press Release:

23rd June 2010 – Freeplay Independent Games Festival today announced the inaugural Freeplay Awards!

Eve Penford-Dennis
M: +61 414 415347
E: eve@freeplay.net.au

[Source: GamesPress]