Welcome to the student finalist edition of our IGF China discussion. Yesterday we looked at several great games in the main competition. There were quite a few 2D games in that batch, and I wonder if we’ll see the same today with the students’ projects. Stay to the end, as the final game will probably please Portal-like fans.

IGF China judges have narrowed down the student entries to six, so it won’t be as long as yesterday’s report (if you’re length adverse). Five of the six entrants are from Singapore, and three of those are from the DigiPen Institute of Technology. I’m roughly guessing that is where you want to go to school if you are in the region.

In Nanobytes by Singapore Polytechnic School of Design (Splat Studios), players seem to be tasked with clearing all the characters from the screen in a certain number of clicks. Different colored nanobytes may have other properties. From Nanobyte’s Facebook page, it seems you can cause the characters to panic and commit suicide. Patience is also key; one should allow the characters to multiply to destroy them all in a chain.

In Pixi by DigiPen Institute of Technology players heard this bright dashes of light called pixies to defeat the oncoming boxies and protect the star-ies (?) on the ground. It’s like Missile Command gameplay if you could guide the missiles like wind with Geometry Wars-esque visuals. I dig it.

In Robotany, players influence the behaviors of robot-like creatures in a garden-building sandbox game (genius game name!). Apparently, with just a limited amount of conditional commands the AI will determine what to do in unspecified situations.

Robotany by Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab not only has a video, it also has a playable prototype for your enjoyment.

Shadow Fight by China Central Academy of Fine Art is definitely a wild card for me. I enjoyed seeing the nurse literally fall to pieces as the hands of the heady zombie. I’m not sure how I feel about the Bumblebee Transformer. Animation and mechanics overall seem crude; for instance, characters don’t seem to die when their health appears empty. Still, I can’t recall many fighting games in IGF-style competitions, and I hope this inspires other developers to throw their fists into the fray.

Terra: the Legend of the Geochine by DigiPen Institute of Technology is physics puzzle platformer that allows players to control both their character and the world at the same time. Aesthetically, it reminded me of a 32-bit PSX/Saturn game called Pandemonium, but with must better graphics and more thoughtful gameplay. Ok, so as I watched, it became less Pandemonium, and more “How the heck can I handle the screen moving so much?!” but in a good way.

The final student finalist is Void by DigiPen Institute of Technology caught the attention of Indie Games back in August and seems to have done well to impress the judges thus far. It’s a first person adventure puzzler of sorts. Through various mechanics players go between (at least) two realities to traverse the game world and solve puzzles. Pretty damn spiffy!

Make sure to check out the IGF China 2011 main competition finalists, too. Winners will be announced in November.

[Gamasutra]