| Machina said: This award, which was new for this year (thanks to popular demand, and especially comments by @Jaicee @Chazore @Mnementh ), had by far the longest voting list - over 70 games were eligible and 33 of those received votes from the community. I expected that to mean the category would be very competitive, but it wasn't - there was a very clear winner and a gap of over 25% between winner and runner-up. I wonder if this'll be a common theme for the category in future years, or if this was just an exceptional year for one particular indie game. |
First of all, I take great pride in being credited with a role in the creation of this category. This category encompasses a good majority of the games that interest me in any given year anymore, and my favorites typically rank among them. These are games that are still today being made the way I remember video games being made back in the glory days of industry innovation: by small, close-knit groups of passionate people who are in it for the fun and satisfaction of creating something special that they themselves believe in and want to play rather than what market tests well and is safe enough to get the support of a massive publisher. And on those occasions when major publishers are willing to support such projects by providing smaller developers with the resources they need to fully realize their visions (while staying the hell of of the development process, I mean), something extra special often results! I want games like this -- games with real heart and soul in them -- to have the visibility that they deserve, and I don't think they'd get it without a dedicated category here at minimum.
In fact, my original proposal went further than simply the creation of a special Indie Game award category. I suggested that there be two winners in each category: a AAA winner and an indie winner (including for Game of the Year), for the same reasons just mentioned, but I guess that was too much of an ask. Still, I'm glad this exists now!
I voted for It Takes Two for all the reasons that have been cited and more. It was my favorite game of the year, and my runner-up choice was Returnal, which was a AA title also created by a small development team. They're tonally very different games, but have in common a passion that just wasn't matched in the AAA market for my taste.
Now to answer the speculation as to whether It Take Two's large margin of victory here will likely continue to be a rule of how this category works in the future, I personally doubt it. I mean It Takes Two won Game of the Year at the Game Awards recently, for example, and is also the overall clear critic favorite of the year, and I think developments like that influence people's buying decisions. I don't think you'll have an analogous situation just every year. Indie games don't win that often at the Game Awards and so forth. Anyway, I've been greatly pleased that such a deserving project from outside the industry proper has been properly rewarded!
Last edited by Jaicee - on 14 January 2022
