Poor showing for UK indies as US dominates IGF awards

[Update: Thomas Was Alone developer Mike Bithell has posted a response to the story: IGF, and why it doesn’t matter where the nominees come from.]

The UK and other European countries have been nominated for just a handful of awards at the 2013 Independent Games Festival as the US streaks ahead.

Twenty-eight studios from across the world have been nominated for honours at the prestigious event, with 12 of them coming from the US alone.

Only three UK developers were nominated for awards, with Terry Cavanagh nominated for Excellence in Design for Super Hexagon, Lucky Frame’s Bad Hotel up for Excellence in Audio and Michael Brough’s Vesper.5 in the running for the Nuovo Award.

Other UK-developed indie games including Mike Bithell’s Thomas Was Alone and Smudged Cat Games’ Gateways were noted as honourable mentions, but the number of developers nominated is down significantly from last year’s eight in which the UK dominated the event.

Despite a poor showing compared to last year, the UK was still joint third with Sweden in taking individual award nominations.

The US however has steamed ahead with 21 individual award nominations, with Canada taking the second most nominations at five.

The number of nominees of course doesn’t mean the US will dominate the awards themselves, but it is a clear sign that North America is steaming ahead in the indie scene and leaving the UK and Europe behind.

You can see our full global league table of this year’s IGF finalists here.