An intense debate erupted on November 13 when The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley announced the nominees for this year’s trophy ceremony. While some people were surprised by Pikachu’s face Star fieldabsence, most people were shocked by one particular title nominated for the Best Indie Game category. Now, after weeks of silence, Cayley has thrown his two cents into the conversation.
You may remember this Diver Dave, a wildly popular fishing and sushi-making adventure game, was one of five nominees for Best Indie Game. The action-control simulator has a lofi pixelated aesthetic that’s true to how many modern indies look. However, when nominees were announced November 13 of this year many people on the Internet noted what Diver Dave was not, in their opinion, an indie game, despite what it looks like. And during a Q&A on Nov. 26, Kayleigh revealed how the game came to be nominated.
The TGA jury is reviewing Diver Dave an indie game
During questions and answers posted on Twitch, Kaley answered a few questions in a chat about The Game Awards, the nominees, and what to expect from the ceremony. After answering chatterbox, who asked about security and world premieres, the Cayleys then took responsibility for the rationale Diver Davenomination of Art. Although he was quite hesitant to answer the question, he did dig into the jury’s position on Diver Dave and issues related to discourse. Skip to 27:05 in the video below:
“Look, that’s a great question,” Kaylee said. “Independent can mean different things to different people, and it’s a pretty broad term, right? I mean, you might argue, “Does independence mean game budget?” Independent means where was the funding source? Is it based on team size? Is it the independent spirit of the game, meaning a smaller game that’s different?” Everyone has their own opinion on this, and we let our jury of 120 media worldwide vote on these awards to decide whether they are independent or not. You know, in other fields sometimes there are [determining factors]. I think there’s a thing in the film industry that says, ‘The budget can’t exceed this dollar amount.’ [if it’s an independent film].’”
Kaley then mentioned two games that people think of as indie: Larian Studios Baldur’s gate 3 and Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding, the latter of which, he was quick to point out, was funded by Sony. And here is ruble. For him, funding and publishing issues make indie classification difficult.
so yes Diver Dave. This game is created by a group called Mintrocket, [so it’s] a smaller game from a smaller group, but [Mintrocket is] part of the Nexon. They are employees of Nexon, which is a very large publishing house. So I think it’s a fair debate and discussion as to whether or not this game is truly independent. You can argue it either way. It’s independent in spirit and that it’s a small game with—I don’t know what budget—relatively small budget, but it’s from a bigger organization, whereas there are other games on this list from much smaller studios. I even like it Dredger or something I think is published by Team17 so it doesn’t matter or not because you have a publisher? It’s a really complicated thing to figure out and come up with hard and fast rules around it, so we let people use their best judgment. You may or may not agree with the choice, but the fact that Diver Dave on that list meant that out of all the indie games that the judges looked at, or what they thought were indie games, this was one of the top five they looked at this year. So I think that’s a good question.
Kaley also touched on the narrative adventure game Thatgamecompany The journeywhich won Best Independent Game at the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards, further highlighting how confusing the category is given that the game and studio are affiliated with Annapurna Games and PlayStation.
“I think it’s fair to say what independence means,” Kaylee said. “For me, why I like that category is another matter, you could get rid of that category, right? — but it’s usually five or six different games that are in that category. And there were years where – sort of Celeste it was up for game of the year and I think it won indie game of the show in 2017 or 2018 – indie games are good enough to be up for game of the year but usually it’s a different set of games and I like we can recognize different games in our show, not just five or ten games nominated in all categories. That’s why I like the idea of this category, but the exact criteria is open to debate and discussion. A long, rambling answer, but hopefully it makes some sense.’
My city has reached out to Kayleigh for comment.
This is a fascinating discussion. In my estimation, the only true indie game in this category, meaning the only game funded, developed and published by the same team, is Sabotage Studio’s tribute JRPG A sea of stars. For now Diver Dave may not be true indie, the TGA judges deem it as such and I guess that’s all that matters. However, Cayley said the sister category, Best Debut Indie Game, is something he’s really proud of because it highlights a team launching their first-ever game. He said they’re “often really independent studios that are just starting out,” so if you’re looking for real up-and-comers, you’ll find them nominated there.
Below are this year’s nominees for Best Indie Game and Best Debut Indie Game for your consideration:
The best independent game
- Cocoon (Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive)
- Diver Dave (mintrocket)
- Dredger (Black Salt Games/Team 17)
- A sea of stars (Studio Sabotage)
- Viewfinder (Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing)
The best debut indie game
- Cocoon (Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive)
- Dredger (Black Salt Games/Team 17)
- Pizza tower (Pizza Tower)
- Venba (All Games)
- Viewfinder (Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing)
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