The game business increasingly looks like the movie business – 1000 clones of a succesful formula for every 1 interesting game. The Independent Games Festival is one of the places where you can still see creativity in abundance. Gamespot is running an article covering this year’s IGF finalists that’s worth a look. I’ve tried many of the games – so far my favorite is Bontago, but Starshatter is also pretty cool.

It’s interesting to note though how the two games I’ve enjoyed the most are variations on known themes – Bontago is a clever variation on the tetris school of puzzle games, and Starshatter is a well executed space sim. So while I laud IGF for encouraging creativity, I still gravitate towards known game types, while things like Facade, which really does push off in new directions, interests me on an academic level but not so much that I would actually play it. I guess Electronic Arts, purveyors of the same fine game tropes year after year, really does know their customers 😉