The D-Infinity Independent Game Awards!

I’m very pleased to say that I was selected to be one of the judges for 2016’s D-Infinity Independent Game Awards. This project is a competition aimed to discover some of the best independent game products of the year. In addition, 2016 is the first, inaugural session of these awards. I’m proud to help introduce this award into the tabletop gaming industry!

Obviously there is a strong RPG element to this award system, partly because it was founded by RPG enthusiasts and professionals like myself, Joe Charles, Michael O. Varhola, and Jason Yarnell. That being said, the awards are looking at board games, card games, and gaming accessories in addition to RPG products.

There are only a few days left to vote on these awards, so please check out the site! One thing that is special about these awards is how the votes are counted. Basically, there are five judges weighing in on the submissions; the four I’ve named already, and the popular vote forming the fifth judge! This is a great way to look at a gaming award, since it allows the popular vote to have an impact, but does not reduce the award to simply going to the most influential gaming company involved in the program.

It’s been very interesting going through all the various products submitted for judgement this year. I’ve had to weigh the impact of content, writing, editing, production values (such as artwork and layout), and the theme or ‘essence’ of a particular work. There’s also some intangibles to look at, such as the sense of passion and excitement evident in the work from its creators.

I hope the D-IIGA awards continue and I look forward to seeing how things work out during Comicpalooza! The award ceremony itself will be broadcast from the convention for anyone to watch, so keep an eye out for it!