The results are in and UK products are well represented. 3:16 comes in as first runner up in Best Indie Game and Best Production, with other plaudits to go alongside that! Hot War gets a couple of nods and Duty & Honour gets a couple of well deserved mentions.

Well done all.

I've posted verbatim John Kim's awards announcement email.

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Thank you, voters, for your participation in the Indie RPG Awards.
With a slight delay, the awards have been tabulated and posted to
the website -- the results are also included below. I will be
posting news of this in various forums over the next few days.
My apologies for being late on this -- a series of technical
difficulties which taught me lessons for next time.

2008 was the seventh year of the Indie RPG Awards, and the contestants
were particularly strong. As one voter described it, the field showed
"a growing sense of diversification and love of production as
simplistic boundaries of 'trad' and 'indie' as labels of content
rather than production start to fall down." Another simply said
"indie games are breaking through all over."

There were close races for best game and supplement this year, and a
tie for free game! Best Production, on the other hand, was won
hands-down. It seems there are a few names that no one can compete
with in production values, and for this year frequent winner Luke
Crane had teamed up with former winner Mark Smylie's company, Archaia
Press. Most Innovative, though, went appropriately enough to an
author new to the awards. Also, even though the awards are only for
English-speaking games for now, we are starting to see more foreign
entrants. Translations from Norway and France were prominent this
year. The only down side was that there was less buzz about support
from anyone, and many voters left off that category.

============================================================

Indie Game of the Year

The winner with 49 points:

Mouse Guard
* A perfect introductory role-playing game that explains how to play
without taking anything for granted. The amazing art and engaging
premise don't hurt either. A new red box for a new era in gaming.
* In a year without "Sweet Agatha," this would have won walking away, for
its elegant tuning of the BW engine, absolute evocation of the source
material, and supremely stern and confident mood. The indie-gamer's trad
game, done to perfection.
* The elegant handling of the license makes this a true winner.
Collaboration that makes the artwork and themes of the comic a part of
the game are key.
* This game has re-set the bar for game texts, upping the ante where Dogs
in the Vineyard had left it.
* Mouse Guard draws players in with an accessible premise and superbly-
handled licence. It captures their imaginations with stunning
artwork and clear text. It engages their minds with robust rules
that teach them to be a better player. It reduces their Disposition
to zero, accepts no compromise, and makes them love this game!

The first runner-up with 41 points:

3:16 Carnage Among the Stars
* A simple game and an easy game to play. And then, pow!, you're all
officer-hating space marines. It's scary how fast the story comes from
nowhere and rockets the game along.
* Popular and fun, the easiest to run and play game this year.
* A combination of simplicity and emulation in a lovely little package.
Beautiful.

The second runner-up with 22 points:

Hot War
* Exceptional use of theme and mechanics to mutually reinforce the game,
and the reason we should write what we love, not what we know.

Other contestants

Starblazer Adventures - 15 points
* Fudge and FATE continue to develop into a truly engaging system. Spirit
of the Century started this, but Starblazer Adventures continues to
improve it.

Sweet Agatha - 15 points
* The visceral thrill of cutting up my game book is an experience of play
unmatched by any other game I've played.
* Like nothing else before and executed with such stunning vibrancy. Sets
down a marker for a whole new type of play.
* Absolutely exemplifies everything the indie movement should strive for:
genuine freshness, maximum player freedom, brilliantly evoked mood,
elegant design, gorgeous production. A work of art, plain and
simple.
* Kevin Allen Jr. does more to push the boundaries of the form every year
than the rest of us. Simple as that.

Zombie Cinema - 15 points
* Nails the zombie survival horror genre and one shot play. If only there
were more role-playing games able to fit their rules onto a single
folded sheet of paper and still rock the house.
* A fun zombie game that can be played in 20 minutes. I keep this damned
thing in my car at all times just in case life get's slow.
* A deceptively simple mechanic pits player against player in a race
against total destruction. Great pick up game. Hilarious and gritty by
turns. A real accomplishment of design.
* Fun, role-playing, and zombies--all wrapped in a single snug container.
Who could ask for anything more?

In a Wicked Age: sword & sorcery roleplaying - 14 points
* Well-designed, gloriously written and thoroughly elegant sword and
sorcery. IAWA caused an explosion in Oracles in the community.
* Influential, intuitive and evocative, In a Wicked Age... puts the life
back into fantasy role play. Eschewing heavy setting for punchy
situations generation, the game also re-defines the relationships
between the characters and the players. Over shadowed by the catchiness
of the Oracles, extended play of the game has the potential to create
story with the complexity of novelistic or epic structure.
* Vincent has raised the bar again.
* By focusing on serial fiction rather than either simple single stories
or ongoing novels, Baker has managed to do the best homage yet to the
pulpy, hard hitting swords and sorcery genre that we've yet managed to
produce.

Barbarians of Lemuria - 11 points
* This is a great way to do the sword & sorcery genre.

Desolation - 10 points

Houses of the Blooded - 10 points

A Flower for Mara - 9 points
* An outstanding new game that digs into players feelings and puts them
into a well-considered structure.
* A Flower for Mara has a streamlined, focused structure that heads you
straight for the heartbreak of grief, and all the cans of worms that a
family's loss can create. But offers resolution, and even grace, for
characters and players alike.

A Dirty World - 6 points
* A Dirty World is a little bit of a hidden surprise, which doesn't reveal
its full complexity until after you've actually managed to play it. The
layering of secrets, character's whose very personality and morality are
up for grabs and constantly under negotiation, and a gritty noir sense
all work together to form a package of surprising power.

============================================================

Indie Supplement of the Year

The winner with 62 points:

Don't Lose Your Mind
* It took a compelling, disturbing game that seemed complete and made it
better - that's no small feat.
* Great writing and production. Give DRYH a shot in the arm (as if it
needed it).
* Liquid cool. A supplement with more mojo than the original game.

The first runner-up with 60 points:

Magic Burner
* Long awaited Magic supplement for Burning Wheel is comprehensive and
beautifully produced (as ever).
* The Burning Crew have done it again. This time they have put out a book
that not only delves into how magic archetypes work in fantasy
literature but ways to translate that into magical worlds at the
table.
* The Magic Burner takes us under the hood, into the heart of the Burning
Wheel and shows us how, and why, every choice made will affect our play.
A supplement that makes us better gamers.

The second runner-up with 25 points:

Obsidian Portal
* This fills a key niche for play. Having a website for the campaign has
vastly improved play over and over. Obsidian Portal is a key tool for
getting started in this.

Other contestants

Archipelago - 13 points
* Communication, procedure, and rules for the above take center stage
above mechanics in this

Forbidden Tiger Manual - 9 points

============================================================

Best Free Game

The winner with 55 points:

Sea Dracula
* Madness folded up into a page of A4.
* Free legal hilarity with a dancing Giraffe lawyer. What's not to
like?
* Out of left field and totally awesome.
* DANCE!

The first runner-up with 55 points:

Sufficiently Advanced
* Has found a second life and a wider audience now that it's free. Solid
and under-appreciated SF game.
* That this game has gone from being for sale to being for free, is the
clearest sign I've seen that the indie business model needs to be
revised - and that there are too many good games out there. It's worth
every penny it used to cost.
* Excellent premise!
* The best testimonial I can give this game is that for several weeks one
of my friends didn't know it was a free game. He assumed that its
quality and production meant it must have been a game we'd paid for.

The second runner-up with 31 points:

Mutant Future
* The old school revival picks up the pace with this sequel to Labyrinth
Lord. While gonzo old school isn't for everyone, this is a game that
does it best.

Other contestants

Gates & Gorgons - 12 points
* An intriguing twist on the old school revival -- a traditional setting
and situation with a new-school indie game feel.

Shell Shock - 12 points
* A game that digs into the war movie genre, with fast and gritty combat
and freeform flow of the best war movies.

============================================================

Best Support

The winner with 37 points:

Mouse Guard
* A busy and helpful forum really gave anyone new to Mouse Guard a great
deal of support.
* "Best Support" = "Luke."
* The forums and wiki provide boundless support for understanding,
expanding, and outright hacking this newbie-friendly game.

The first runner-up with 23 points:

Don't Lose Your Mind
* Can't we just vote for Fred? He's enormous!

The second runner-up with 18 points:

3:16 Carnage Among the Stars
* Gregor is out there on the forums and I don't know anyone who hasn't
heard of this, or played it.
* A wealth of forum threads, APs, online gaming tools and downloads, as
well as two free supplements mean that 3:16 had a lot of support this
year.
* If someone has a question or query about 3:16, Gregor is there to give
advice and assistance in his usual friendly, open, engaging manner. His
consistently high standards in his dealings with people, in person and
on-line, are to be admired.

Other contestants

Houses of the Blooded - 12 points
* It was nice to see John set up a community for his operatic fantasy
setting. I love how discussions of the ven take place as fantasy
archeology.

Starblazer Adventures - 11 points
* An excellent license, an excellent set of fans, and an enthusiastic set
of authors!

Desolation - 10 points

Mutant Future - 8 points
* The old school revival in general has a ton of support that is often
overlooked, with lots of people contributing.

Arsenal of Heaven - 6 points
* I don't know where Tim gets the time to do all he does in support of his
line of products. Kudos!

Duty & Honour - 6 points
* Regular free mini-supplements gets a vote from me every time!
* With a solid web presence and regular issues of the wonderful 'Duty &
Honour Almanac', Neil does a splendid job of both supporting and
promoting his first published game. His attitude and work ethic should
be a model to other small press publishers.

In a Wicked Age: sword & sorcery roleplaying - 6 points
* Illuminating actual play posts and patient answering of questions on
anyway help greatly to master the intricacies of this seemingly simple
but surprisingly rich game.

Magic Burner - 6 points

============================================================

Best Production

The winner with 64 points:

Mouse Guard
* Superb full-color hardback book, with great art, solid editing and clear
writing. A coffee-table book that is also a manual. Wow.
* Nearly perfect; a triumph of the form in all ways.
* Hard to argue.
* No one else is coming close to making books as pretty as Luke and his
crew make them.
* Gorgeous art. Beautiful layout. Well-crafted, precise text. A dust
jacket that doubles as a map! Above and beyond the call of duty.
* Beautiful.

The first runner-up with 22 points:

3:16 Carnage Among the Stars
* Great cover and contrasting but equally exciting interior art.
* An arresting cover and interior work that perfectly conveys the gritty,
yet satirical world of the game. This one's the complete package.
* Landscape format put to great use with a snappy cover and clear
presentation. Stylish and easy to use.
* Proof that black and white is no handicap to a designer with a
sensibility to convey.

The second runner-up with 17 points:

Hot War
* The images of devastation and despair were excellent, the posters
conveyed both mood and information, and the background art and layout
were also quite well done.

Other contestants

Hellas: Worlds of Sun and Stone - 15 points
* Slick, retro-80s art direction perfectly invokes the game's feel.
* A beautiful envisioning of Greek myth come together with science
fiction. The art is the game.

Starblazer Adventures - 12 points
* Starting with a giant starship rising off into the heavens, the comic
art infuses this with flavor.

Desolation - 10 points

Houses of the Blooded - 9 points
* Storn and Daniel did the heavy lifting to make Houses look even better
than it is.
* Not only a beautifully layed out book, but also a CD of music serves to
invite us into the lost world of the ancient Ven.

Sweet Agatha - 9 points
* Just stunning use of photography. A very mature piece of production.
It's art.
* Full-color magazine style production. Glossy, sexy, interactive and on a
budget. Amazing.

Alpha Omega - 8 points

Serial Homicide Unit - 8 points
* Michael and Kat have done something new here and whether it worked or
not, we will be looking at this game in the coming years very closely to
figure out how to take this idea of an audio game and make it for our
own purposes.

============================================================

Most Innovative Game

The winner with 49 points:

Sweet Agatha
* Redefines what is a roleplaying game with incredible production
values.
* A unique vision - Sweet Agatha blazes a trail and shows us new things to
be done with storytelling and games.
* Takes what we think of interactive fiction and turns it on its head.
Takes what we presume structure that has to have and turns it on its
head. A great example of thinking outside of the box.
* In the often strait-jacketed world of "narrative first" indie games,
this subversive sandbox game breaks the mold, an act symbolized by the
players' physical destruction of the designer's work.
* The design reaches out into the real world and forces you to transgress
a cultural norm in the basic act of playing. How day you ask me to cut
my book?

The first runner-up with 22 points:

In a Wicked Age: sword & sorcery roleplaying
* Combines the hoariest of old-school traditions -- the random encounter
-- with the ultimate in story-building.
* Oracles have redefined the way the game designer's vision and the
creativity of the play group can interact.

The second runner-up with 16 points:

3:16 Carnage Among the Stars
* Introduced Flashbacks and GM opposition economy in an ongoing campaign.
Makes a black and white stat choice, re-introduces Levels and gives
genuine drop in PC replacement. It's taken a host of "established" parts
of RPGs and thrown them in the bin.
* Like 'Duty & Honour', 3:16 makes military roleplaying fun, engaging and
exciting. Its very simple, yet multi-layered, mechanics and game advice
make the game super-easy to pick up and play in minutes as well as
providing all the tools for immensely satisfying long-term play.

Other contestants

Zombie Cinema - 16 points
* Boardgame meets RPG in a tragedy.
* This idea of an RPG that can be played in 20 minutes needs to get out
there into the world.
* A role-playing game that fits within the physical, temporal, and social
space normally reserved for a board game. Accessibility of this level is
great achievement.

A Flower for Mara - 15 points
* This merges together genres of play -- larp, improv, Jeepform; but what
takes it to the next level is how it draws in the real-life experiences
of players.
* Breaking down the doors between play, LARP, Jeep, improv, and RPG -- A
Flower for Mara is a strong step away from the ordinary.

Sea Dracula - 15 points
* Uh, hello? Dancing!

Serial Homicide Unit - 14 points
* A game where the lives and dreams of the victims take center stage over
a killer and the investigators tracking him down - a brilliant approach
and a deeply affecting game.

It's Complicated - 13 points
* No dice, no GM, no resolution system. Is it and RPG, you bet!
* Makes the relationship map into the game engine: elegant and
clever.
* Especially with the online play edition, It's Complicated moves gaming
strongly towards the mainstream and thinks about games as something
other than adventures imagined around a table.

Barbarians of Lemuria - 10 points

A Dirty World - 8 points

Duty & Honour - 8 points
* 'D&H' takes the potential minefield of the military RPG - with all its
problems of rank, hierarchy, missions and combat - and weaves a game
that creates engaging, thrilling stories no matter if your character is
a lowly private or a dashing colonel.

Hot War - 6 points