Episode 22: Our Indie Cup Europe '24 Jurors' Debrief

This summer, the good folks over at Indie Cup once again asked three podcasters known for opining at length on the subject of indie games to be jurors at their festival, and once again Liam, Rachel, and Rebecca were all too happy to take part. This time was a little different, however, as instead of the UK having a branch of the festival all to itself like last year, for 2024 Indie Cup held one big festival encompassing all of Europe!

Even though we were only jurors in one category (Critics' Choice, thanks so much again to the organisers for putting far more faith in the professionalism of our opinions than we sometimes do ourselves!), we still looked at literally hundreds of games over the course of the summer — and, now that the results are in, we've gathered together to discuss some of our personal highlights from the festival.

We begin our debriefing, as is only right and fair, with the winner of the Indie Cup Europe '24 Critics' Choice Award and the only double-winner in this year's festival: the very deserving Phonopolis, a charming and visually striking dystopian resistance puzzle game by Amanita Design. We're all genuinely delighted it won, especially since it was the only game we were all equally taken with when playing through this year's shortlist.

We then move on to some worthy runners-up from our category's shortlist: retro-stylised gardening horror Grunn, surreal-yet-wholesome exploration puzzler Henry Halfhead, toy-themed musical sandbox Oddada, historical courtroom mystery based on true events The Darkest Files, and interactive historical fiction drama Two Falls (Nishu Takuatshina).

Finally, we dedicate a little time to just a few of the many games from the Critics' Choice Award longlist that didn't make the final cut, but which at least one of us would have loved to see make it into the final round, including Aquapark Tycoon, Fruitbus, KreatureKind, Nurikabe World, and Sulfur.

Onto hyperfixations and Rachel has been playing The Iron Rig, the latest DLC addition to this podcast's collective 2023 GOTY Dredge, and yup it sure is more Dredge — what more could you ask for? Liam has, if you can believe it, read yet another sad book: Erasure by Percival Everett, best known now as the basis for the Oscar-winning movie American Fiction. (Word of warning: American Fiction is a comedy; Erasure is… decidedly not.) Rebecca, who really shouldn't be allowed to drive this thing because it clearly sends her on a power trip, quickly shouts out American Vandal on Netflix and the forthcoming Ace Attorney Investigations Collection before getting down to her real latest hyperfixation: The Tomb Raider Compendium, a doorstopper collected edition of early-2000s comic books she spent over a decade trying to get hold of, before finally becoming the proud owner of a copy this week.

Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can support the podcast by leaving us a 'like' and nice review on your podcast platform of choice, follow us on Twitter @indieventurepod, and visiting our website: indieventurepodcast.co.uk.