Integrity – defined as moral fortitude, or the act of removing your beloved indie roguelike from The Game Awards nominations. Fans are pleading with the pseudonymous Megabonk solo developer John Megabonk, or Vedinad, to reconsider, but Mr. Bonk won't be swayed.
"I'm withdrawing from The Game Awards," they announce on Twitter in a November 18 post. "It's an honor and a dream for Megabonk to be nominated for TGA, but unfortunately i don't think it qualifies for the category 'Debut Indie Game.'" Other nominees in the Debut Indie Game category include superhero drama Dispatch and French JRPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which received a history-making total of 12 nominations.
"I've made games in the past under different studio names, so Megabonk is not my debut game," Bonk explains. The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley confirms in his own Twitter post that Megabonk has been removed from the Debut Indie Game nomination list, since John Megabonk is apparently actually "an established solo developer who had been presenting himself as a new creator."
"He'll share more about his story when he's ready, but we respect that he didn't want to take recognition away from other debut teams," Keighley says.
But – fans argue – is dropping out of The Game Awards actually justice? "Wait until you hear about 'indie' games in the indie category that are backed by multi-billion-dollar corps," says one reply to Mr. Megabonk's post, with nearly 3,000 likes as of writing.
Dispatch developer AdHoc Studios and Clair Obscur studio Sandfall Interactive are indeed both independent studios – but not in the sense that "indie" means "do-it-yourself" in the basement. Both AdHoc and Sandfall are considerably larger operations than Megabonk's, seemingly, one guy on the computer. Both Dispatch and Clair Obscur feature celebrity cameos, hundreds of names in their credits, and likely the studio funds to make these miracles happen.
But Megabonk stands for values. It represents bonking honesty. "you should vote for another one of the amazing debut titles, they are all amazing games!" concludes its dev. "thanks again! new megabonk update coming soon."
