As another year has recently ended, true to tradition, we now find ourselves rapidly approaching the time for a new Indie Games Festival (and with it, a batch of lovely competition finalists). Some are already rather well-known, while other – well, let’s just say there are some even I don’t recognize. Oh and surprising no one, UNDERTALE is nominated in three different categories.
Now, before we get to the actual lists, completely ignoring the fact that you’re free to simply scroll past this paragraph, a few important facts: IGF will take place from March 16th through March 18th, 2016 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, as part of another annual event, namely… Game Developers Conference (GDC). Ah, if only I didn’t live ~5.500 miles away, ya know?
But enough of that, because there are finalists to glance at! Finalists include personal favourites such as Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Lumini, Mini Metro and Darkest Dungeon. That and a bunch of really fun-looking games that I, for some reason, have not heard about until now. Very odd, but hey – better late than never, right? And on that note…
Seumas McNally Grand Prize:
Honorable mentions: Affordable Space Adventures (KnapNok Games and Nifflas’ Games);Cibele (Star Maid Games); OXENFREE (Night School Studio); PANORAMICAL (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga); Soft Body (Zeke Virant); That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games);The Beginner’s Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.); and Twelve Minutes (Luis Antonio).
Excellence in Visual Art:
Honorable mentions: Alto’s Adventure (Snowman); Astroneer (System Era Softworks);Epistory – Typing Chronicles (Fishing Cactus); Forkride Grilltime Sloth (Black Pants Game Studio / Sebastian Stamm); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); and Kingdom (noio and Licorice).
Excellence in Design:
Honorable mentions: Chaos Reborn (Snapshot Games); Duskers (Misfits Attic); Gang Beasts(Boneloaf); Imbroglio (Michael Brough); Soft Body (Zeke Virant); and TIS-100 (Zachtronics).
Excellence in Audio:
Honorable mentions: GNOG (KO_OP); Heart Forth, Alicia (Alonso Martin); Inside My Radio(Seaven Studio); Kingdom (noio and Licorice); OXENFREE (Night School Studio); and The Beginner’s Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.).
Excellence in Narrative:
Honorable mentions: Cibele (Star Maid Games); Contradiction (Tim Follin / Baggy Cat Ltd);Orion Trail (Schell Games); OXENFREE (Night School Studio); and The Writer Will Do Something (Tom Bissell and Matthew S. Burns).
Nuovo Award:
- Cibele
- Fantastic Contraption
- Her Story
- Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
- orchids to dusk
- PANORAMICAL
- Progress
- The Beginner’s Guide
Honorable mentions: Affordable Space Adventures (KnapNok Games and Nifflas’ Games);ENOUGH (Cabbibo); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); Sage Solitaire (Zach Gage); Sentree(Glitchnap); TIS-100 (Zachtronics); and Vignettes (Pol Clarissou andArmel Gibson).
Best Student Game:
Honorable mentions: Anarcute (Anarteam); BADBLOOD (NYU Game Center); FAR (Zurich University of the Arts); Gathering Sky (A Stranger Gravity); Not Everything is Flammable(Carnegie Mellon University – Entertainment Technology Center); and Sumer (New York University).
(Source)