The results are in for the Independent Games Festival this year. While two games, Inscryption and Unpacking, have clearly taken the lead in terms of nominations, there are plenty of other stand outs including Loop Hero, Sable, Cruelty Squad, and Overboard!
The festival was founded in 1998 to celebrate independent developers. Winners are announced every year at the Game Developers Conference which will be taking place between March 21 and 25 this time around. There will be $50,000 in prizes up for grabs.
Developers are able to submit their game to a committee of industry representatives throughout the year. This committee then produces a list of nominees for several different categories before a jury narrows things down to six finalists within each category. The jury also picks a number of honorable mentions.
The complete list of finalists and honorable mentions can be found below.
Best Student Game
- Cai Cai Balão (Look Up Games)
- Abriss - build to destroy (Randwerk Games)
- Letter Lattice (Ethan Zarov)
- Smalllife (Yueqi Wu)
- Nainai's Recipe (Fan Fang and Mai Hou)
- Live Adventure (Live Adventure Team)
Honorable Mentions: Astreia's Gift (Femy Nassirou and Hervé Blanchot), There You Are (Funky Dango), The Bleeding Tree (No Input Interactive), Dumpling Love (Parks Staff), Lysfangha (Baptiste Marsac and Daphne Pauchet-Deloffre), Jivana (Team Jivana), Hook Up (Team Hook Up), Come with Me (Xin Ye)
Excellence in Audio
- Toem (Something We Made)
- Unpacking (Witch Beam)
- Jett: The Far Shore (Superbrothers and Pine Scented)
- Mini Motorways (Dinosaur Polo Club)
- Sable (Shedworks)
- Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games)
Honorable Mentions: Severed Steel (Greylock Studios), A Musical Story (Glee-Cheese Studios), Death's Door (Acid Nerve), The Vale: Shadow of the Crown (Falling Squirrel), Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab), Overboard! (Inkle), The Wild at Heart (Moonlight Kids)
Excellence in Design
- Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games)
- Unpacking (Witch Beam)
- Overboard! (Inkle)
- Strange Horticulture (Bad Viking)
- Webbed (Sbug Games)
- Midnight Protocol (LuGus Studios)
Honorable Mentions: Loop Hero (Four Quarters), Unsighted (Studio Pixel Punk), Mini Motorways (Dinosaur Polo Club), Card Shark (Nerial), KeyWe (Stonewheat and Sons), Sunshine Heavy Industries (Daisyowl Games)
Excellence in Narrative
- Last Call (Nina Freeman and Jake Jefferies)
- Neurocracy (Playthroughline)
- Closed Hands (Passenger)
- Overboard! (Inkle)
- Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games)
- Unpacking (Witch Beam)
Honorable Mentions: Card Shark (Nerial), Norco (Geography of Robots), The Big Con (Mighty Yell), Tux and Fanny (Ghost Time Games), Opus: Echo of Starsong (Sigono), Sable (Shedworks), Blackhaven (Historiated Games)
Excellence in Visual Art
- The Eternal Cylinder (ACE Team)
- Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery (Silver Lining Studio)
- Papetura (Petums)
- Fuzz Dungeon (Jeremy Couillard)
- The Wild at Heart (Moonlight Kids)
- Jett: The Far Shore (Superbrothers and Pine Scented)
Honorable Mentions: Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games), A Musical Story (Glee-Cheese Studios), Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab), Saturnalia (Santa Ragione) Stonefly (Flight School Studio), Cris Tales (Dreams Uncorporated and Syck)
Nuovo Award
- Memory Card (Lily Zone)
- Okthryssia and Saturnia's Bureaucratic Adventures (Outlands)
- Space Hole 2020 (Sam Atlas)
- Tux and Fanny (Ghost Time Games)
- Cruelty Squad (Consumer Softproducts)
- Sparkles and Gems (Resnijars)
- Fuzz Dungeon (Jeremy Couillard)
- Cuccchi (Fantastico Studio)
Honorable Mentions: Last Call (Nina Freeman and Jake Jefferies), The Shape of Time (Xpaidia Studio), The Under Presents (Tender Claws), Song of Homunculus (Diamond Ace (Lily Zone and Zoë Sparks), Card Shark (Nerial), The Vale: Shadow of the Crown (Falling Squirrel)
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
- Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games)
- Unpacking (Witch Beam)
- Loop Hero (Four Quarters)
- The Eternal Cylinder (ACE Team)
- Cruelty Squad (Consumer Softproducts)
- Unsighted (Studio Pixel Punk)
Honorable Mentions: Toem (Something We Made), Norco (Geography of Robots), Overboard! (Inkle), Saturnalia (Santa Ragione), Dodgeball Academia (Pocket Trap), Webbed (Sbug Games), Fuzz Dungeon (Jeremy Couillard)
The festival helps to highlight smaller games in contrast to many other awards ceremonies which favor the biggest releases. Independent developers get a little bit of exposure for their game and some well deserved recognition for their artistic achievements. And these are often considerable. Inscryption and Unpacking in particular have both been highly acclaimed for their numerous innovations.