This year’s Independent Games Festival Awards include a number of repeat entries as well as player-favourite efforts.
By far the favourite entry so far is Wii U eShop title Little Inferno, a playful cultural critique which has players burning up items to score points to burn more items – it sounds pointless but is actually super fun, and I’m not sure if that means it has succeeded or failed. Regardless, it’s in the running for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize , the Nuovo Award, and Technical Excellence, and received an honorable mention in a further two categories.
Close behind comes bleak economic sim Cart Life with three nominations, then retro murder adventure Hotline Miami with two nominations and an honorable mention. Kickstarted sci fi rogue-like FTL also scored two nominations, as did Auntie Pixelante’s deeply personal Dys4ia.
It’s interesting how many quite new games made it into either nominations this year, such as Semi Secret’s Hundreds, only just launched on the App Store, Tale of Tales’ Bientot l’ete, and the upcoming Gone Home.
It really is an excellent line-up this year, both in terms of absorbing gameplay and artistic achievement, so take a look through the full list below. The 15thy annual Independent Games Featival takes place from March 25 through 29 in San Francisco.
- Seumas McNally Grand Prize
- Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games)
- FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)
- Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)
- Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)
- Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)
- Honorable mentions: Gone Home (The Fullbright Company); Thirty Flights of Loving(Blendo Games); The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe); Super Hexagon (Terry Cavanagh); Starseed Pilgrim (Droqen & Ryan Roth)
- Nuovo Award
(abstract and unconventional game development)
- Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)
- Spaceteam (Henry Smith)
- Dys4ia (Auntie Pixelante)
- Bientot l’ete (Tale of Tales)
- 7 Grand Steps (Mousechief)
- MirrorMoon (SantaRagione + BloodyMonkey)
- VESPER.5 (Michael Brough)
- Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)
- Honorable mentions: Renga (wallFour); Starseed Pilgrim (Droqen & Ryan Roth); Frog Fractions (Twinbeard); Thirty Flights of Loving (Blendo Games); The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)
- Excellence In Visual Art
- Incredipede (Northway Games and Thomas Shahan)
- Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)
- Guacalamelee! (Drinkbox Studios)
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (Asteroid Base)
- Year Walk (Simogo)
- Honorable mentions: Fly’n (Ankama Play); Eleven (Christoffer Hedborg, Datahowler); The Bridge (Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda); Thomas Was Alone (Mike Bithell, David Housden and Danny Wallace); Hundreds (Semi Secret feat. aeiowu)
- Excellence In Narrative
- Thirty Flights of Loving (Blendo Games)
- Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)
- Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)
- Dys4ia (Auntie Pixelante)
- Gone Home (The Fullbright Company)
- Honorable mentions: Goblet Grotto (thecatamites, j chastain, NEW VADERS); Analogue: A Hate Story (Christine Love); Papo & Yo (Minority Media); The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe); 7 Grand Steps (Mousechief)
- Technical Excellence
- StarForge (CodeHatch)
- Perspective (DigiPen Widdershins)
- Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)
- Intrusion 2 (Aleksey Abramenko)
- LiquidSketch (Tobias Neukom)
- Honorable mentions: Mobiloid (Monty Melby); Skulls Of The Shogun (17-BIT); Foldit (University of Washington); 140 (Jeppe Carlsen); Gateways (Smudged Cat Games)
- Excellence In Design
- Samurai Gunn (Beau Blyth)
- FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)
- Starseed Pilgrim (Droqen & Ryan Roth)
- Super Hexagon (Terry Cavanagh)
- Super Space ______ (David Scamehorn & Alexander Baard/DigiPen)
- Honorable mentions: Spaceteam (Henry Smith); Helix (Michael Brough); Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation); Rymdkapsel (Martin Jonasson, Grapefrukt Games); Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games)
- Excellence In Audio
- Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)
- Bad Hotel (Lucky Frame)
- 140 (Jeppe Carlsen)
- Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games)
- Pixeljunk 4AM (Q-Games)
- Honorable mentions: Thomas Was Alone (Mike Bithell, David Housden and Danny Wallace); Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation); Gone Home (The Fullbright Company); Fract OSC (Phosfiend Systems); Dust: An Elysian Tale (Humble Hearts)
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