The finalists for the 19th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards include Virginia, Hyper Light Drifter and, of course, Inside.
This year more than 650 games were submitted for consideration with the finalists selected by a group of industry experts, each specialising in the relevant disciplines for each category.
Of the 30 IGF finalists a number of games have received multiple nominations. These include Variable State’s Virginia, which is in the mix for Best Audio, Excellence in Narrative, Excellence in Visual Art and The Nuovo Award, and Heart Machine’s Hyper Light Drifter, which is recognised in the Audio and Visual Arts categories as well as being nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.
Also nominated in the same three categories is Inside. It could be a busy night for developers Playdead who are also up for a number of Game Developers Choice Awards.
The ceremony will take place on 1st March 2017 during the Game Developers Conference and will be hosted by Nina Freeman, designer of the 2016 IGF Nuovo Award-winning, Cibele.
Independent Games Festival Award finalists
Best Student Game
- Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor (Sundae Month)
- Lily, Colors of Santa Luz (Lily, Colors of Santa Luz Team)
- Un Pas Fragile (PAF team)
- FAR: Lone Sails (Mr. Whale’s Game Service / Mixtvision)
- Frog Climbers (TeamCrew)
- Bamboo Heart (Sokpop Collective)
Excellence in Audio
- The Flame in the Flood (The Molasses Flood)
- GoNNER (Art in Heart)
- Virginia (Variable State)
- Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
- Everything (David OReilly)
- Inside (Playdead)
Excellence in Design
- Imbroglio (Michael Brough)
- Ultimate Chicken Horse (Clever Endeavour Games)
- Duskers (Misfits Attic)
- Overcooked (Ghost Town Games)
- Event[0] (Ocelot Society)
- Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)
Excellence in Narrative
- Ladykiller in a Bind (Love Conquers All Games)
- 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (iNK Stories)
- Virginia (Variable State)
- Orwell (Osmotic Studios)
- Event[0] (Ocelot Society)
- One Night Stand (Kinmoku)
Excellence in Visual Art
- The Flame in the Flood (The Molasses Flood)
- Inside (Playdead)
- Virginia (Variable State)
- Old Man’s Journey (Broken Rules)
- Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
- She Remembered Caterpillars (jumpsuit entertainment)
Nuovo Award
- Islands: Non-Places (Carlburton)
- Close (Tobias Zarges and Moritz Eberl)
- Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor (Sundae Month)
- Oiκοςpiel, Book I (David Kanaga)
- Everything (David OReilly)
- Virginia (Variable State)
- Mu Cartographer (Titouan Millet)
- Lieve Oma (Florian Veltman)
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
- Inside (Playdead)
- Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe)
- Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)
- Event[0] (Ocelot Society)
- Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
- Overcooked (Ghost Town Games)
GDC attendees can play each nominated finalist and meet with the developersat the IGF Pavilion on the Expo floor of the Game Developers Conference. Both the 2017 IGF Awards and Game Developers Choice Awards are free to attend for all GDC 2017 pass-holders and will also be live-streamed on the official GDC Twitch channel.
