The organisers of this year’s Independent Games Festival (IGF) have announced the finalists for the 2018 IGF Awards.
The awards – which will be held during March’s Game Developers Conference – recognise the achievements of the most influential and acclaimed independent video games. This year’s crop of nominees was selected from nearly 600 entries.
Finalists include Heat Signature from Suspicious Developments, Cuphead from StudioMDHR, and Infinite Fall’s Night in the Woods.
Each of the 35 nominees will be playable at the IGF Pavilion located at the 2018 GDC Expo floor from March 21-23. The awards ceremony itself will be held at the Moscone Center on March 21, and will be hosted this year by Armello designer, Trent Kusters.
Last year’s winners included The Flame and the Flood, Virginia, and Quadrilateral Cowboy, which took home the prestigious Seumas McNally Grand Prize.
Here’s the full list of awards nominees. Head over to the IGF website to see the games and studios receiving Honourable Mentions in each categories.
Independent Games Festival (IGF) Nominees
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
- Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (Bennett Foddy)
- Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
- West of Loathing (Asymmetric Publications)
- Into the Breach (Subset Games)
- Heat Signature (Suspicious Developments)
- Baba is You (Hempuli)
Excellence in Visual Art
- Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
- Cuphead (StudioMDHR)
- Echo (ULTRA ULTRA)
- Luna (Funomena)
- The Gardens Between (The Voxel Agents)
- Chuchel (Amanita Design)
Excellence in Audio
- Tormentor X Punisher (e-studio)
- Cuphead (StudioMDHR)
- Vignettes (Skeleton Business)
- Rain World (VIDEOCULT)
- Uurnog Uurnlimited (Nifflas Games)
- Celeste (Matt Makes Games)
Excellence in Design
- Into the Breach (Subset Games)
- Shenzhen I/O (Zachtronics)
- Wilmot’s Warehouse (Richard Hogg, Ricky Haggett, Eli Rainsberry)
- Baba Is You (Hempuli)
- Uurnog Uurnlimited (Nifflas Games)
- Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (Bennett Foddy)
Excellence in Narrative
- Tacoma (Fullbright)
- Attentat 1942 (Charles University and Czech Academy of Sciences)
- Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (Dim Bulb Games)
- Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
- Butterfly Soup (Brianna Lei)
- Tooth and Tail (Pocketwatch Games)
Nuovo Award
- Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (Bennett Foddy)
- Tarotica Voo Doo (TPM.CO SOFT WORKS)
- 10 Mississippi (Karina Popp)
- A Mortician’s Tale (Laundry Bear Games)
- Cosmic Top Secret (klassefilm)
- Everything Is Going to Be OK (Nathalie Lawhead)
- Baba Is You (Hempuli)
- Kids (Playables)
Best Student Game
- IO Interloper (DANG!)
- Don’t Make Love (Maggese)
- Penny Blue Finds a Clue (DigiPen Team Cactus Curse)
- We Were Here (Total Mayhem Games)
- Baba Is You (Hempuli)
- Guardian of the Gears (DigiPen Team Studio 76)
