Return of the Obra Dinn leads the 2019 Independent Games Festival nominations.
Organisers of the Independent Games Festival have announced the nominees for the 21st annual IGF awards ceremony. The awards – which highlight the most influential and innovative independent video games of the past year – will be held during the Game Developers Conference on March 20, 2019.
Lucas’s Pope’s acclaimed insurance and murder adventure, Return of the Obra Dinn, is nominated in five categories, including the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.
Fictiorama Studio’s Do Not Feed The Monkeys is also up for the Grand Prize, plus the Nuovo Award, and the Excellence in Design award. Sandboarding mobile game, Alto’s Odyssey, is nominated in the Excellence in Visual Art, and Audio categories. Opus Magnum, What the Golf?, and Wandersong are among the other nominees.
There were over 500 entries for this year’s awards, with the submissions screened by a panel of 300 judges, and the finalists determined by juries in each individual category. Winners will receive more than $50,000 in prizes, with $30,000 going to the Grand Prize recipient.
This year’s IGF awards ceremony will be hosted by former winner, Meg Jayanth, writer of 80 Days. Here is the full list of finalists.
2019 Independent Games Festival nominees
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
- Minit (Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Jukio Kallio & Dominik Johann)
- Opus Magnum (Zachtronics)
- Noita (Nolla Games)
- Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)
- Hypnospace Outlaw (Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Corey Cochran)
- Do Not Feed the Monkeys (Fictiorama Studios)
Excellence in Visual Art
- Forgotton Anne (ThroughLine Games)
- Alto’s Odyssey (Team Alto)
- Hypnospace Outlaw (Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Corey Cochran)
- Just Shapes & Beats (Berzerk Studio)
- Mirror Drop (Ian Lilley)
- Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)
Excellence in Audio
- ETHEREAL (Nonsense Arts – Nicolás Recabarren and Tomás Batista)
- Hypnospace Outlaw (Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Corey Cochran)
- Moss (Polyarc)
- Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)
- Alto’s Odyssey (Team Alto)
- Paratopic (Arbitrary Metric)
Excellence in Design
- What the Golf? (Triband)
- Do Not Feed the Monkeys (Fictiorama Studios)
- Noita (Nolla Games)
- Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)
- Dicey Dungeons (Terry Cavanagh, Chipzel, and Marlowe Dobbe)
- Opus Magnum (Zachtronics)
Excellence in Narrative
- Wandersong (Greg Lobanov & A Shell in the Pit)
- Genital Jousting (Free Lives)
- Unavowed (Wadjet Eye Games)
- Seers Isle (Nova-box)
- Watch Me Jump (Jeremy Gable)
- Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)
Nuovo Award
- Circle0 (yesyes)
- eCheese Zone (Seemingly Pointless)
- Noita (Nolla Games)
- Mirror Drop (Ian Lilley)
- Black Room (Cassie McQuater)
- Paratopic (Arbitrary Metric)
- Do Not Feed the Monkeys (Fictiorama Studios)
- Nth Dimension[al] Hiking (Zachariah Chandler)
Best Student Game
- It’s Paper Guy! (Paper Team)
- Grace Bruxner Presents: The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game (Grace Bruxner)
- After HOURS (Bahiyya Khan, Claire Meekel, Tim Flusk, Abi Meekel)
- En Garde! (En Garde! Team)
- levedad (solimporta)
- Sole (Gossamer Games)
The 2019 IGF awards ceremony is open to attendees of this year’s Game Developers Conference, which takes place from March 18-22 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.
