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Night in the Woods and Baba is You were among the games honoured at the 2018 Independent Game Festival Awards.

Infinite Fall’s Night in the Woods won the prestigious Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 20th annual IGF Awards. The game also took home the award for Excellence in Narrative.

The award for Excellence in Game Design went to Hempuli’s Baba Is You, which also picked up the award for Best Student Game. Amanita Design’s Chuchel was the surprise winner in the Excellence in Visual Art category, and the Audience Award went to Celeste from Matt Makes Games.

The Nuovo Award – which celebrates experimental game design – was given to Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, and this year’s Excellence in Audio award was presented to Uurnog Uurnlimited.

The annual awards – which were held at the Game Developers Conference, and hosted by League of Geeks’ Trent Kusters – also recognised the achievements of Puppet Pandemonium, which won this year’s Alt.Ctrl.GDC award.

This year’s nominees were selected from nearly 600 entrants. Our warmest congratulations go to every finalist.

IGF Awards Winners and 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)

Last night also saw The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild win Game of the Year at the Game Developers Choice Awards.


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