The finalists for the Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards have been announced, with some of the year’s best indie games leading the field for nominations.
For some more of the best indie games on PC, check out our list.
First-person mystery-thrillerVirginia leads the field with four nominations, closely followed by Hyper Light Drifter, Inside and Event[0], with three nominations each. Hyper Light Drifter is a challenging but exciting action-RPG;Inside is the successor to the acclaimed Limbo and another chilling puzzle platformer; and Event[0] is a sci-fi narrative exploration game in which you must bond with a lonely computer.
The ceremony will take place on March 1 in San Francisco, and will immediately precede the Game Developers’ Choice (GDC) Awards, which recognise the best games of the year across the whole industry.
The IGF is now in its 19th year, and aims to honour the most influential, innovative and acclaimed projects in independent game development. Both the IGF and GDC Awards will be livestreamed on GDC’s Twitch, if you’d like to watch.
You yourselves can vote for the winner of the IGF Audience Award, for which any of the finalists are eligible. Voting will begin later this month.
The IGF is now in its 19th year, and during its time has recognised the hard work of such landmark indie titles as Papers Please, Braid, World of Goo, Her Story and Minecraft. For more information, check out the IGF website, or follow them on Twitter.
The full list of finalists is as follows:
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)
Honorable Mentions: Awkward Dimensions Redux (StevenHarmonGames); DYO (Team DYO); Code 7 – Episode 0: Allocation (Goodwolf Studio); You Must be 18 or Older to Enter (Seemingly Pointless)
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)
Honorable Mentions: 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (iNK Stories); Kingdom: New Lands (Noio); Dropsy (Tendershoot, A Jolly Corpse); Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor (Sundae Month); Sentris (Timbre Interactive); TumbleSeed (TumbleSeed Team)
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)
Honorable Mentions: She Remembered Caterpillars (jumpsuit entertainment); Elsinore (Golden Glitch Studios); Inside (Playdead); Antihero (Tim Conkling); Replica (Somi); Space Pirate Trainer (I-Illusions)
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)
Honorable Mentions: A Normal Lost Phone (Accidental Queens); The Lion’s Song (Mi’pu’mi Games); Far from Noise (George Batchelor); Inside (Playdead); Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe); Burly Men at Sea (Brain&Brain); Sorcery! 4 (inkle / Steve Jackson)
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)
Honorable Mentions: Inks (State of Play); Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall); Mu Cartographer (Titouan Millet); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); Sundered (Thunder Lotus Games); Un Pas Fragile (PAF team)
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)
Honorable Mentions: Memoir En Code: Reissue (Alex Camilleri); Far from Noise (George Batchelor); Ladykiller in a Bind (Love Conquers All Games); Witchball (S.L.Clark); Project Perfect Citizen (Bad Cop Studios); Wheels of Aurelia (Santa Ragione); Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)
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)
Honorable Mentions: 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (iNK Stories); Orwell (Osmotic Studios); Imbroglio (Michael Brough); Virginia (Variable State); Duskers (Misfits Attic); Oiκοςpiel, Book I (David Kanaga)