Published , by Brittany Vincent
Published , by Brittany Vincent
The 2020 Independent Games Festival is coming up soon, just like it does every year, and the list of finalists have finally shown up.
The IGF Awards are slated to take place on March 18, 2020, during this year's Game Developers Conference. It will be hosted by League of Geeks director Trent Kusters, who also hosted the show in 2018. There was intense competition, and over 300 judges pored over 550 entries for this year's show. But in the end, there could only be titles that filled a limited number of slots, and these are the games that made the cut.
The full list is as follows:
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
Eliza (Zachtronics)
A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu)
Untitled Goose Game (House House)
Mutazione (Die Gute Fabrik)
Slay the Spire (Mega Crit Games)
Anodyne 2: Return to Dust (Sean Han Tani & Marina Kittaka)
Honorable Mentions:
Katana ZERO (Askiisoft); Lonely Mountains: Downhill (Megagon Industries); Song of Bloom (Philipp Stollenmayer); Wide Ocean, Big Jacket (Turnfollow); Elsinore (Golden Glitch); Astrologaster (Nyamyam); Heaven's Vault (inkle)
Excellence in Visual Art
Mutazione (Die Gute Fabrik)
Knights and Bikes (Foam Sword)
Void Bastards (Blue Manchu)
Creature in the Well (Flight School Studio)
Eastward (Pixpil)
Stone Story RPG (Martian Rex / standardcombo)
Honorable Mentions: LUNA The Shadow Dust (Lantern Studio); Eastshade (Eastshade Studios); Minute of Islands (Studio Fizbin); Katana ZERO (Askiisoft); Song of Bloom (Philipp Stollenmayer); A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu); Creaks (Amanita Design)
Excellence in Audio
Observation (No Code)
Vectronom (Ludopium)
Astrologaster (Nyamyam)
Knights and Bikes (Foam Sword)
Mutazione (Die Gute Fabrik)
Untitled Goose Game (House House)
Honorable Mentions: Afterparty (Night School Studio); Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to) (Popcannibal); Manifold Garden (William Chyr Studio); Alt-Frequencies (Accidental Queens); Don't Look (Don't Look Team); Lonely Mountains: Downhill (Megagon Industries); Tales From Off-Peak City Vol. 1 (Cosmo D)
Excellence in Design
Katana ZERO (Askiisoft)
Lonely Mountains: Downhill (Megagon Industries)
Slay the Spire (Mega Crit Games)
A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu)
Elsinore (Golden Glitch)
Patrick's Parabox (Patrick Traynor)
Honorable Mentions: Guildlings (Sirvo Studios); Nauticrawl (Andrea Interguglielmi); Blabyrinth (Sleeping Beast Games); Children of Morta (Dead Mage); Void Bastards (Blue Manchu); Untitled Goose Game (House House); Creature in the Well (Flight School Studio)
Excellence in Narrative
Mutazione (Die Gute Fabrik)
Heaven's Vault (inkle)
Elsinore (Golden Glitch)
Wide Ocean, Big Jacket (Turnfollow)
Eliza (Zachtronics)
LIONKILLER (Sisi Jiang)
Honorable Mentions: American Election (Greg Buchanan); Night Call (Monkey Moon, BlackMuffin); Astrologaster (Nyamyam); A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu); Adventures With Anxiety! (Nicky Case); Observation (No Code)
Nuovo Award
Tales From Off-Peak City Vol. 1 (Cosmo D)
Infini (Barnaque)
The Space Between (Christoph Frey)
Life Tastes Like Cardboard (Demensa)
Promesa (Julián Palacios)
Song of Bloom (Philipp Stollenmayer)
The Longing (Studio Seufz)
PAGAN: Autogeny (Oleander Garden)
Honorable Mentions: Astrologaster (Nyamyam); Elsinore (Golden Glitch); Fit for a King (Brent Ellison & Tanya X. Short); My Exercise (Atsushi Wada, Ryoya Usuha, Nobuaki Doi); Where the Bees Make Honey (Brian Wilson); Smile For Me (Gabe Lane and Yugo Limbo / LimboLane)
Best Student Game
Orbital Bullet (SmokeStab)
A Juggler's Tale (kaleidoscube)
Forgotten (Mutiny Games)
Neon Beats (OKYO Games)
BORE DOME (Goblin rage)
Nothing In Sight (Nothing In Sight Team)
Honorable Mentions: Unhatched (Filip Loster); Du Rejser (You Travel) (Victor Selnæs Breum + Katinka); Trail Mix (Puzzsoft); Where the Bees Make Honey (Brian Wilson); Northbound (Johannes Köberle & Arno Justus); Evergreen Blues (David Su and Dominique Star)
Winners are set to receive over $20,000 of prizes across different categories, including the $10,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize. All finalists will receive a $1,000 stipend.
Be sure to check in at Shacknews when the IGF Awards go down for all the latest happenings, and congratulations to all the nominees!