The Independent Games Festival have announced their line-up of finalists across seven different categories for the IGF Awards which are to be announced during the 2016 Games Developer Conference in San Francisco California.
It must have been a painstaking process for the 400 evaluators to select this small list of finalists from among the more than 750 entrants that were in the running this year. Evaluators are selected from industry professionals based upon their expertise in the distinct categories, according to the IGF.
So what is in the running this year? Toby Fox’s Undertale, the minimalistic train simulator Mini Metro, the gothic turn based RPG Darkest Dungeon and the crime fiction game Her Story, just to name a few.
Check out the full list of nominees after the jump. Broken Joysticks will be attending the Game Developers Conference this March and will bring you as much coverage from the IGF awards & other events as they happen!
Excellence in Visual Art
Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga)
Gnog (KO_OP)
Armello (League of Geeks)
Oxenfree (Night School Studio)
Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios Inc.)Honorable Mentions: Forkride Grilltime Sloth (Black Pants Game Studio [Sebastian Stamm]); Epistory – Typing Chronicles (Fishing Cactus); Kingdom (noio & Licorice); Alto’s Adventure (Snowman); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); Astroneer (System Era Softworks)
Excellence in Narrative
The Beginner’s Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.)
Black Closet (Hanako Games)
That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games)
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
Undertale (Toby Fox)
The Magic Circle (Question)Honorable Mentions: Oxenfree (Night School Studio); Orion Trail (Schell Games); Cibele (Star Maid Games); Contradiction (Tim Follin / Baggy Cat Ltd); The Writer Will Do Something (Tom Bissell and Matthew S. Burns)
Excellence in Design
Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
Kingdom (noio & Licorice)
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games)
Superhot (SUPERHOT)
Infinifactory (Zachtronics)Honorable Mentions: Gang Beasts (Boneloaf); Imbroglio (Michael Brough); Duskers (Misfits Attic); Chaos Reborn (Snapshot Games); TIS-100 (Zachtronics); Soft Body (Zeke Virant)
Excellence in Audio
Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga)
That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games)
Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios Inc.)
Lumini (Speelbaars)
Undertale (Toby Fox)Honorable Mentions: Heart Forth, Alicia (Alonso Martin); The Beginner’s Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.); Gnog (KO_OP); Oxenfree (Night School Studio); Kingdom (noio & Licorice); Inside My Radio (Seaven Studio)
Nuovo Award
The Beginner’s Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.)
Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga)
Fantastic Contraption (Northway Games & Radial Games)
Orchids To Dusk (Pol Clarissou)
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
Cibele (Star Maid Games)
Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games)
Progress (Tim Garbos, Martin Kvale and Joel Nyström)Honorable Mentions: Enough (cabbibo); Sentree (Glitchnap); Affordable Space Adventures (KnapNok Games and Nifflas’ Games); Vignettes (Pol Clarissou, Armel Gibson); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); Sage Solitaire (Zach Gage); TIS-100 (Zachtronics)
Best Student Game
Pitfall Planet (Bonfire Games)
Ape Out (Gabe Cuzzillo)
Beglitched (Jenny Jiao Hsia & Alec Thomson)
Circa Infinity (Kenny Sun)
Orchids To Dusk (Pol Clarissou)
Chambara (team ok)Honorable Mentions: Anarcute (Anarteam); Gathering Sky (A Stranger Gravity); Not Everything is Flammable (DAM: David Shiyang Liu, Alex Hu and Mac Lotze); FAR (Mr. Whale’s Game Service); Sumer (Studio Wumpus); Bad Blood (Winnie Song)
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios Inc.)
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games)
Superhot (SUPERHOT)
Undertale (Toby Fox)Honorable Mentions: The Beginner’s Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.); Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga); Affordable Space Adventures (KnapNok Games and Nifflas’ Games); Twelve Minutes (Luis Antonio); Oxenfree (Night School Studio); That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games); Cibele (Star Maid Games); Soft Body (Zeke Virant)