The Independent Games Festival has announced the nominees for their 18th annual awards, and two very different games lead the pack as Mini Metro, a tranquil public transportation sim, and Her Story, a detective story that uses 90s-era full motion video, will both be competing for the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize.”
The minimalist Mini Metro collected three other nominations including “Excellence In Visual Art,” “Excellence In Design,” and “Excellence In Audio.” Meanwhile, Her Story also racked up three additional nominations including “Excellence In Narrative,” “Excellence In Design,” and the “Nuovo Award.” Both games will be competing for the “Grand Prize” against Darkest Dungeon, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Superhot, and Undertale.
The 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards will be held on Wednesday, March 16, during this year’s Game Developers Conference. If you aren’t going to be in San Francisco to attend the show in person, you can watch the festivities live through Twitch. However, if you are attending GDC 2016, all of this year’s finalists will be playable on the show floor at the IGF Pavilion.
A complete list of the nominees and honorable mentions for the 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards can be found after the break.
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
- Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
- Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios)
- Her Story (Sam Barlow)
- Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games)
- Superhot (SUPERHOT)
- Undertale (Toby Fox)
Honorable Mentions
The Beginner’s Guide (Everything Unlimited), Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo and 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)
Excellence In Visual Art
- Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
- Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo and David Kanaga)
- Gnog (KO_OP)
- Armello (League of Geeks)
- Oxenfree (Night School Studio)
- Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios)
Honorable Mentions
Forkride Grilltime Sloth (Black Pants Game Studio: Sebastian Stamm), Epistory: Typing Chronicles (Fishing Cactus), Kingdom (noio and Licorice), Alto’s Adventure (Snowman), Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play), Astroneer (System Era Softworks)
Excellence In Narrative
- The Beginner’s Guide (Everything Unlimited)
- 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 and Baggy Cat), The Writer Will Do Something (Tom Bissell and Matthew S. Burns)
Excellence In Design
- Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
- Kingdom (noio and Licorice)
- Her Story (Sam Barlow)
- Keep Talking and 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 and David Kanaga)
- That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games)
- Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios)
- Lumini (Speelbaars)
- Undertale (Toby Fox)
Honorable Mentions
Heart Forth, Alicia (Alonso Martin), The Beginner’s Guide (Everything Unlimited), Gnog (KO_OP), Oxenfree (Night School Studio), Kingdom (noio and Licorice), Inside My Radio (Seaven Studio)
Nuovo Award
- The Beginner’s Guide (Everything Unlimited)
- Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo and David Kanaga)
- Fantastic Contraption (Northway Games and Radial Games)
- Orchids To Dusk (Pol Clarissou)
- Her Story (Sam Barlow)
- Cibele (Star Maid Games)
- Keep Talking and 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 and 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 and 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)
