2016 Independent Games Festival debuts finalists

The Independent Games Festival (IGF) judges have announced the slate of finalists for the esteemed 18^th annual awards, which honors the most influential, innovative and exemplary projects in independent game development.

After an initial round of judging by over 400 evaluators, the more than 750 entries for the 2016 IGF Awards were distributed to a group of experts from across the industry for final consideration. These expert juries specializing in distinct disciplines for each category then selected the IGF finalists after playing, discussing and rigorously evaluating them.

Among the slate of artfully crafted titles, a few projects in particular have received award nominations in multiple categories, including Dinosaur Polo Club’s minimalistic subway layout game Mini Metro, and Sam Barlow’s engrossing crime fiction game Her Story.

Other titles which have received multiple nominations and honorable mentions include Red Hook Studios’ challenging roguelike turn-based RPG with a gothic theme, Darkest Dungeon, the mesmerizing audio-visual musical adventure game by Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga, Panoramical, Toby Fox’s subversively non-violent old-school RPG, Undertale, and Numinous Games’ deeply personal and emotional journey through a young boy’s cancer treatment, That Dragon, Cancer.

The winners of the IGF Awards will be announced at the Independent Games Festival Awards which take place the evening of Wednesday, March 16th at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center. The IGF Awards will immediately precede the Game Developers Choice Awards, which recognizes the best games of the year across all sections of video game development.

Winners of the IGF Awards will also receive over $50,000 of prizes in various categories, including the $30,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Both the IGF Awards and the Game Developers Choice Awards will be livestreamed on Twitch at the following link on March 16th: http://www.twitch.tv/gdca

The full list of finalists for each category of the 2016 Independent Games Festival, with additional "honorable mentions," is as follows:

Excellence in Visual Art

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

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