The finalists for the 2019 Independent Games Festival award ceremony on March 20th have been introduced, and so they remind me simply how joyful a problem it’s to maintain up with indie improvement. Every class is full of thrilling, inventive endeavours each full or nonetheless in improvement – a reminder that 2018 was an amazing 12 months for games, and 2019 stands to be even higher. Now I’ve simply acquired to maintain monitor of all of them.
Among the headliners for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize are RPS favourites like low-fi groundhog day journey Minit, the wonderful maritime thriller Return Of The Obra Dinn (which Andreas Inderwildi picked apart earlier today) and the weird Hypnospace Outlaw, a deep dive right into a fictional 90s web dream-world. Also within the operating is digital voyeur sim Do Not Feed The Monkeys, and the upcoming physics-driven platform roguelike Noita. Every class is stuffed with thrilling games, although – try the total record on the IGF page here, or beneath.
SEUMAS MCNALLY GRAND PRIZE
Minit (Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Jukio Kallio & Dominik Johann)
Opus Magnum (Zachtronics)
Noita (Nolla Games)
Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)
Hypnospace Outlaw (Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Corey Cochran)
Do Not Feed the Monkeys (Fictiorama Studios)
Honorable Mentions: Wandersong (Greg Lobanov & A Shell within the Pit); Subnautica (Unknown Worlds Entertainment); Mirror Drop (Ian Lilley); Moss (Polyarc); Unavowed (Wadjet Eye Games); Iconoclasts (Joakim Sandberg); Virtual Virtual Reality(Tender Claws); Beat Saber (Beat Games)
EXCELLENCE IN VISUAL ART
Forgotton Anne (ThroughLine Games)
Alto’s Odyssey (Team Alto)
Hypnospace Outlaw (Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Corey Cochran)
Just Shapes & Beats (Berzerk Studio)
Mirror Drop (Ian Lilley)
Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)
Honorable Mentions: Beat Saber (Beat Games); Wandersong (Greg Lobanov & A Shell within the Pit); Subnautica (Unknown Worlds Entertainment); Moss (Polyarc); Iconoclasts(Joakim Sandberg); Guildlings (Sirvo Studios); Paratopic (Arbitrary Metric)
EXCELLENCE IN AUDIO
ETHEREAL (Nonsense Arts – Nicolás Recabarren and Tomás Batista)
Hypnospace Outlaw (Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Corey Cochran)
Moss (Polyarc)
Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)
Alto’s Odyssey (Team Alto)
Paratopic (Arbitrary Metric)
Honorable Mentions: Creaks (Amanita Design); Holedown (grapefrukt games); Pikuniku (Sectordub); The Messenger (Sabotage); Distance (Refract Studios); Wandersong (Greg Lobanov & A Shell within the Pit); Wattam (Funomena)
EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN
What the Golf? (Triband)
Do Not Feed the Monkeys (Fictiorama Studios)
Noita (Nolla Games)
Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)
Dicey Dungeons (Terry Cavanagh, Chipzel, and Marlowe Dobbe)
Opus Magnum (Zachtronics)
Honorable Mentions: Subnautica (Unknown Worlds Entertainment); Carto (SunheadGames); Black Room (Cassie McQuater); JUMPGRID (Ian MacLarty); Mirror Drop (Ian Lilley); Hypnospace Outlaw (Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Corey Cochran); Beat Saber (Beat Games)
EXCELLENCE IN NARRATIVE
Wandersong (Greg Lobanov & A Shell within the Pit)
Genital Jousting (Free Lives)
Unavowed (Wadjet Eye Games)
Seers Isle (Nova-box)
Watch Me Jump (Jeremy Gable)
Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)
Honorable Mentions: Do Not Feed The Monkeys (Fictiorama Studios); The Hex (Daniel Mullins Games)
Speed Dating for Ghosts (Copychaser Games); after HOURS (Bahiyya Khan, Claire Meekel, Tim Flusk, Abi Meekel); Fortune-499 (AP Thomson); Marie’s Room (like Charlie); Tango: The Adventure Game (Gualicho Games)
NUOVO AWARD
Circle0 (yesyes)
eCheese Zone (Seemingly Pointless)
Noita (Nolla Games)
Mirror Drop (Ian Lilley)
Black Room (Cassie McQuater)
Paratopic (Arbitrary Metric)
Do Not Feed the Monkeys (Fictiorama Studios)
Nth Dimension[al] Hiking (Zachariah Chandler)
Honorable Mentions: All Our Asias (Sean Han Tani); Hypnospace Outlaw (Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Corey Cochran); Cyberpet Graveyard (alienmelon); levedad (solimporta); Subserial Network (Aether Interactive); macdows 95(gamebra.in); The Norwood Suite (Cosmo D); Nerve Damage (Dennis Carr)
BEST STUDENT GAME
It’s Paper Guy! (Paper Team)
Grace Bruxner Presents: The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game (Grace Bruxner)
After HOURS (Bahiyya Khan, Claire Meekel, Tim Flusk, Abi Meekel)
En Garde! (En Garde! Team)
levedad (solimporta)
Sole (Gossamer Games)
Honorable Mentions: We Should Talk (HeartBeetStudio); Coffin Rot Brewing Co.(Rosser-McGraw Studio); Fling to the Finish (SplitSide Games); Indecision. (Bilge Kaan); Seasons (David Su and Dominique Star); supertype (Philipp Stollenmayer); Atlas’ Fate: Between Light and Darkness (Baby Robot Games); Marbloid (Supyrb)
I’m shocked to see Noita nominated for therefore many awards, but it surely does seem like a wonderful (if doubtlessly irritating) little bit of physics’y rogueliking. I’m personally rooting for first-person unsettler Paratopic, which I lastly acquired the possibility to play over the vacations. It’s an excellent little horror quick, and whereas it didn’t really feel prefer it had a lot influence at first, I’ve been pondering on and off about it ever since – it will get underneath your pores and skin. We’ll discover out who the winners in every class are on March 20th, though I personally really feel all of the games already out now deserve a trophy – 2018 was wild.
Disclosure: Hypnospace Outlaw, which is within the operating for the IGF grand prize, options narrative design by RPS contributor Xavier Nelson Jr. He nonetheless refuses to inform me what story twists are ready within the last model of the game.
