The nominees and honorable mentions for the 18th annual Independent Games Festival awards were announced today. One of the most prestigious honors among the indie game community since 1998, this year's crop of some of the year's most creative, enjoyable, and memorable indie games are led by Her Story and Mini Metro, each with four nominations, including the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Following with three nominations each are Undertale, Darkest Dungeon, Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes, and Panoramical, the former three up for top honors as well (with Superhot rounding out the nominees in the Grand Prize category). Winners will join such previous luminaries as Minecraft, Fez, and Papers, Please, among others.

The list of nominees & honorable mentions in each of the seven categories is as follows...

Excellence in Visual Art

IGF_Armello

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

IGF_Beginners_Guide

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

IGF_Superhot

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

IGF_Darkest_Dungeon

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

IGF_Cibele

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

IGF_Circa_Infinity

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

IGF_Her_Story

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)

 

...The awards will take place during the festival on Wednesday, March 16, and will be streamed over Twitch at http://www.twitch.tv/gdca. So, what do you all think of the nominees? There's definitely a lot of gems both upcoming and current among both the nominees and honorable mentions, so make sure to check them out!