Informa Tech, organizers of the 2024 Game Developers Conference (GDC) have revealed the finalists for the 26th annual awards ceremony of the Independent Games Festival (IGF), the longest running festival, summit and showcase celebrating independent games and their creators. The IGF is part of the 2024 Game Developers Conference, which will be held in-person at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center from March 18 – 22. 

Leading the nominations is Venba from Visai Games with four nominations, followed by five other finalist titles who share the distinction of having three nominations apiece. Venba from Visai Games is nominated for Excellence in Audio, Narrative, Visual Art and for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Venba is a narrative cooking game in which players experience life as an Indian mom who has immigrated to Canada with her family in the 1980s and weaves together conversations and food to tell her family’s stories of love, loss and more. The other three-time nominees are 1000xRESIST by Fellow Traveller, A Highland Song by Inkle, Anthology of the Killer by Thecatamites, COCOON by Annapurna Interactive and Mediterranea Inferno by Santa Ragione, all of which are nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize alongside Venba. 

In addition to the categories listed below, the Audience Award is welcoming the GDC audience to weigh in on their favorite independent game of the year, and the public can cast their vote from the Audience Award ballot located here.

After an initial assessment completed by hundreds of judges, over 500 entries for the 2024 IGF Awards were distributed to a diverse set of expert jurors from across the games industry for final consideration. This is a special aspect of the IGF Awards as it puts the power in the hands of current video game professionals, allowing them to vote and decide on the best independent games of the year. The juries for each individual category (Audio, Visual, Student, Nuovo, Design, Narrative and Seumas McNally) then selected the finalists after playing, discussing and meticulously evaluating them. 

The winners will be announced during the Independent Games Festival Awards, taking place at the 2024 Game Developers Conference (GDC) on Wednesday, March 20 (with a simultaneous broadcast on GDC Twitch). The IGF Awards ceremony immediately precede the Game Developers Choice Awards, which recognizes the best games of the year across all sections of video game development. All GDC 2024 pass-holders can attend both the Game Developers Choice Awards and IGF ceremonies in person at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. 

The full list of finalists for each category of the 2024 Independent Games Festival, along with "honorable mentions," is as follows:

Best Student Game

• goodbye.monster (Monster Team)
• Once Upon a Jester (Bonte Avond / Crunching Koalas)
• Pile Up! (Remoob / Catoptric Games, IndieArk)
• Planetka (TeTerka)
• RAM: Random Access Mayhem (Xylem Studios)
• TRY AGAIN (the Rejects)

Honorable Mentions:

• A Day With Mochi (San Felicete Studio / Rubika Supinfogame), Barkane: The Folds of Calamity (Chase O'Brien & VGDev), Birds Aren't Real: The Game (USC Games), Cyberside Picnic (Michael Luo / Cathode Radiator), Entangled (Fibula Studio), Lime Juice (Benbees), Re:Fresh (Merge Conflict Studio)

Excellence in Audio

• A Highland Song (Inkle)
• COCOON (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive)
• Nour: Play With Your Food (Terrifying Jellyfish / PANIC)
• Rhythm Doctor (7th Beat Games / 7th Beat Games, indienova)
• Tchia (Awaceb / Kepler Interactive)
• Venba (Visai Games)

Honorable Mentions:

• Anthology of the Killer (Thecatamites, Tommy Tone, A. Degen / Thecatamites), El Paso, Elsewhere (Strange Scaffold), Let's! Revolution! (Antfood, BUCK / Hawthorn Games, BUCK), Planet of Lana         (Wishfully / Thunderful Publishing), Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Summerfall Studios / Humble Games)

Excellence in Design

• Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc / Focus Entertainment)
• Cobalt Core (Rocket Rat Games / Brace Yourself Games)
• COCOON (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive)
• Cryptmaster (Paul Hart, Lee Williams, Akupara Games / Akupara Games)
• Final Profit: A Shop RPG (Brent Arnold)
• Isles of Sea and Sky (Cicada Games, Jason Newman, Craig Collver / Cicada Games, Jason Newman, Gamera Game)

Honorable Mentions:

• 20 Small Mazes (FLEB), Peaks of Yore (Anders Grube Jensen / TraipseWare), Price of Flight (WATERBOX), Timberborn (Mechanistry)

Excellence in Narrative

• 1000xRESIST (Sunset Visitor / Fellow Traveller)
• A Highland Song (Inkle)
• Mediterranea Inferno (Lorenzo Redaelli, Eyeguys / Santa Ragione)
• The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (Deconstructeam / Devolver Digital)
• The Wreck (The Pixel Hunt)
• Venba (Visai Games)

Honorable Mentions:

• Goodbye Volcano High (KO_OP), Saltsea Chronicles (Die Gute Fabrik / Die Gute Fabrik), Slay the Princess (Black Tabby Games), Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Summerfall Studios / Humble Games) The Archivist and the Revolution (Autumn Chen)

Excellence in Visual Arts

• Anthology of the Killer (Thecatamites, Tommy Tone, A. Degen / Thecatamites)
• Clash: Artifacts of Chaos (ACE Team / Nacon)
• Darkest Dungeon II (Red Hook Studios)
• Little Goody Two Shoes (AstralShiftPro LDA, AstralShift / Square Enix)
• Phonopolis (Amanita Design)
• Venba (Visai Games)

Honorable Mentions

• 30 Birds (RAM Games, Ram Ram, Business Goose Studios / Ram Ram, ARTE France), Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc / Focus Entertainment), Goodbye Volcano High (KO_OP), NIDUS (Caleb Wood), SLUDGE LIFE 2 (Terri Vellmann, DOSEONE / Devolver Digital)

Nuovo Award

• 1000xRESIST (Sunset Visitor / Fellow Traveller)
• Anthology of the Killer (Thecatamites, Tommy Tone, A. Degen / Thecatamites)
• Cryptmaster (Paul Hart, Lee Williams, Akupara Games / Akupara Games)
• Kevin (1997-2077) (Kevin Du)
• Mediterranea Inferno (Lorenzo Redaelli, Eyeguys / Santa Ragione)
• NIDUS (Caleb Wood)
• The Forest Cathedral (Wakefield Interactive LLC, Brian Wilson / Whitehorn Games)

Honorable Mentions:

• BlueSuburbia (alienmelon), goodbye.monster (Monster Team), In Stars and Time (insertdisc5 / Armor Games Inc.), Nour: Play With Your Food (Terrifying Jellyfish / PANIC), The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (Deconstructeam / Devolver Digital)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

• 1000xRESIST (Sunset Visitor / Fellow Traveller)
• A Highland Song (Inkle / Inkle)
• Anthology of the Killer (Thecatamites, Tommy Tone, A. Degen / Thecatamites)
• COCOON (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive)
• Mediterranea Inferno (Lorenzo Redaelli, Eyeguys / Santa Ragione)
• Venba (Visai Games)

Honorable Mentions:

• Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc / Focus Entertainment), Final Profit: A Shop RPG (Brent Arnold), Goodbye Volcano High (KO_OP), In Stars and Time (insertdisc5 / Armor Games Inc.), Rhythm Doctor (7th Beat Games / 7th Beat Games, indienova), Tchia (Awaceb / Kepler Interactive), The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (Deconstructeam / Devolver Digital)

The Independent Games Festival has served as a springboard for breakthrough independent titles. Previous IGF prize winners include Betrayal at Club Low, Neon White, TUNIC, Umurangi Generation, A Short Hike, Return of the Obra Dinn, Quadrilateral Cowboy, Night in the Woods, Her Story, and many more critical and cultural hits.

For more information on the 2024 Independent Games Festival, including submission specifics and frequently asked questions, please visit the official Independent Games Festival website.