Leading the pack with five nominations is Consume Me by developers Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, and Ken "coda" Snyder, followed by Despelote which has the distinction of having four nominations. Consume Me is a darkly humorous personal game about creator Jenny Jiao Hsia's relationship with food, drawing from her past experiences with dieting and disordered eating. It’s nominated for Excellence in Design, Excellence in Narrative, Excellence in Visual Arts, the Nuovo Award, and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Despelote, from developers Julián Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena, is a slice-of-life adventure about childhood and the magical grip soccer held over the people of Quito, Ecuador in 2001 that’s been nominated for Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Narrative, the Nuovo Award, and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize

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, almost 500 entries for the 2025 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 category (Audio, Visual, Student, Nuovo, Design, Narrative and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize) 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 2025 Game Developers Conference (GDC) on Wednesday, March 26 (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 2025 pass-holders can attend both the Game Developers Choice Awards and IGF ceremonies in person at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. 

The IGF is part of the 2025 Game Developers Conference, which will be held in person at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center from March 17 – 21. 

The full list of finalists for each category of the 2025 Independent Games Festival, along with "honorable mentions," is as follows:

Best Student Game

• A Dual Ascent (Mountain Toad Entertainment /  Rubika Supinfogame)
• DisplaceMen (Eversea Club / leafaleaves)
• Growth Spurt: A Meandering Intermission into the Afterhours of a Miscalculation (Games for my Computer)
• Slot Waste (Vinny Roca / pickpanpuck productions)
• The WereCleaner (Howlin' Hugs / USC Games)
• Year Unknown (Julian Heuser)

Honorable Mentions:

Cards of Heart (GoodMind Games), Duck Paradox (Magic Games / Midwest Games), Lost Garden (Ori Shany, Yoni Pushett, Ramon Zerem), Perfect World (Michael Overton Brown), Timeworks (Starworks Studios)

Excellence in Audio

• Anger Foot (Free Lives / Devolver Digital) 
• Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic) 
• INDIKA (Odd Meter / 11 bit studios)
• ODDADA (Sven Ahlgrimm, Mathilde Hoffmann, Bastian Clausdorff)
• Thank Goodness You're Here! (Coal Supper / Panic)
• Utopia Must Fall (Pixeljam)

Honorable Mentions:

Animal Well (Billy Basso / Bigmode), Mouthwashing (Wrong Organ / CRITICAL REFLEX),  Pacific Drive (Ironwood Studios / Kepler Interactive),  Rise of the Golden Idol (Color Gray Games / Playstack), UFO 50 (Mossmouth)

Excellence in Design

• Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack)
• Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury) 
• Caves of Qud (Freehold Games / Kitfox Games) 
• Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken "coda" Snyder) 
• Pacific Drive (Ironwood Studios / Kepler Interactive)
• Tactical Breach Wizards (Suspicious Developments)

Honorable Mentions:

Animal Well (Billy Basso / Bigmode), No Case Should Remain Unsolved (Somi), UFO 50 (Mossmouth), LOK Digital (Letibus Design, Icedrop Games / Draknek and Friends), Eigengrau (Martin Mauersics), The Rise of the Golden Idol (Color Gray Games / Playstack)

Excellence in Narrative

• Caves of Qud (Freehold Games / Kitfox Games) 
• Closer the Distance (Osmotic Studios / Skybound Games)  
• Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken "coda" Snyder) 
• Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic) 
• INDIKA (Odd Meter / 11 bit studios)
• No Case Should Remain Unsolved (Somi)

Honorable Mentions:

Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury), Miniatures (Other Tales Interactive), Mouthwashing (Wrong Organ / CRITICAL REFLEX), Tactical Breach Wizards (Suspicious Developments), Thank Goodness You're Here! (Coal Supper / Panic), The Thaumaturge (Fool's Theory / 11 bit studios)

Excellence in Visual Arts

• Children of the Sun (René Rother / Devolver Digital) 
• Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken "coda" Snyder) 
• Hauntii (Moonloop Games / Firestoke) 
• Judero (Talha and Jack Co, J. King-Spooner, Talha Kaya) 
• Nine Sols (RedCandleGames) 
• Thank Goodness You're Here! (Coal Supper / Panic)

Honorable Mentions:

Crow Country (SFB Games), Death of the Reprobate (Joe Richardson), Miniatures (Other Tales Interactive), Tiny Glade (Pounce Light), Ultros (Hadoque / Kepler Interactive) 

Nuovo Award

• Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken "coda" Snyder) 
• Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic) 
• Extreme Evolution: Drive to Divinity (Sam Atlas) 
• Ginger (Kevin Du / lizu ktap)
• individualism in the dead-internet age: an anti-big tech asset flip shovelware rant manifesto (alienmelon) 
• Starship Home (Creature) 
• tapeçaria (tapestry) (mut/moochi (with help from plunderludics working group))
• The Exit 8 (KOTAKE CREATE / Active Gaming Media Inc)

Honorable Mentions:

Arctic Eggs (The Water Museum, cockydoody, abmarnie, Cameron Ginex / CRITICAL REFLEX) , Judero (Talha and Jack Co, J. King-Spooner, Talha Kaya), Onto Maizilind Unto Infinity (Kas Ghobadi, Julián Palacios Gechtman / Kasrah Ghobadi), Price of Flight (WATERBOX), Project Y (Project_Y Production Committee), Refind Self: The Personality Test Game (Lizardry / PLAYISM)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

• Caves of Qud (Freehold Games / Kitfox Games) 
• Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken "coda" Snyder) 
• Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic) 
• INDIKA (Odd Meter / 11 bit studios)
• Thank Goodness You're Here! (Coal Supper / Panic)
• UFO 50 (Mossmouth)

Honorable Mentions:

• Animal Well (Billy Basso / Bigmode)
• Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack)
• Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
• Mouthwashing (Wrong Organ / CRITICAL REFLEX)
• Nine Sols (RedCandleGames) 
• Tactical Breach Wizards (Suspicious Developments)

The Independent Games Festival has served as a springboard for breakthrough independent titles. Previous IGF prize winners include Venba, Anthology of the Killer, Mediterranea Inferno, Cryptmaster, Phonopolis, and many more critical and cultural hits.