“Indie Game Fever: Meet the Trailblazing Nominees Shaping 2025!”

Defining indie sensation of the previous year, Balatro? Not selected for the IGF main award. Animal Well, which transformed nearly all game writers into relentless enthusiasts? Not nominated for anything. UFO 50, a remarkable and significant achievement overlooked by our own 2024 shortlist? It did receive a Grand Prize nomination.

I’m not disputing any of the nominees or omissions in this year’s Independent Games Festival Awards, hence I don’t mention the aforementioned to provoke controversy. Rather, I review this list and ponder: wow, the world of video games has become more diverse than before, to the extent that there is no prevalent cultural narrative even within the particular realm of indie gaming.

For those unfamiliar: the IGF Awards have been held for 26 years, with the winners disclosed at GDC. The nominees, along with the winners, are determined by a group of developers and journalists. It’s one of the few video game awards that doesn’t merely appear to be a simple popularity contest.

Leading the nominations is Jenny Jiao Hsia’s Consume Me with five nods, followed closely by soccer narrative Despelote with four, while the nun-themed Indika received three. To be fair, Animal Well garnered several honorable mentions. Here’s the complete list:

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)

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 TestGame (Lizardry / PLAYISM)

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)