Independent Games Festival Awards 2022: Inscryption dominates list as nominations for all categories announced

The Independent Games Festival is one of the most prestigious events in the video game industry. The event celebrates independent game developers' imagination, innovation, and effort. It is part of the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry.

The most significant award of the IGF is the Seumas McNally Grand Prize - named after the game programmer Seumas McNally. The award also accompanies a prize of $30,000. Previous winners of this prestigious award include the likes of Outer Wilds, Papers, Please, Return of the Obra Dinn, and Night in the Woods.

The nominees for this year have finally been revealed. Titles from different genres and popularity feature across all the categories. Inscryption and Unpacking bag the highest number of nominations with four each.

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Independent Games Festival Awards 2022: Nominees have arrived

Independent games this year have provided players with experiences that range from - finding your own identity out in the world, a card-based odyssey, unpacking your belongings, or timeless loops. Inscryption and Unpacking were a delight to play during the year and deserve their multiple nominations.

The festival has a total prize pool of $50,000. Various categories celebrate and award the contributions and achievements of the developers. The awards are given on the recommendation of juries selected by an IGF committee.

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SEUMAS MCNALLY GRAND PRIZE

• Inscryption - Daniel Mullins Games
• Unpacking - Witch Beam
• Loop Hero - Four Quarters
• The Eternal Cylinder - ACE Team
• Cruelty Squad - Consumer Softproducts
• Unsighted Studio - Pixel Punk

NUOVO AWARD

• Memory Card - Lily Zone
• Okthryssia and Saturnia's Bureaucratic Adventures - Outlands
• Space Hole 2020 - Sam Atlas
• Tux and Fanny - Ghost Time Games
• Cruelty Squad - Consumer Softproducts
• Sparkles & Gems - Resnijars
• Fuzz Dungeon - Jeremy Couillard
• Cuccchi - Fantastico Studio

EXCELLENCE IN AUDIO

• Toem - Something We Made
• Unpacking - Witch Beam
• Jett: The Far Shore - Superbrothers A/V + Pine Scented
• Mini Motorways - Dinosaur Polo Club
• Sable - Shedworks
• Inscryption - Daniel Mullins Games

EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN

• Inscryption - Daniel Mullins Games
• Unpacking - Witch Beam
• Overboard! - inkle
• Strange Horticulture - Bad Viking
• Webbed - Sbug Games
• Midnight Protocol - LuGus Studios

EXCELLENCE IN NARRATIVE

• Last Call - Nina Freeman and Jake Jefferies
• Neurocracy - Playthroughline
• Closed Hands - Passenger
• Overboard! - inkle
• Inscryption - Daniel Mullins Games
• Unpacking - Witch Beam

EXCELLENCE IN VISUAL ART

• The Eternal Cylinder - ACE Team
• Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery - Silver Lining Studio
• Papetura - Petums
• Fuzz Dungeon - Jeremy Couillard
• The Wild at Heart - Moonlight Kids
• Jett: The Far Shore - Superbrothers A/V + Pine Scented

BEST STUDENT GAME

• Cai Cai Balão - Look Up Games
• Abriss - build to destroy - Randwerk Games eG
• Letter Lattice - Ethan Zarov
• SmallLife - Yueqi Wu
• Nainai's Recipe - Fan Fang, Mai Hou
• Live Adventure - Live Adventure Team

The IGF will be hosted during GDC 2022, which will be held in San Francisco from March 21-25. Fans of the indie gaming scene should tune in to find out which titles make it big.