Welche Spiele sich für das Finale des diesjährigen Independent Games Festivals qualifizieren konnten, steht nun fest. Für den mit 30.000 Dollar dotierten Hauptpreis (Seumas McNally Grand Prize) sind Mini Metro, Darkest Dungeon, Her Story, Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes, Superhot und Undertale nominiert.

Die 18. Ausgabe des Independent Games Festivals und die Verleihung der Auszeichnungen finden am 16. März im San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center statt und werden unter diesem Link auf Twitch live übertragen.

"Excellence in Visual Art

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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)

The 18th Annual IGF Awards themselves will once again be hosted by Nathan Vella, co-founder & president of Toronto-based independent developer, Capybara Games. Since 2005, the team at Capy have created games for nearly every platform, and the studio is presently working on Below, their roguelike-inspired adventure game about exploration, survival and discovery for Xbox One & Steam.

Attendees will have an opportunity to experience each of the finalist titles and speak with their creators at the IGF Pavilion area on the Expo floor of the Game Developers Conference 2016 from March 16th-18th, 2016 at San Francisco's Moscone Center. Along with the IGF Pavilion, independent game developers can also take part in the Independent Games Summit (March 14th-15th) for networking and learning opportunities related to independent game development.

The public will also be able to take part in awarding the winner of the IGF Audience Award from all the finalists for the IGF, and voting for the Audience Award begins in February."