IGF 2021 Finalists Revealed

The upcoming Game Developers Conference (GDC) has revealed the Independent Games Festival (IGF) finalists this year. While there is plenty of variety throughout, it is worth noting that the stylish adventure video game Genesis Noir leads the group with four different nominations, including for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. The virtual IGF is part of the virtual GDC 2021, which is set to actually take place later this summer from July 19th through July 23rd.

More specifically, the winners of the categories will be announced at the Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday, July 21st, at 7:30PM ET/4:30PM PT. While we’ve collected the full list of nominations, the IGF also lists a number of honorable mentions for each category, and you can check them all out as part of the official announcement right here.

As noted above, GDC 2021 will take place from July 19th through July 23rd while the Independent Games Festival Awards itself will be on Wednesday, July 21st, at 7:30PM ET/4:30PM PT. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the Independent Games Festival right here.

Are you excited for this year’s IGF finalists? Are you looking forward to the virtual event in July? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about all things gaming! And keep reading for a full list of finalists and categories.

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

• Paradise Killer (Kaizen Game Works)
• Teardown (Tuxedo Labs)
• Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory Team)
• Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den)
• Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital)
• Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus)

Excellence in Audio

• Say No! More (Studio Fizbin)
• Blind Drive (Lo-Fi People)
• Sunlight (Krillbite Studio)
• Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den)
• Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus)
• A Monster’s Expedition (Through Puzzling Exhibitions) (Draknek & Friends)

Best Student Game

• Vessels (Local Space Survey Corps, LLC)
• Dorfromantik (Toukana Interactive)
• Some Old Stuff (Hao Fan, Harry (Weizhong) Chen, Haku (Minyan Cai), Emi Schaufeld)
• Rainy Season (Inasa Fujio)
• SYMPHONIA (Guillaume Roux, Nicolas Derio, Pierre Vrel, Guillaume Gille, Alexis Grand, Simon Larguier, Martin Lepretre, Corentin Pauvrasseau, Kilian Dufour, Alexandre Mansois, Quentin Vernet, Hicham Benrhannou, Olivier Esman)
• Hadr (Dominik Konečný of Ateliér Duchů)

Excellence in Design

• Teardown (Tuxedo Labs)
• Disc Room (Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Terri Vellmann, Doseone)
• Shady Part of Me (Douze Dixièmes)
• There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension (Draw Me A Pixel)
• Signs of the Sojourner (Echodog Games)
• A Monster’s Expedition (Through Puzzling Exhibitions) (Draknek & Friends)

Excellence in Narrative

• Lost Words: Beyond the Page (Sketchbook Games)
• Across the Grooves (Nova-box)
• Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den)
• Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital)
• Haven (The Game Bakers)
• In Other Waters (Jump Over the Age)

Excellence in Visual Art

• Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den)
• Arrog (Hermanos Magia and Leap Game Studios)
• In Other Waters (Jump Over the Age)
• Shady Part of Me (Douze Dixièmes)
• Call of the Sea (Out of the Blue)
• Carto (Sunhead Games)

Nuovo Award

• Blaseball (The Game Band)
• Nightmare Temptation Academy (Lena NW & Costcodreamgurl)
• THAT NIGHT, STEEPED BY BLOOD RIVER (Taylor Swietanski)
• Airplane Mode (Bacronym)
• Welcome to Elk (Triple Topping)
• Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital)
• Chasing Light (Vittgen Inc.)
• Kristallijn (Gaël Bourhis)