L’Independent Games Festival, evento che celebra i progetti indipendenti più innovativi e di qualità dell’anno appena trascorso, ha svelato i nomi dei titoli che concorreranno ai premi presentati sul palco, che varieranno dal premio maggiore, il “Seumas McNally Grand Prize”, all’eccellenza in ambiti come design, narrativa e audio.
La cerimonia di premiazione si terrà il prossimo 21 marzo 2018 nel corso della celebre Game Developers Conference di San Francisco, negli Stati Uniti, e verrà presentata da Trent Kusters, cofondatore di League of Geeks, studio dietro la hit indie Armello. Tale cerimonia sarà ad accesso libero per tutti coloro che possiederanno un pass per la GDC 2018, ma verrà anche trasmessa online in streaming per tutti quelli che non potranno presenziare di persona.
I vincitori riceveranno, in totale, un montepremi di 50.000 dollari, di cui 30.000 solo per il “Seumas McNally Grand Prize”. Di seguito presentiamo i 35 diversi titoli nominati nelle diverse categorie, con lo studio responsabile tra parentesi e alcune menzioni d’onore sotto ogni categoria:
SEUMAS MCNALLY GRAND PRIZE
- Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (Bennett Foddy)
- Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
- West of Loathing (Asymmetric Publications)
- Into the Breach (Subset Games)
- Heat Signature (Suspicious Developments)
- Baba is You (Hempuli).
Menzioni d’onore: Tacoma (Fullbright); Rain World (VIDEOCULT); Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator (Game Grumps); Cosmic Top Secret (klassefilm); Hollow Knight (Team Cherry); Cuphead (StudioMDHR); Everything Is Going to Be OK (Nathalie Lawhead).
EXCELLENCE IN VISUAL ART
- Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
- Cuphead (StudioMDHR)
- Echo (ULTRA ULTRA)
- Luna (Funomena)
- The Gardens Between (The Voxel Agents)
- Chuchel (Amanita Design).
Menzioni d’onore: Jettomero: Hero of the Universe (Ghost Time Games); Dead Cells (Motion Twin); AER – Memories of Old (Forgotten Key); Tooth and Tail (Pocketwatch Games); Rain World (VIDEOCULT); Shape of the World (Hollow Tree Games); Hollow Knight (Team Cherry).
EXCELLENCE IN AUDIO
- Tormentor X Punisher (e-studio)
- Cuphead (StudioMDHR)
- Vignettes (Skeleton Business)
- Rain World (VIDEOCULT)
- Uurnog Uurnlimited (Nifflas Games)
- Celeste (Matt Makes Games).
Menzioni d’onore: Tumbleseed (Benedict Fritz, Greg Wohlwend, Joel Corelitz, David Laskey and Jenna Blazevich); Hollow Knight (Team Cherry); Tacoma (Fullbright); Tooth and Tail (Pocketwatch Games); Million Onion Hotel (Onion Games); Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall).
EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN
- Into the Breach (Subset Games)
- Shenzhen I/O (Zachtronics)
- Wilmot’s Warehouse (Richard Hogg, Ricky Haggett, Eli Rainsberry)
- Baba Is You (Hempuli)
- Uurnog Uurnlimited (Nifflas Games)
- Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (Bennett Foddy).
Menzioni d’onore: Heat Signature (Suspicious Developments); Dead Cells (Motion Twin); Factorio (Wube Software); Space Pirate Trainer (I-Illusions); Battle Chef Brigade (Trinket Studios).
EXCELLENCE IN NARRATIVE
- Tacoma (Fullbright)
- Attentat 1942 (Charles University and Czech Academy of Sciences)
- Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (Dim Bulb Games)
- Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
- Butterfly Soup (Brianna Lei)
- Tooth and Tail (Pocketwatch Games).
Menzioni d’onore: A Mortician’s Tale (Laundry Bear Games); Lost Memories Dot Net (Star Maid Games); Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator (Game Grumps); Bury me, my Love (The Pixel Hunt, Figs and ARTE France); Cosmic Top Secret (klassefilm); West of Loathing (Asymmetric Publications); Rakuen (Laura Shigihara).
NUOVO AWARD
- Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (Bennett Foddy)
- Tarotica Voo Doo (TPM.CO SOFT WORKS)
- 10 Mississippi (Karina Popp)
- A Mortician’s Tale (Laundry Bear Games)
- Cosmic Top Secret (klassefilm)
- Everything Is Going to Be OK (Nathalie Lawhead)
- Baba Is You (Hempuli)
- Kids (Playables).
Menzioni d’onore: Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (Dim Bulb Games); IO Interloper (DANG!); The Norwood Suite (Cosmo D Studios); Cheap Golf (Pixeljam); Witchball (S.L.Clark); Million Onion Hotel (Onion Games).
BEST STUDENT GAME
- IO Interloper (DANG!)
- Don’t Make Love (Maggese)
- Penny Blue Finds a Clue (DigiPen Team Cactus Curse)
- We Were Here (Total Mayhem Games)
- Baba Is You (Hempuli)
- Guardian of the Gears (DigiPen Team Studio 76).
Menzioni d’onore: Crewsaders (Titan Squad); A.L.F.R.E.D. (Hugo Lefevre, Joseph Reichenbach, Romain Jaohar-Gaillard, Garance Royere Lebigre, Nicolas Tham, Marion Speiser, Delphine Migeot de Baran, Song Huang); MOLOCH (Seemingly Pointless); Kyklo’s Code (Cube Factory); Membrane (Perfect Hat / Seth S. Scott); That Blooming Feeling (The Tots Team); Tell Me What You See (Pesky Bees).