Mojang’s Minecraft was the big winner at the 13th Annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) picking up the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game and the community-voted Audience Award.<\/p>\n
Frictional Games’ psychological horror game Amnesia: The Dark Descent took the award for Technical Excellence and the award for Excellence in Audio, on top of the sponsor-supported Direct2Drive Vision Award.<\/p>\n
Developer Messhof picked up the Nuovo Award for his two-player art game, Nidhogg. The Nuovo Award honours abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which “advances the medium and the way we think about games.”<\/p>\n
QCF Design’s short playtime dungeon crawl adventure Desktop Dungeons earned the award for Excellence in Design.<\/p>\n
The Excellence in Visual Art award was won by Gaijin Games’ retro-psychedelic BIT.TRIP RUNNER.<\/p>\n
The award for the Best Student Game went to the Myst-like abstract adventure game FRACT, from the University of Montreal.<\/p>\n
The Best Mobile Game was awarded to Ratloop’s unique ‘line of sight’ puzzler Helsing’s Fire.<\/p>\n
“This year’s record numberof entrants were of some of the highest quality we’ve yet seen in the festival,” said IGF Chairman Brandon Boyer. “Congratulations to all the winners, who continue to raise the bar for what independent games can achieve. We’re all excited to continue showcasing the best in independent games, at the games industry’s highest-profile annual event.”<\/p>\n
The IGF awarded the following games as winners of the 13th Annual Awards:<\/p>\n
Seumas McNally Grand Prize<\/span> ($20,000) – Minecraft, by Mojang<\/p>\n Nuovo Award<\/span> ($5,000) – Nidhogg, by Messhof<\/p>\n Excellence in Visual Art<\/span> ($2,500) – BIT.TRIP RUNNER, by Gaijin Games<\/p>\n Excellence in Audio<\/span> ($2,500) – Amnesia: The Dark Descent, by Frictional Games<\/p>\n Excellence in Design<\/span> ($2,500) – Desktop Dungeons, by QCF Design<\/p>\n Best Student Game<\/span> ($2,500) – FRACT, by University of Montreal<\/p>\n Technical Excellence<\/span> ($2,500) – Amnesia: The Dark Descent, by Frictional Games<\/p>\n Best Mobile Game<\/span> ($2,500) – Helsing’s Fire, Ratloop<\/p>\n