2023 Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards

[Music] thank you please welcome the chairperson of the independent games Festival Sean Pierre [Music] hey everyone I'm Sean and it is great to be here you want to welcome everyone back to the independent games Festival Awards thank you everyone for being here uh but before I go any further I want to congratulate all the finalists the honorable mentions and everyone that submitted to be part of the festival and

I want to thank everyone who selflessly donated their time and to in their efforts through judging and playing and sharing all these insightful thoughts about the entries from this year so thank you foreign [Applause] I would like to thank our Platinum sponsor ID at Xbox for their support of igf and all of our finalists [Applause] I also want to recognize and thank the previous chairperson Kelly Wallick for for the amazing work you did during your time as a chairperson and for the guidance you provided as I settled into this role and I want to thank Sarah the event producer for keeping me on track as we navigated through organizing the igf [Applause]

like many of us I've been managing a few changes in life these past few years and you know these changes they come with questions about the future many of us spend a lot of time thinking about the future of games the industry the day-to-day the big picture sometimes we get it right sometimes we get it wrong and quite often we find ourselves somewhere in between and these spaces we find ourselves in the ground we find ourselves occupying when moving forward with our decisions they're places that others before us have been when we see others in these spaces we cannot forget to share what we have learned in the past to share the knowledge that helped us overcome those difficult moments in our lives the games you see here today they are just a small fraction of the amazing experiences that we can create if we do our best to share the knowledge and the wisdom of our own past and the unique experiences we hold in our memories

while I am not sure what the future of games and play is I know that there is no future unless it is one that we can all strive for together thank you and please help me give a warm welcome to the host for this year's igf Marina Diaz [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you so much uh hello everyone I'm Marina Diaz CEO at three of Cups games emotional game designer at betev games for the Berlin apartment and lithium designer attention Studios I'm really happy to be your host tonight for the IDF 2023 foreign [Applause] I'm really honored to be here not only

because I want to share these moments with you all but also as a game developer that comes from Spain where it's not easy at all to make a career in games actually I decided to move abroad in 2018. I was able to start again somewhere else because I had support and options which not everyone has and I worked really really hard but I've been extremely lucky to I'm telling you this because I would I would like to send a thought from here to all the developers that are trying to make their buffing games despite living in countries working game carriers are tough uh and especially game developers living in countries where living alone surviving is tough [Applause] the topic of GDC this year is the future of play and today for a couple of

minutes I want to reflect on this with you what is the future of play to me the future of playing is games made by people coming from different backgrounds in all the ways you can imagine schemes tackling important topics that we've never seen before thinking of games not only from their point of view of fun it's making games accessible to everyone from the Inception instead of making accessibility just an optional afterthought [Applause] the future of play is inclusive diverse and emotional or differences in our empathy make us go forward not only as an industry but as a society and ultimately as human beings the future of play is togetherness respect and lifting each other ultimately I want to emphasize to

everyone here or responsibility as game developers for this future of play or responsibility not only for being ethical when we make our games but also our responsibility for making the games industry a better place for everyone a place that not only welcomes people but also makes them feel that they want to stay or responsibility for building safe spaces or responsibility for demanding that things keep changing for the better each of us here and at home and everywhere we are the future of play before we start my sincere big congratulations to all the nominees this year it's honestly breathtaking the amount of talent that we've seen uh in this igf Edition thank you to start the night we have my favorite category design because that's

what I do I'm an emotional game designer design is a lot like audio that when it's well done you almost don't notice but oh boy if you don't do it well game design also known as writing documentation that no one in the team reads [Laughter] is pure expression and I love it because it's something that can be quite technical but also highly creative right there are many many different ways uh and approaches to game design many ways of doing things differently and that's what I love uh that's why I love this discipline and our finalists for excellence in design are the nominees for excellence in design are the storm developed by aeromite Games published by hooded horse

[Music] betrayal at Club low developed and published by Cosmo D Studios with special thanks to Cosmo D [Music] Mr Sun's hat box developed by Kenny Sun published by raw Fury [Music] neon white developed by Angel Matrix published by Annapurna Interactive star Clans developed and published by sock pop

collective with special thanks to Aaron conning Lisa mantel while Troy Johnson and sock pop collective [Music] the golden idol the Heller gray Games published by playstock with special thanks to Andres clavens and Ernest clavens [Music] and the Excellence in design award goes to the case of the golden idol [Music]

this is absolutely unreal two years ago we just thought let's make a prototype like Indie Games maybe can work out and now I am here it's on Creole it's the Indie experience through and through so thanks to firstly my brother who drew that game and fought with me about the content uh thanks to our friends and family who suffered through the game development process and the Magnificent publisher who actually helped us bring it and show to people so thank you all right [Music]

only four years ago I was a student of a master's degree in game design in London and what happens sometimes when you are a student is that you think you are invincible or nominees for best student game have a bright future ahead but I want to tell you something simple and important tonight take care of yourselves I think this is applicable to everyone in the industry there's no work in burning out make self-care the most important thing in your life you will be grateful for this one day and the finalists for the best student game are [Music] the nominees for best student game are 1851 developed and published by pole 3D

with special thanks to Guilford mind diver developed and published by indoor sunglasses [Music] presenter slides developed and published by Matthias gifter and bring Juan gutenpark have you seen mine finds hansi [Music] local employees shutter developed by team scoop published by rfx school of Digital Arts with special thanks to Vincent mederos Julian Macias [Music]

Scala developed and published by Gustav Armstrong thank you slider developed and published by Daniel Carr a special thanks to Georgia Tech's VG Dev [Music] [Music] and the best game award goes to slider [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

oh my gosh I did not expect to be up here I never thought that our little black and white Indie pixel game would make it as the winner I'm so grateful so thankful for everyone my gosh um huge shout out to Georgia Tech's VG Dev so many Brilliant Minds there game would not be possible without them and also shout out to all my friends who helped along the way starting all the way back from our game Jam days thank you [Applause] [Music] as a game designer that focuses on emotions I think that audio is literally everything I don't think of a great game that didn't come with an incredible

group of audio professionals behind it therefore please please don't bring your audio people on board when you only have a week left before launching your game I know the budget is what it is but seriously you want these folks to do their magic on your award-winning game besides that you never never get bored of uh with audio people around they always have weird stories about how do they make their sounds as then you will be surprised the finalists for excellence in audio award are the nominees for excellence in audio are done keeper developed by Defenders published by raw Fury with special thanks to Rania hobleman and Hector Martin claller and Cameron Paxton

Paradise Marsh developed and published by lazy ATC [Music] thank you south of the circle perhaps developed by state of play published by 11-bit Studios with special thanks to Ed critchley and Ross stock promised Forest quartet developed by mods and Friends published by bedtime digital games with special thanks to Caspar threshold and Nina vesholt tunic developed by isometricorp Games published by finji with special thanks to Kevin regime life formed and Janice

Quan and power-up audio we are ofk developed by Teddy diesef and team ofk published by team ofk with special thanks to omniboy lunar Shadows Thomas Powers Akash the car Teddy deep Chris Brown Michaela Foote and Nicole Brady [Music] and your word for excellence in audio goes to Deforest credit [Music]

I guess it's no surprise I didn't expect this Awards um nine years ago my mom died of cancer and I didn't know when I started this game seven years ago that it was about her she was a singer and the game is about the spirit of a singer who wants a great old band back together and the fact that I've been able to make this game with my father and my sister has been just really an emotional journey and uh is a way to overcome my grief and I'm just very happy that I can share this message and make a game about laws that people resonate with so thank you so much for this award and thanks to bedtime for

believing in me uh yeah thank you so much [Applause] [Music] many times we fall in the first trap of thinking that everything is already created in terms of game mechanics I'm really really happy that the Nova world is here to tell us otherwise there is so much yet to experiment on and to discover the games feature here today remind us more than anything that there is not only one way of doing things and that we should keep our minds open and hungry for pushing the limits for creating those things we thought impossible and the finalists for the Nova world are the nominees for the new OVO award are after glitch developed by Vladimir

kudyelka published by hang on it with special thanks to Vladimir kujelka [Music] foreign developed by Quinn K with special thanks to kitta frog parsley Mark Stevens and leaflet betrayal at Club low developed and published by Cosmo D Studios with special thanks to Cosmo D [Music] the girl out of me developed and published by Taylor McHugh with special thanks to Taylor McHugh sofario Rose and Kimberly Carlson busy face

queer man peering into a rock pool jpeg developed and published by fuzzy ghost with special thanks to Scott Ford and Pete Foley thank you [Music] Sylvie lime developed and published by love game special thanks to Sylvie and Arya [Music] what's going on this time Time Bandit developed by Joel Jordan [Music] Titanic 2 Orchestra for dying at Sea developed by flan falachi with special thanks to flann falachi

thank you [Music] and the winner of the Nova world is betrayal at Club low [Applause] [Music] hello uh thank you to a few folks firstly my wife thank you we are a team my daughter the people at uh NYU Game Center who play tested Gabe really brutally honest feedback to get this in

in the right shape um thank you to the gumbo crew down in in Dumbo Brooklyn um thank you to the team here Sarah's alonas for organizing and um you know thank you to the fans thank you to the fans of my past work uh everybody who's who's been with me uh Masha Linka Stephen hottie I don't know I could go on but I'm gonna keep it at that for now thank you everybody means a ton [Applause] [Applause] next we have a special presentation from our sponsor ID at Xbox about their developer acceleration program please show me welcome James Lewis and Annette Gonzalez to the stage foreign

[Music] [Applause] [Music] Lewis my pronouns are he him and I lead the ID at Xbox developer acceleration program Matt Gonzalez my pronouns are she her and I am the program manager for the developer acceleration program as the ID at Xbox program celebrates 10 years of supporting independent developers we are honored to be here with you tonight to celebrate the Innovation and impacts independent developers bring to our industry we'd like to take a moment to congratulate the developers recognized who overcame the challenges that come along with game development and brought their Vision to life yes congratulations speaking of the challenges that come with game development this week we announced the

developer acceleration program whose mission is to empower underrepresented creators to bring their creativity Innovation and originality to Xbox this initiative was started back in 2019 by a number of passionate members of the ID at Xbox team includes access to information facilitating conversation with subject matter experts we also offer non-recoopable funding to help offset porting related costs and lastly we were creating paths for a small number of new ideas by piloting a prototype initiative we chose this moment to talk about the program because we want developers who are led by those from black indigenous Latino or lgbtqia plus communities women developers with disabilities developers from Emerging Markets or teams with unique perspectives to be aware of the program and know how to reach out yes we are pro yeah [Applause] we are so proud to have partnered with

over a hundred titles and look forward to seeing that number grow so if you want to learn more about the developer acceleration program I encourage you to check out our post on Xbox wire for details and reach out to us at idap microsoft.com now before we wrap I'd like to pass it back to James for a tribute to some amazing games all right to those with a newfound courage over the paper ghost stories that have kept your voices in The Veil to those that said adios to the beaten path and the creators who chose to never yield whether you are princess farmer or Onsen Master let us help you pursue that Wayward strand of creativity a little faster watch as our diverse communities grow from a lonesome Village to a paradise Marsh let the later data's words describing when the past was around be less harsh that our insecurities come knocking but we are no longer home it doesn't require

Lord Winkle bottom to investigate how we choose to self-validate bring on Kraken Academy clousy the tell of this done Calico 2J bring all the fun before I forget we are the caretakers of our future and we must create a space for the Unbound ideas that will go on to Captivate thank you [Applause] thank you [Applause] we are the developer acceleration program and we look forward to hearing from you so now we will leave you with a look at some more awesome games coming to Xbox thank you foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] on the grounds [Music] [Applause] please welcome your host Marina Diaz back to the stage [Music] [Music]

visual art what gives shape personality and color to wild dreams of literally everyone in the team I'm really really impressed about the incredible visual artists we have in our industry the admiration is infinite because there is a lot of perseveration practice and patience behind what they do honestly there are no words to describe the excitement of when artists start showing to teams the results of their work and the game starts becoming real or nominees tonight have mastered their craft and that's why they are deserved to be here tonight the finalists of the Excellence in Visual Art Award are the nominees for excellence in visual art are after glitch developed by Vladimir kudyelka published by hang on us with special thanks to

Vladimir kujelka [Music] thank you how deep is the Dark Water developed and published by Rhett Sai foreign [Music] omics developed by voracious Games published by exceed games and marvelous USA Inc RPG time the legend of Wright developed by deskworks published by aniplex with special thanks to Tom Fuji and Nom number [Music] UK

[Music] tunic developed by isometricorp Games published by finji with special thanks to Andrew shoulders and Eric Billingsley [Music] and the winner of the ief award for excellence in visual art is RPG time the legend of riot [Music] [Applause] [Music] unfortunately the team could not be with us this evening but they have submitted a video of their acceptance remarks

hi hi independent games thank you very much [Applause] I find this award super exciting one of the best things of being here tonight is to share with you all uh to share it with you all but especially with industry Pips that I really really admire lots of you are people that I

just dreamed of meeting one day and I can really wait to see what you all chose because the option their decision is not easy at all [Applause] and the winner of the igf audience award is [Music] [Applause] personal mix [Applause] [Applause] [Music]

foreign [Music] this is for you why is when I started this journey seven years ago to have it resonate like this with all the fans all the people who played it thank you so much I'm not surprised uh I want to thank my parents for enabling me to become an artist which was instrumental in my contributions to this and thank my uh the rest of my family and friends especially those in love diff in Bulgaria I absolutely adore you guys and uh that's pretty much it thank you [Applause]

um putting me through my education for this hard work you know believe me as a game developer who would have thought that was the career you know and uh I want to thank digipen for educating me and creating games and uh yeah thanks to the audience and for voting for us [Applause] hi just a quick thank you to GDC for uh my involvement in this game started here and I you know it's just amazing what can happen at an event like this when you meet people and magic and creativity happens so thank you [Applause] hi um this is wild uh to the audience to the fans this is fantastic um I really got to thank just everybody all family and friends who have supported me and our team over the past six years this has been a real labor of

love um to my mom my dad um the Bros uh Jeff Mike and Johnny and uh especially I especially want to thank my grandfather uh because without him I wouldn't be here right now so thank you [Applause] [Music] human beings have been linked to storytelling since forever we like telling stories and listening to them a huge part of what we do is connected to that storytelling the emotions we bring to our games are many times channeled through the words written by writers and also by the structures or for narrative designers stories are a synonym of empathy they bring us together and make us more human

the games we have nominated tonight all excel in storytelling narrative structure or both or nominees tonight are the nominees for excellence in narrative are butterfly suit too developed and published by Brianna lay [Laughter] [Music] citizen sleeper developed by jump over the age published by fellow traveler with special thanks to Gareth Damian Martin every psycho you take your chances you roll your dice I was a teenage ex-colonist developed by Northway Games published by finji with special thanks to Sarah Northway and Lindsay ishihiro

[Music] immortality developed and published by half mermaid Productions with special thanks to Sam Barlow Emilia gray Alan Scott and Barry Gifford [Music] Norco developed by geography of robots published by raw Fury with special thanks to geography of robots [Music] [Applause] south of the circle developed by status with special thanks to Luke Whitaker John Lau George Batchelor and Catherine Bidwell [Music] and the winner of the igf Excellence in

narrative award is immortality [Applause] thank you this is heavier than last time wow uh I think like the best games of the narrative games so this award is kind of the biggie for me so this is great um when we set out to make immortality we kind of gave ourselves permission to be ambitious and indulgent and and kind of go further than we felt comfortable and that in itself felt like a useful thing to do but seeing the reception and seeing it resonate with people and then getting this from our peers makes it even more worthwhile uh thank you to Claire Andre Camille my family um this was a lot easier last time

because I was a solo Dev and there were many people to ask and thank uh luckily I have a producer with me this is really surreal I'm gonna try not to cry um uh thank you to um our incredible lead programmer Connor Carson um incredible Talent um just unbelievable uh and to priscillas to know our sound designer Dylan nelkin Jeff petriello Lizzy Atwood our friends at laundry bear games um Sky Map games sculpin QA and lionbridge um are incredible leads minolgage and shout out to Malin whose performance is transcended beyond what we could have imagined for their roles the cast and crew entirely who made this uh project uh what it is today and our friends at Xbox and Netflix and valve for enabling

us to share this with the world um and my parents um and my family [Applause] um Natalie pretty much covered all the people I want to thank in addition to uh my partner who has been incredibly supportive and without whom I wouldn't even be in games um and my parents and my sisters who I uh played games with even though I was terrible at them and they just kind of tolerated me so [Applause] [Music] I can't believe we are already giving out our last award of the night last but not least the Siemens McNally grand prize is here tonight we've seen so many

excellent examples of the incredible things we are able to achieve in the games industry the grand prize is the culmination the Pinnacle the best of the best that we've been seeing at the independent games Festival this year this is it please give a warm idea of Welcome to the winner of last year's UMass McNally grand prize award Daniel Mullins and Jonah sensor [Applause] [Music] good evening gamers being up here thanks uh being up here definitely brings us back to The Surreal night about a year ago when inscription robbed unpacking cruelty Squad several other more more deserving games really of this prize last year I flew all the

way out here and at the VIP reception they only had Sun Chips uh that's most of what I remember [Applause] yeah I remember not knowing the tradition associated with this award that the previous year's winner presents it so I knew about umarangi generation like any self-respecting India Indie but I had no idea who the well-meaning yes I mean but I had no idea who the well-meaning Kiwi guy was who gave us the award he got in all our photos he sat at a table he drank our champagne uh it was only hours later at Denny's that he clued us in for the nominees that don't win tonight uh you'll be shamefully relegated one column over on Wikipedia as a finalist um which is a pitiful list of games full of total Duds uh like Super Meat Boy uh The Stanley Parable hyper light Drifter I mean we're talking like bottom of the barrel stuff Spelunky Hotline Miami getting over it noita undertale

Baba is you frankly it's it's kind of a cringe list uh where you really want to be is on the Crayon Physics Deluxe sideline which isn't part of the ironic thing I just want people to remember how much cran Physics Deluxe kicks ass pretty much all of our favorite games of all time are represented in this Awards past winners and nominees so it actually is like a huge honor to present this award and I hope everyone nominated tonight realizes the immensity of their achievement and to the winner your Denny's moons over my hammies omelette is on me [Applause] the nominee is for the 2023 Sheamus Mickey Mouse McNally grand prize our for the Seamus McNally grand prize are betrayal at Club low developed and published by Cosmo D Studios with special thanks to Cosmo D

[Music] immortality developed and published by half mermaid Productions with special thanks to Sam Barlow Natalie Watson and Connor Carson neon white developed by Angel Matrix published by Anna Perna Interactive [Music] foreign [Music] not for broadcast developed by not Games published by tiny Guild I'm Jeremy Donaldson aren't many stories tonight the golden idol developed by color gray Games published by playstock with

special thanks to Andreas clavens and Ernest klavens [Music] tunic developed by isometricorp Games published by finji with special thanks to Andrew shoulders Kevin regime Eric Billingsley life-formed and Janice Quan [Music] and the winner of the Sheamus McNally grand prize Award of igf 2023 is Trail at Club low [Applause] anyway [Applause] [Music] s

[Music] okay hello again hi um hey thank you everybody for for checking this game out and getting into it it was a real leap of faith it was a real I was just going for it and uh I didn't know what would happen I just put it out there um told this to students like just put it out there and just see what happens finish the thing put it out there whatever happens it could be really interesting whoa go for it thank you [Applause] please welcome your host Marina Diaz back to the stage

[Music] honestly I think we can be very proud of indie games tonight I am I don't want to live without bringing up one of my personal battles in this industry to make games ethically I'm personally tired and angry of listening over and over and over how in addition to the harassment that many developers already suffer from people out there sometimes we are also mistreated at work I'm speaking about crunching and lack of empathy at work environments with [Applause] with a special focus on marginalized faults [Music] [Applause] I told you earlier tonight that I don't

want us to have an industry of people that are forced to live five years after studying some even earlier some don't make it I believe in an industry that can create much better things just by keeping their people happy and fulfilled none of us is perfect and we are gonna keep making mistakes however I could be at peace knowing that out there companies no matter the size take their developers into consideration and prioritize their well-being Barnard is one of the most terrible things that can happen to a human being it destroys you in many ways from a chronic overachiever to all of you tonight let's take care of ourselves let's ask for better conditions let's ask about our salaries let's talk about your salaries to everyone out there so they know they can and they should ask for better [Applause]

let's support and lift each other thank you so much everyone for being here tonight and huge congratulations to all of our award winners into our nominees and let's not forget to thank our incredible igf Theory this movement this wouldn't be possible either without any of them lastly infinite thanks to our sponsors at idea Xbox for their generosity and support [Music] thank you