The 2017 Independent Games Festival Awards

[Music] Please welcome the chairperson of the Independent Games Festival, Kelly Wallik. [Music] All right. Uh hello and welcome to the 19th annual Independent Games Festival Awards. So, this marks my second year as chairman of the IGF. And during this time, I felt very fortunate to have had numerous thoughtful and really profound conversations about what the IGF represents and how much this community means to us all. I feel it's a real testament to how caring and impassioned our industry can be, and it makes me hopeful for the next generation of developers. So, thank you.

I'd also like to thank the judges and jury members who put countless hours into reviewing and discussing the games. And a personal thank you to the staff who make all this possible. [Applause] Our sponsors for this year are ID at Xbox, the IGF Platinum sponsor, and Samsung, the IGF gold sponsor. As the independent games community evolves, we work to reflect these changes in a way that embraces the diversity of games submitted to the festival each year. This past year, we redefined the Novo category into one that simply represents art and games and is meant to further the conversation around titles that push the medium forward and make us think of games in a new light. In addition, I'm very happy

to introduce the Alt Control GDC award, which will be presented for the very first time on this stage. The Alt Control Award is given out in association with the independent showcase that's playable on the GDC show floor. It's meant to highlight the growing alternative game controller and hardware community, which represents an important but difficult to sustain side of the industry. Our goal with both of these changes is to raise awareness and hopefully inspire all of you to think about your own work in new and creative ways. A few years ago at GDC, I gave a talk which was essentially a short visual essay on community size and the level offormational overload we're expected to consume on a daily basis. It was something I gave a great deal of thought to when the games community was experiencing a lot of toxicity. And I thought since now it's moved into a national conversation, it might be worth revisiting some of these thoughts here.

Studies show that negative emotions have a longerl lasting influence than positive. Which if you're trying to drive web traffic, gain followers, or become famous, there's actually an incentive to create a positive reinforcement for negative emotions. With access to online communities that can easily be upwards of 50 times more than we're able to meaningfully interact with, not to mention that the entire whole of the internet consists of about 23 million times this number. It makes you wonder if we're not shortcircuiting ourselves a bit. The saying goes, all politics is local. Meaning that real national and global change originates in local communities and radiates outwards. Everyone in this room is arguably at the forefront of an industry that has an opportunity to help shape the way people process and understand the world around them. You have a unique chance to affect long-term social change through your work and I would argue a responsibility to approach this work from a place of compassion and understanding. This is your community and this is where you start that change. Thank you all

again for your time, support and contributions to the IGF and congratulations to all the honorable mentions and best of luck to all the finalists. And now I'm very happy to introduce the host of tonight's show, Nina Freeman. [Applause] [Music] Thank you, Kelly. I know. I know. I miss Nathan Vela, too, but I'll be your host for the 19th annual Independent Games Festival Awards. Okay, so let's start again. Hi, my name is Nina Freeman. I'm a level designer at

Fulbright working on our forthcoming game, Tacoma. A demo of Tacoma is actually at GDC in the Day of the Dev Showcase, in case you're curious. Outside of Fulbright, you might recognize me from former IGF nominated titles Cibil and How Do You Do It. The game where you have sex with your online boyfriend and the game where you pretend your Barbie dolls are [ __ ] respectively. See, it's like sex. Uh, it's pretty weird and amazing to be up here saying this in front of a room full of my heroes and people who are wondering who the hell I am. Listen, I'm nervous. It's not be it's not easy being a stage in front of what looks like a million a million and a half people out there. Listen guys, that was a Trump tweet. I'm not a comedian. This is my first time hosting. This is nerve-wracking. So,

I didn't see that. I really wish I could have packed my good luck plushy, but it was just too big and wouldn't fit in my suitcase, and I really wish I had it. I I screwed up that joke. Sorry. So, I know this is super stressful. I had this guy float in first class just for you. I hope he offers you some uh some good luck and uh and kill it out there, Nina. Nina, everybody. It's my poos Tsum Tsum. It's my good luck plushy. Thank you, Nathan. So, I remember my first year at GDC in 2013. I sat out there in the audience and took a bunch of selfies and tweeted some dumb jokes that probably no one read. I had no idea what I was doing as a game developer. And honestly, I still have no idea. What I do know is that my process pretty much amounts to the following as illustrated by Diego Garcia.

Go out for happy hour and finally come up with an idea for a game after about two glasses of wine and a plate of French fries. Frantically write down the idea in my iPhone notepad app in complete darkness and pass out. Forget the that I had the idea at all and find it in my phone a month later. Work on the game until I get distracted by a new anime. I think my process is bad and I really don't feel like I know what I'm doing still, but that's just fine. It's okay to feel like you don't know what you're doing because we all make different games. We all have different ways of working and we're all unique as developers. What's important is to create what you want to play regardless of what other people think. That's what I learned by coming back to GDC and the IGF since 2013. And this year was no exception. We've got games about connecting with your mushroom picking grandmother, [ __ ] your brother's classmates, yelling at your friend on the couch to finish chopping the onions, attempting to

seduce Sebastian, and so on. These indie developers are really making the games that they want to play and that many of us didn't even know we wanted. Okay, so it's time for our first award. By the way, this Pus Tsum Tsum is right here next to me and I'm going to like put it down there. So, if any of the winners want to give it a hug when they come up here, you're welcome to. Okay, so first award. This one is very special to me because I was a student not too long ago. When I was lucky enough to start college, I was studying English literature. I was a huge nerd that spent all of her classes writing poetry in various Hello Kitty notebooks. Little did I know, I would eventually pass up a career in poetry by stumbling into video game development. and I ended up making games in the graduate program at NYU. So, there's no set path. The amazing thing about being a student is that you can experiment both with your work and with your life. The students we're honoring tonight are amazing

examples of this. They are carving their own paths with their work by finding new ways to express themselves in this medium and blowing us all away in the process. And the finalists for the best student game are best student game bamboo heart developed by Sock Pop Collective. Diamond Theo Tom Bond Bohart RNA Aron Coning Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor developed by Sunday Month. Zomara Isaac, Jack Yates, Bradford Horton, Campbell Fletcher, Far Loan Sales. Developed by Mr. Wells game service, Don Schmocker, Ganon Sarich, Martina Hugan Tubler,

Philip Stern, Frog Climbers. Developed by team crew, Sebastian Larson, Semi Parlayan, Charlotte Elias, Andrew Bangston, Lily, Colors of Santaloo. Developed by the Lily Colors of Santa team. Gabriel Sarnov, Florian Kudray, Alex Aorsy, Matthew Batilier. Developed by Gerro Deur, Alise Boron, Gregory Baritzi, Gaspar Morel, And the winner of the IGF award for best student game is Una Frail.

Heat. Heat. Okay. Uh, this one is tough. Um, okay. This is just a list of people I have to thank. Uh, I didn't think I I I'll win this

prize. Um I want to thank everyone at IGF for nominated us. This is like really cool. So thank you. I want to thank the organization and uh of course uh or uh school in France and Jim school if you want to study there go to go to the school. It's a public school. So okay and um uh I want to thank all the indies and developer out there making games, playing games. This is really inspiring for us to be out there uh with you. So thank you. Thank you everyone. [Applause]

Oh, so cute. Okay, so Tinder is like the hotness these days, right? Shout out to everyone in the audience who's literally browsing Tinder on their phones right now. I know you're out there. Maybe you're thinking, "Wow, this person's Tinder pick is like really sexy. Damn." Well, what if you ran into one of the games up for excellence in visual art on Tinder? These games would probably have no trouble lining up a few hot pictures. In fact, I'm sure they could all land a date on video game Tinder based on looks alone. Can you even imagine the selfies these games would take? They'd all be well lit, well composed, with striking angles and sensuous curves. I mean, let's face it, these games are hot. These are some of the most beautiful games from the last year. So, dating or GDC hostile hookups aside, the artists who worked on these games are absolute heroes for executing such incredible style in a medium that can be

truly demanding on an artist's time and skill set. The finalists for excellence in visual art are excellence in visual art, hyper light drifter, develop heart machine, Alex Preston, Casey Hunt, Sean Ward, Inside Developed by the Inside Development Old man's journey developed by broken rules Clayman's Scott Brian Maine Lip Carmeella Felix Bohhatch she remembered caterpillars

developed by Jumpsuit entertainment Daniel Leander Gothan, David Premier, Cassandra Cob, Brian Quack. The plane in the flesh. Developed by the molasses, Scott Sinclair, Chad Llair, Gwen Gray, Virginia. Developed by Variable State, Terry Kenny, Matt Wild, Stevie Brown, Connor McCann, [Music] and the winner for the IGF Award for Excellence in Visual Art is Hyperllight Drifter.

Come closer. Come get over here. Hey. Um, I didn't prepare anything, but uh I just want to say thank you to everybody on the team, uh, including those who couldn't be here, Casey and Sean and Kosimo and everyone else who helped on the project and believed in us. And I'm going to tear up a little bit. Um, it was a hard uh it was a challenging thing to to make this game and uh we put our hearts and souls into it and Teddy's taking a goddamn selfie. Pay attention. Cuz it ruins everything.

Sorry. Um but uh thank you. This this [ __ ] means so much to us and it's it's I'm going to cry so I'm going to leave the stage now. Bye. Okay. Hi, I'm back. Composing and designing sound is not my strong suit, but I did try my hand at it once in middle school. When I was probably 13, I made a ton of AMVs, which basically amounted to recording footage of Final Fantasy 10 2, Kingdom Hearts, and Lina over trance songs. [Music] That really is from when I was like 13. Okay, needless to say, my attempts at

enhancing any game or anime with trans music were ill advised, so now I leave it to the professionals. Sound can be the ingredient that warms up the game just right, adding a layer that subtly but seriously ties together the entire experience. I'm also sure that all of the nominees would make way better AMVs than I ever could, and for that alone, they deserve massive praise. Our nominees for excellence in audio are excellence in audio everything developed by David O'Reilly Damian Eduardo Ortiz Sprout Ben Lucas Bison Garner developed by Art and Martin Wallein

Hyper Light Drifter. Developed by Art Machine, Rich Veland, Akos the car, Alex Preston. Inside developed by Play Dead, Martine Steve Anderson, [Music] The Plane in the Flood, developed by the Molasses Flood, Patrick Bombra, Chad Reagan, Virginia developed by variable state. Lyndon How [Applause] [Music]

and the award for excellence in audio goes to Goner. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Oh [ __ ] Wait. Here you go. There you

Hello. Thank you. This is incredible. It's such a big honor to be winning this award. We were really afraid we would freeze up, so we pre-recorded this message just in case. Uh hello. Uh well, this is the whole kind of reason why this game was made. Sort of the audio anyways was made in the first place was we were had this little synthesizer and we thought we have this stupid game that doesn't need footsteps. Let's make some cool sounds for it. And uh here we are like one and a half years later. And here we are. Uh thanks to thanks to Raw Fury, thanks to Ditto for uh making this game. Thanks for you who can't be here today who's in a cabin in Norway eating rotten fish. Uh we love you. Thanks to uh everyone like Alexina. No, I really want to thank

Alexina and Jan Turisone. I [ __ ] And thanks for everyone, all the nominees. It's an honor to be here with you. Uh we're truly honored and thankful and uh kind of shaking up here. So have a good night onwards. I'll see you at that party. [Applause] [Music] Hi again. So, before we get too teeyed from watching all of these adorable blushing developers accept their awards, we can spend some time with one of my favorite people, Ash. [Music] Time to check the blogosphere.

[Music] [Applause] This is a code red people. We need to scrap everything we've been doing for Call of Duty 8. We need that farm money or we're through. Scrap it. We're way too far into the ideas now. We We We could add a farming miniame. I like it. But for a game about guns, our fans will revolt. I agree. Compromise. Farm guns. Put it on. Watch it grow. Shoot terrorists to fertilize the soil. Circle it. Now, what else does Stard do have that we don't? Uh, relationships. What are those? They're like um you know when people fall in love like a man and a woman. Actually, in Stardew, you can

marry someone of your own gender. I'm a visual learner. You two kiss. No, I don't. Yeah. Yeah. Bobby booster. We going a lot of this in the game. Yeah. We're still missing something. What else? What else? Farming is all about kind of investing time and love into something and watching it grow into fruition right before terrorists take it from you. Sure. Pre-order now into the AC-130 drone strike mission. Call it a war. [Music] Please welcome to the stage Alt Control GDC co-founder John Pollson.

[Music] Good evening everyone. I'm very excited to be giving out the first ever Alt Control GDC award honoring this year's best alternative controller games from the 100 plus submissions and 20 games featured in this year's popular GDC exhibit. The spirit of these ingenious designs is captured in the video playing behind me showing this year's picks. This is the fourth version of the exhibit, and the inspiration for it goes back much further. I grew up during the golden age of arcades, where every cabinet seemed to have its own enchanting alternative controller. Later, I would hoard more console peripherals than I had shelf space. Nintendo's Zapper and Power Pad, Steel Battalion's Behemoth Setup, and all of Konami's pioneering music controllers.

More recently, I can recall when I first played sports with a Wii remote, when I swiped, flicked, and tilted a mobile touchcreen, and when I waved a magic Vive wand. Non-traditional controls are being adopted by developers big and small. And this continues to change how we play games. Each new way to play elicits a sense of wonder and childlike inquisitiveness, which is showcased incredibly well by the alternative control games that are honored this year. Since 2014, over 400 developer teams have submitted for this showcase. Their switchboards, popsicles, pug butts, caterpillar sleeping bags, and Arduino skills have been transformed into unforgettable hands-on experiences. This year's creations will be playable for the rest of the week at the Alt Control GDC exhibit in the North Hall behind the IGF pavilion. Earlier this week, a panel of judges played through all of this year's games and were

presenting the winner with this custom handcrafted award made by the ingenious altcontrol UDC alumni and line wobbler creator Robin Bombgarden. Thanks, Robin. [Applause] So, please join me in congratulating the winner of the first all control GDC award, Fierce Sphere. [Applause] Heat up here.

[Applause] Well, uh, I don't have anything prepared for this. I just Are you sure that doesn't say moonlight? Okay, just making sure. Uh, so I'm really blown away to have won this award. I mean, we really couldn't have done it uh without all of uh all of us who part of this team. Uh we really want to thank uh our two product designers who are lost in the sea of us back there uh Jang and Ying who both uh were behind the fabrication of the game. Um and we love what we do and we're glad that people uh enjoy our games and have fun with it. So we'll be here all week. So uh come Yeah. Come on down and play it. Um thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Hey

Parsons represent. Yeah. A [Applause] I'm back. Okay. Hi. I would really like to play Truth or Dare with the New Oo nominees because they are tonight's featured risktakers. I mean, seriously, these people made games that challenge our ideas about what games are and can be. I actually can't think of a crazier dare than challenge the masses. Make a game that contradicts their expectations about what video games are and get ready

because some of them are going to be pissed. I'd like to personally thank every single person who worked on a Novo nominated game for your bravery and commitment to making games that are challenging and beautiful examples of the future of this medium. On that note, here are the finalists for the Novo Award. Newovo Award. Close. Developed by Tobias Sarcis. Mulitz eBay. Diaries of a spaceport janitor. Developed by Sunday month, Isabelle James, Shasha, Matthew Bganti, Mel

Stangel, Campbell Fletcher. Everything developed by David O'Reilly, Damian D. [Music] Virginia. Developed by variable state, Jonathan Burroughs, Terry Kenny, Lyndon Holland. Islands, nonplaces. Developed by Carl Burton. Leave OMA developed by Florian Belgrapher [Music]

developed by T200. [Applause] Oreshbill book one developed by David Donkey. [Music] Oh my god, this is really exciting. And the winner of the Novo award is OOSIL book one.

[Music] [Music] Do you know that? [Music] [ __ ] Trump. [ __ ] Pence. This country is built on immigrants. [ __ ] Trump. [ __ ] Pence. This country is built on immigrants. [ __ ] Trump. [ __ ] pants. This country is built on im That's Thank you. Um, thank you very much. Um, so I have that one meme to present and then I have a pitch also that relates to the theme of the game. So I feel like I ought to do it. How much is the money that I get for this? It's like $3,000 probably. Let's say it's $5,000 so I can

calculate it better. The pitch is that everyone in this room and beyond takes 5% of their income and pools it together into a union that could be called the GPU, general procariat union. So that's all I just want you to think about it because there's a lot of people who are struggling to make ends meet. Um, so that's what the game about. But thanks. Okay, but anyway, thank you all so much. So much thank you to everyone in the room. This has been like a really inspiring sort of world to be in. I kind of feel like this is I was just telling other people this feels like it's like my school or something. It's like the game school and it's really wonderful. So, thank you so much for the whole community. Thank you to everyone that I've worked on projects with. Uh, you know, thanks Ed, thank you Sean, thank you Fernando for these tools that I made this game with. I didn't have to program at all to make this, which Fernando made these wonderful tools. Thank you everyone else that Thank you Josh for

the website. Um, thank you Ana, thank you my family. And yeah, thank you all so much. I actually Sorry, I wrote down a few things on the phone. Maybe I forgot something. I just want to make sure I'm not forgetting. Um, yeah. Oh yeah, Urissy. It said it's made by Uritysy. I think this is just an interesting thing that's like, you know, from the Orpheus legend. Uritsy. This name means wide justice. And justice we know is like a both like a moral concept and also like a musical concept. The balance of justice and all these things. Uh thank you God. That's all. [Music] [Music]

[Applause] So, I decided to give my mom a call to ask her what she thinks good game design is. She doesn't make games, by the way, and has barely played any of my games, so I thought her perspective would be pretty fresh. She told me that good game design basically amounts to pretty art, nice music, and the ability to keep someone's attention for seven minutes. Because apparently you can't keep someone's attention for any longer than 7 minutes. I translated this to mean that for my mom, good game design is a complete package, a game that's a solid piece of production and that leaves an impact on the player. I think my mom would be a pretty good game designer because she knows what she likes and is ruthlessly committed to it. Just like the designers that worked on the games in our next category. Here are the nominees for excellence in design. Excellence in design. Duskers developed by Mitz,

Tim Keenan, Jeremy Phillips, Brendan Marorrow, Benjamin Hill. Event zero developed by Ocelot Society, Emmanuel Porno, Sergey Mohawk, Embroia. Developed by Michael B. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Overcooked developed by Ghost Town Games. Phil Duncan, Ali Divine, Quadrilateral Cowboy developed by Glendo

Games. Brendan Shan, Tiny Wells, [Music] objective complete. Ultimate Chicken Horse developed by Clever and Debor Richard Atlas, Kyler Kelly, Alexar, Ben Gro, [Music] and the Excellence in Design Award goes to quadrilateral cowboy. Boy,

what's happening? [Applause] Uh yeah, I mean this is this is wild. I didn't really prepare anything tonight because the other games tonight are super awesome. And uh um yeah, I mean there's there's a there's a lot of people I want to thank and and this would not have been possible without a lot of people. Um and I will thank you all personally. Um, but I'll say that that this game took a lot of hard work to make and it took a lot of like uh it was kind of like tough to do. But I think the thing that it took a lot the thing that that made this game possible was just a lot of luck and a lot of just like being at the right place at the right time and being very lucky. And so I just want to say that if you if you don't know what you're doing and you're very confused,

that's fine. Thank you very much. I'm back again. Okay. Hi. Stories can help us connect with characters who are unlike ourselves. They can transport us to worlds that we've never imagined. They can turn us on and drive us to write erotic fanfic about our OTPs. On that note, I've been wondering which characters in the narrative category make the best pairings. However, instead of standing up here and sharing the lurid details of my most perverted fantasies, I will ask you to tweet at me. Seriously, because we all know that Twitter is at its best when it's just a mile deep in people going off about the

best ships. Besides giving us characters to fantasize about, the games nominated for excellence in narrative are fantastic examples of how games are so good at actively engaging players in story via game mechanics. These games aren't just spoonfeeding us dialogue. They're exploring new ways of engaging the player in a narrative-driven design. The finalists for excellence in narrative are excellence in narrative 1979 revolution black Friday developed by ink stories Navidid concari baseliki kansari event zero developed by ocelot society Emmanuel Corno, Sergey Mohawk, Lady Killer in a Bind.

Developed by Love Conquers All Games, Christine Love, Ry Isaac Shankler, Virginia. Developed by Variable State, Jonathan Burroughs, Terry Kenny, Lyndon Hollow, One Night Stand. Developed by Kin Mocha. Lucy Blendel Orwell developed by Osmotic Studios. Melanie Taylor, Daniel Mars, Michael Clue,

and the Excellence in Narrative Award goes to Lady Killer in a Bind. This [Applause] [Music] heat [Music] [Music] Well, I'm super nervous. I was not expecting this at all. Um, I'd like to thank Ry who is um just as important to the team as me. Um, couldn't be here, but he does the art and um was super important. I'd like to thank everyone who has been loving and supportive of me these years and I wouldn't be here

without everyone. And in these honestly fairly terrifying times, I I'd like to encourage please look out to other queer developers who are just starting and please show them the the same love and support that you've shown to me. Thank you. [Music] Hello. Anybody home? [Music] Well, what do we have here? Please listen carefully. XXX Sephroof fan 69 XXX. You are in grave danger. You are the only human left alive. What are you typing? Unknown command. That's not how you spell Xbox. Bang titties. Did

you not hear the part where I said you were in grave danger? You got video games on this issue. You are absolutely going to die. Fine. Fine. What kind of game you want to play? Do not take titties. I have all the IGF 2017 nominees in my database. Why don't we start there? This is a cyberpunk hacking game called Quadrilateral Cowboy. It I probably should have seen that. Let's try a different game. One night's stand. It should satisfy your random libido. Oh, mama. Come to daddy. Wait, where the freak? This game is about the aftermath of a sexual encounter. The freak has already occurred. Daddy don't want the aftermath, robot. Daddy want the freaky prequel. I want the freak. Very well. You must be 18 or older to enter as a game without being a kid trying to find porn for the first time. I was doing asky porn on my speaking spell. Go freaky. In Diaries of Spaceport Janitor, you can buy alien porn. Does that satisfy you? I watched ET. I got my nut.

I'm over it. Freak you. Okay, this is it. This is all I have left. Lady Killer and Unbind is a game entirely about sex and relationship. I sit freaky. I think there's bondage in this one. Break. I was hoping I wouldn't come to this. Spoilers for Inside in 3 2 1. May God have mercy on us all. There we have Liftoff. Please give a warm welcome to Chris Charla, director of ID at Xbox, and Katie Stone Perez, senior program manager of ID at Xbox, who will be presenting the ID at Xbox gaming for everyone award.

Hey everybody, at ID at Xbox and at all of Microsoft, we're incredibly proud to be able to support the IGF and to help recognize the work that independent developers from all over the world do making games with truly unique perspectives. One of the things we really love about independent games is that they can help celebrate underserved voices. Whether those voices are the players, the characters, or the creators themselves. This year, we are incredibly proud to honor three amazing game developers who are truly doing everything to make gaming for everyone. We invite you all to the Xbox Lobby Bar tomorrow to meet these amazing, innovative creators and to play these important games. Having grown up playing sighted games before we lost our sight. The two of us who started this project were really trying to make the kind of game that we used to be able to play, the kind of

game we miss being able to play. Uh the kind of game we wanted to be able to play again. But we also wanted to make something that blind and sighted players could both enjoy, something that could bring us together with that shared experience. What the hell you do? We created We Are Chicago to help people understand the unique challenges of growing up on the south side of Chicago by engaging in personal stories that are often left out of portrayals of our city. We believe that non-fiction games hold so much potential to change how we think about the world and could expand both what games mean and who plays them. I encourage all of you to tell your stories and to help others tell theirs. Life is going to test you, son. I hope is a game created to help children with cancer cope with the emotional strain of the disease by showing them the power they have within and encourage them in the fight of their lives. Our goal is to help kids through another day, show parents a light at the end of the tunnel, and give families a message of hope when they need it the most.

If you could all direct your attention over there and please give a warm round of applause to the winners of the uh ID Xbox Gaming Forever Win awards. Thanks a lot guys. You guys are awesome. [Music] I'm back. You can't get rid of me. So, sometimes a game comes out that brings us together online because

literally everyone on Twitter is screaming about it and the Tumblr tag is overflowing with adoring fan art and then we're all inevitably absorbed into the fandom fold because the love is so severely contagious. This is at the heart of the audience award. It's an award that can give us something to agree about. So, congratulations to our next recipient for being so lovable and for captivating us in a way that so few games can. The audience award for 2017 goes to Hyperllight Drifter. I I stole this award last time because I

went that way and took it to the table. So, I'm going to make sure I don't do that this time. Um, somebody else talk, please. Whoa. Do it. No, I didn't even bring my phone. Um, yeah. Uh, okay. Thank you all. This is I What I love about this community is that it feels honestly like every winner that comes up like the whole room made that game. And maybe that's like cliche to say, but it's a very beautiful feeling. So, I'm I'm very grateful. I know we all are for being here. And thank you all for playing our game. Uh people cumulatively have spent 387 years of time playing our game, and it's really [ __ ] up and cool. I did the math. Yeah. Um yeah, I just don't I don't want to cry on stage again. So, thank you everybody. It means a lot.

Please give a warm IGF welcome to the winner of last year's Sheamus McNal Grand Prize Award, Sam Barlo. [Music] Hi everyone. This is nice. I remember this. This is fun. Um, I stole a disproportionate amount of time on stage last year, so I'm going to keep this really short. Um, indie games are more important than their dimminionive name implies. Just look at the last decade. Look at the games that moved the needle, that took our medium forward. More and more indie games are asked to do this and are driven to do this. We're finding broader audiences and we're speaking more deeply to those audiences. We care about diversity, about heart and authenticity. And this award, the Sheamus McN Prize, is the one that encapsulates all of this. I was incredibly proud to receive this award last year and even more proud to now

present it to the game that myself and all the other IGF judges have decided represents the best of our collective achievements. With that in mind, here are the finalists for the Sheamus McNal Grand Prize. Sheamus McNal Grand Prize event zero developed by Ocelot Society, Emmanuel Corno, Sergey Moa, Leoner Carpontier, Hyper Light Drifter. Developed by Hartley Sheen, Alex Preston, Bo BL, Teddy Devenbach. Inside developed by Play Dare, the Inside development team, [Music]

Overcooked, developed by Ghost Town Games, Phil Duncan, Olly Divine, Quadrilateral cowboy developed by Lendo Games. Brendan Chung, Simon Wells, Aaron Milture, Stardew Valley. Developed by Concerned Apric. [Applause] [Music] Okay. And the winner is quadrilateral cowboy.

[Music] Uh thank you. This is um I I actually literally don't know what to say. Uh this is this is I don't Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. This is unbelievable. Thank you so much.

Wow, that was awesome. Uh, so as we near the end of the IGF awards, I can't believe it's almost over. It's gone by so fast for me. Uh, I'd like to give some personal recognition to devs who didn't necessarily fit into any of these main categories. The dev who couldn't make it to GDC because they just don't have the cash. I'm rooting for you and I hope your next game sells like Beanie Babies. The dev who had to stay home with their kids. I hope you're treating yourself to hot chocolate and anime. Hopefully, Yuri on Ice. All of the developers impacted by the Muslim ban, I'm thinking of you.

And on that note, I urge everyone to donate to the ACLU, please. Also, the student who has imposttor syndrome and didn't come out to GDC because they don't think they're a real game developer. Trust me, honey, you're just as real as any of us, regardless of how many games you've shipped or not shipped. the woman who doesn't have the energy to make it to GDC because she's busy kicking ass, making games, and raising money for Planned Parenthood. You are amazing and you are going to change the world. [Applause]

You guys are cheering for all like the best stuff. Okay, I want to thank those devs I just mentioned and everyone else who deserves some encouragement. This is a huge industry we're in and there are so many different kinds of people working their asses off to make the games that will push this medium farther into places that we can't even imagine. The folks we've seen receive awards tonight are at the forefront of this forward momentum. They know what it means to strike out on their own and to take a risk by making games that experiment with the medium. They've shown us all how much more we can do with video games. I encourage everyone in this audience to play these games if you haven't already. Please support these game makers so that they can continue to show us how games can be made outside of the mold so that they can continue to defy traditional expectations of how games are made, who makes them, and what they can be. I'd like to congratulate and thank the winners and the nominees tonight for

making these games. Can we please give them all a round of applause for their hard work and brilliant ideas. [Applause] Finally, I'd like to give special thanks to well, my boyfriend Mike who put up with me preparing for this for like months and I was very intense about it. Thank you. Yay. And also to the sponsors who helped make this show spectacular so that we can spend our evening dazzled by a bunch of adorable developers getting teeyed on stage. Thank you. So, thanks to ID at Xbox for being the IGF Platinum sponsor and Samsung for being the IGF Gold sponsor.

Thank you. On that note, this emotional roller coaster is not over. Please stick around and help us honor and recognize even more incredible game makers because the Game Developers Choice Awards are up next. [Applause]