Independent Games Festival award winners: some categories not won by Minecraft

Fract

The IGF awards ceremony took place last night at GDC, recognising the best new and forthcoming indie games. Minecraft was the obvious favourite to win the overall prize, which it did, but it wasn't the clean sweep some expected. The Technical Excellence category was instead won by first-person horror Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and Design went to low-fi 2D Rogue-like game Desktop Dungeons.

Here's the full list of winners and nominees, along with where you can play them or at least see them played.

Student Showcase Award

Winner - FRACT

Demo | Trailer

Nominees:

  • e7
  • GLiD
  • OctoDad
  • PaperPlane
  • Solace
  • Tiny and Big
  • Toys

Technical Excellence

Winner - Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Demo | Trailer

Nominees:

  • Confetti Carnival
  • Miegakure
  • Minecraft
  • Neverdaunt:8Bit

Excellence In Design

Winner - Desktop Dungeons

Full game | Trailer

Nominees:

  • Faraway
  • Minecraft
  • Nidhogg
  • Super Crate Box

Best Mobile Game

Winner - Helsing's Fire

Site | Trailer

Nominees:

  • Colorbind
  • Halcyon
  • Shot Shot Shoot
  • Solipskier

Excellence In Visual Art

Winner - Bit.Trip Runner

Site | Trailer

Nominees:

  • Bastion
  • Cave Story (2010 Edition)
  • The Dream Machine
  • Hohokum

Excellence In Audio

Winner - Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Demo | Trailer

Nominees:

  • Bastion
  • Bit.Trip Beat
  • Cobalt
  • Retro City Rampage

Audience Award

Winner - Minecraft

Minecraft Classic (free-to play) | Site | 10 incredible Minecraft creations

Direct2Drive Vision Award

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Demo | Trailer

Nominees:

  • Flotilla
  • Confetti Carnival
  • Hazard: The Journey of Life
  • NightSky

Nuovo Award

Winner - Nidhogg

Site | Trailer | PC Gamer UK Indie Special podcast - in which Tom and Graham discuss their Nidhogg duels.

Nominees:

  • Bohm
  • Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally OK Now (B.U.T.T.O.N.)
  • The Cat and the Coup
  • Dinner Date
  • Hazard: The Journey Of Life
  • A House in California
  • Loop Raccord

Seamus McNally Grand Prize

Winner - Minecraft

Minecraft Classic (free-to play) | Site | 10 incredible Minecraft creations

Runners up:

  • Amnesia: The Dark Descent
  • Desktop Dungeons
  • Nidhogg
  • SpyParty

[thanks TIGsource ]

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.