Outer Wilds picked up the grand prize at last night's Independent Game Festival awards, triumphing over other nominees like Invisible, Inc and The Talos Principle. At this point you may well be thinking, "what in the hell is Outer Wilds?"
Good question. It's still in alpha, you see, although a build can be downloaded for free from the game's website. It's a charming galactic adventure in which your alien astronaut has a few minutes to explore a quirky and condensed galaxy.
I'm being deliberately vague because Outer Wilds is best experienced without any upfront knowledge. It's filled with mystery, and just a little bit of foreboding dread. If recommendation alone isn't reason enough to give it a go, the slightly spoiler-ish trailer will at least give you some more to go on.
Outer Wilds also picked up the Excellence in Design award. iOS games 80 Days and Metamorphabet won Excellence in Narrative and Excellence in Visual Art respectively, weird browser-game collection Tetrageddon Games picked up the Nuovo Award, and harrowing survival adventure This War of Mine took the Audience Award. You can see the full winners below.
Excellence in Visual Art ($3,000)
Metamorphabet (Patrick Smith of Vectorpark)
Nuovo Award ($5,000)
Tetrageddon Games (Nathalie Lawhead)
Excellence in Audio ($3,000)
Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure (SuperChop Games)
Excellence in Narrative ($3,000)
80 Days (inkle)
Best Student Game ($3,000)
Close Your (Goodbye World Games - University of Southern California)
Audience Award ($3,000)
This War of Mine (11 bit studios)
Excellence in Design ($3,000)
Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wilds)
Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($30,000)
Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wilds)
