Return of the Obra Dinn takes grand prize at the IGF Awards

Proceedings for the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice awards have just wrapped up, with Lucas Pope's Return of the Obra Dinn taking the Seamus McNally Grand Prize award for best indie game of the year in the first of the two (well deserved, too: it was one of our highest scoring games of 2018).

The IGF awards were hosted by 80 Days writer Meg Jayanth, and the GDC awards by Double Fine legend Tim Schafer, where PS4 exclusive God of War won game of the year, and Return of the Obra Dinn won Best Narrative.

Without further ado, here are the full results:

IGF Awards

Excellence in Visual Art
Mirror Drop (Ian Lilley)

Excellence in Audio
Paratopic (Arbitrary Metric)

Excellence in Design
Opus Magnum (Zachtronics)

Excellence in Narrative
Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)

Nuovo Award
Black Room (Cassie McQuater)

Best Student Game
after HOURS (Bahiyya Khan, Claire Meekel, Tim Flusk, Abi Meekel)

Audience Award
ETHEREAL (Nonsense Arts - Nicolás Recabarren and Tomás Batista)

ID@Xbox Gaming Heroes Award
Jerry Lawson

alt.ctrl.GDC Award
HOT SWAP: All Hands On Deck (Peter Gyory, Clement Zheng)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize
Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope) 

GDC Awards

Best Debut
Mountains

Best VR/AR Game
Beat Saber

Best Mobile Game
Florence

Best Narrative
Return of the Obra Dinn

Best Audio
Celeste

Best Technology
Red Dead Redemption 2

Best Visual Art
Gris

Best Design
Into the Breach

Innovation Award
Nintendo Labo

Game of the Year
God of War

Shaun Prescott
Australian Editor

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.

Latest in Events & Conferences
Nolan North and Jennifer English, who will be hosting the Future Games Show's Spring Showcase.
Jennifer English (Shadowheart) and Nolan North (Nathan Drake) will be the illustrious hosts of the Future Games Show this year
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's Rellana
AGDQ 2025 kicks off this weekend, featuring an Elden Ring saxophone boss rush, an 'All Romances' run of Fallout: New Vegas, and some of the worst games ever made
Key art for the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted
How to watch the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted 2024
Golden Joystick awards 2024 banner
The 42nd annual Golden Joystick Awards are live now—watch the whole show here
Promo for the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted, showing host Frankie Ward.
The PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted returns with announcements and reveals galore this December 5
Key art for the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted
Here are the nominees for PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted
Latest in News
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened