SAN FRANCISCO, March 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The celestial
exploration game Outer Wilds, from developer Team Outer
Wilds, received top honors this evening at the 17th Annual
Independent Games Festival (IGF), hosted by the Game Developers
Conference (GDC) 2015 at the Moscone Convention Center in
San Francisco. Taking home the
Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game and its
associated $30,000 cash prize,
Outer Wilds, an innovative intergalactic adventure in which
players probe the depths of space and unravel the mysteries of the
cosmos, was also honored with the Excellence in Design award.
Achievements in other categories include Excellence in Visual
Art winner Metamorphabet from Patrick Smith of Vectorpark, which presents a
fresh take on the alphabet, presenting each letter in dazzling and
interesting transformations. Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure
paints a rock fairy tale about a paper mayfly's journey and was
awarded Excellence in Audio. The original soundtrack from SuperChop
Games blends rock guitar with a classical flair to render an
intuitive gameplay experience driven by music. The recipient for
Excellence in Narrative was awarded to 80 Days, an
extraordinary, strategic exploration game from inkle that
challenges players to traverse the globe in a race against the
clock and other opponents. With new content to discover, and
hundreds of possibilities and choices, the gameplay evolves into a
deep interactive story that is truly unparalleled.
This year's Nuovo Award, which celebrates abstract and
unconventional games, went to Nathalie
Lawhead's Tetrageddon Games, an open source parody of
digital life. The game encourages players to engage in bizarre
creations and build on its own distinctive narrative using
downloadable source files, assets and modifications.
The Best Student Game was awarded to Close Your from
developer Goodbye World Games at the University of Southern California. Close
Your is a powerful, interactive narrative that depicts the
brevity of life and utilizes the player's blinking to experience
the perspective of someone who has suffered brain trauma. Finally,
the Audience Award was given to This War of Mine from 11 bit
studios for its fresh take on the survival game genre. The
game provides an immersive war experience framed from the
perspective of a group of civilians trying to survive in a besieged
city; struggling with lack of food, medicine, and constant danger
from snipers and hostile scavengers.
All finalists and winners for this year's competition are
playable at the Game Developers Conference at the IGF Pavilion on
the GDC Expo Floor in San
Francisco's Moscone Center through Friday, March 6.
The IGF awarded the following games as winners of its 17th
Annual Awards:
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)
The Independent Games Festival – which also consists of a
two-day Independent Games Summit on Monday,
March 2nd and Tuesday, March
3rd as part of GDC – was established in 1998 by the UBM Tech
Game Network to encourage innovation in game development and to
recognize the best independent game developers, similar to how the
Sundance Film Festival has honored the independent film
community.
Organizers would like to thank this year's kind supporters of
the IGF, including ID@Xbox (Platinum Sponsor), Valve (Platform
Sponsor), and DigiPen Institute of
Technology (Student Showcase Platinum Sponsor).
The IGF offers finalists both global exposure and more than
$50,000 in cash prizes to each year's
winners.
For more information about the IGF, and its finalists and
winners, please visit http://www.igf.com.
About the UBM Tech Game Network
A core provider of
essential information to the professional game industry, the UBM
Tech Game Network offers market-defining content, and drives
community through its award winning lineup of print, online, event
and research products and services. These include the Game
Developers Conference®, the Webby Award-winning Gamasutra.com and
network of sites, the Game Advertising Online ad network, the Game
Developers Conference™ Europe, the
Game Developers Conference™ China,
the Game Career Seminars and GameCareerGuide.com, the Independent
Games Festival and Summit, and the Game Developers Choice Awards.
Visit: www.jointhegamenetwork.com
About UBM Tech
UBM Tech is a global media business that brings together the
world's technology communities through live events, online
properties and custom services. UBM Tech's community-focused
approach provides its users and clients with expertly curated
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SOURCE UBM Tech Game Network