The 18th Annual Independent Games Festival Awards have just wrapped up, with the 16th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards to follow shortly. I was at the ceremony, which took place in a preposterously large ballroom within the conference centre in San Francisco. You can find a full list of the winners, nominees and my thoughts on the outcome below.

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

Darkest Dungeon

Her Story – WINNER

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

Mini Metro

SUPERHOT

UNDERTALE

Six excellent nominees and they’re a varied bunch as well. I adore Her Story so no arguments from me. It’s a smart and unusual game from a fascinating designer.

Excellence in Visual Art

Armello

Darkest Dungeon

GNOG

Mini Metro

OXENFREE – WINNER

PANORAMICAL

I love Mini Metro’s minimalism but OXENFREE is a very handsome game.

Excellence in Design

Her Story

Infinifactory

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes – WINNER

Kingdom

Mini Metro

SUPERHOT

I did not expect Keep Talking to win but I am absolutely delighted that it did. It’s an incredibly clever game that is built around dialogue in a way that I generally associate with boardgames.

Excellence in Audio

Darkest Dungeon

Lumini

Mini Metro – WINNER

PANORAMICAL

That Dragon, Cancer

UNDERTALE

I was rooting for Darkest Dungeon because I wanted to hear the narrator’s voice through these massive speakers. But Mini Metro’s procedural sounds are gorgeous.

Excellence in Narrative

Black Closet

Her Story – WINNER

That Dragon, Cancer

The Beginner’s Guide

The Magic Circle

UNDERTALE

No arguments from me, although UNDERTALE or The Beginner’s Guide wouldn’t have surprised me. Her Story is a game about playing with narrative structure in such a specific way that this makes a lot of sense.

Nuovo Award

Cibele – WINNER

Fantastic Contraption

Her Story

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

orchids to dusk

PANORAMICAL

Progress

The Beginner’s Guide

If this hadn’t been either Cibele or orchids to dusk I would have been surprised. Poor Her Story though. Only two.

Best Student Game

Ape Out

Beglitched – WINNER

Chambara

Circa Infinity

orchids to dusk

Pitfall Planet

I confess to ignorance aobut some of these but Beglitched looks SPECTACULAR.

Audience Award

UNDERTALE. It’s only win. Judging by the crowd reaction in the room, it might have won several audience awards if the people here could have voted live tonight. Of course, the internet, which is an audience, has already decided that UNDERTALE is the best game ever.