Last night's GDC Awards 2017 saw Blizzard's multiplayer shooter Overwatch clinch top prize, however it was nice to see a number of indie games feature as finalists. The Independent Games Festival Awards focuses on smaller games—in both team size and budget—and also took place in San Francisco yesterday evening.
Blendo Games' Quadrilateral Cowboy came out on top to clinch the Seumas McNally Grand Prize—fending off competition from Inside, Stardew Valley, Event[0], Hyper Light Drifter and Overcooked—and also won the ceremony's Excellence in Design category.
The lovely Ladykiller in a Bind scooped Excellence in Narrative on the night, and Heart Machine's pixel perfect Hyper Light Drifter netted Excellence in Visual Art and the Audience Award.
The full list of IGF 2017 winners is as follows:
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
- Inside (Playdead)
- Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe)
- Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)—WINNER
- Event[0] (Ocelot Society)
- Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
- Overcooked (Ghost Town Games)
Best Audio
- The Flame in the Flood (The Molasses Flood)
- GoNNER (Art in Heart)—WINNER
- Virginia (Variable State)
- Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
- Everything (David OReilly)
- Inside (Playdead)
Excellence in Design
- Imbroglio (Michael Brough)
- Ultimate Chicken Horse (Clever Endeavour Games)
- Duskers (Misfits Attic)
- Overcooked (Ghost Town Games)
- Event[0] (Ocelot Society)
- Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)—WINNER
Excellence in Narrative
- Ladykiller in a Bind (Love Conquers All Games)—WINNER
- 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (iNK Stories)
- Virginia (Variable State)
- Orwell (Osmotic Studios)
- Event[0] (Ocelot Society)
- One Night Stand (Kinmoku)
Excellence in Visual Art
- The Flame in the Flood (The Molasses Flood)
- Inside (Playdead)
- Virginia (Variable State)
- Old Man’s Journey (Broken Rules)
- Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)—WINNER
- She Remembered Caterpillars (Jumpsuit Entertainment)
Nuovo Award
- Islands: Non-Places (Carlburton LLC)
- Close (Tobias Zarges and Moritz Eberl)
- Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor (Sundae Month)
- Oiκοςpiel, Book I (David Kanaga)—WINNER
- Everything (David OReilly)
- Virginia (Variable State)
- Mu Cartographer (Titouan Millet)
- Lieve Oma (Florian Veltman)
Best Student Game
- Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor (Sundae Month)
- Lily, Colors of Santa Luz (Lily, Colors of Santa Luz Team)
- Un Pas Fragile (PAF team)—WINNER
- FAR: Lone Sails (Mr. Whale’s Game Service/Mixtvision)
- Frog Climbers (TeamCrew)
- Bamboo Heart (Sokpop Collective)
Alt.Ctrl.GDC Award
- Fear Sphere
Audience Award
- Hyper Light Drifter
Catch up with our GDC 2017 coverage by following this link.