Night in the Woods wins Grand Prize at GDC’s Independent Games Festival Awards

GDC was jam-packed with award ceremonies last night, with both the Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards and the 18th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards back-to-back.

Infinite Fall’s Night in the Woods was the bigger winner of the IGF Awards, receiving both the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game and the Excellence in Narrative award. Hempuli’s Baba is You also won big last night, winning Best Student Game and Excellence in Design.

The Nuovo Award (which is “given to the game title that makes the jurors think differently about games as a medium”) was won by Bennett Foddy for Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy.

Here’s the list of winners of the 20th IGF Awards:

• Excellence in Visual Art ($3,000 prize): Chuchel (Amanita Design)
• Excellence in Audio ($3,000 prize): Uurnog Uurnlimited (Nifflas Games)
• Excellence in Design ($3,000 prize): Baba Is You (Hempuli)
• Excellence in Narrative ($3,000 prize): Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
• Nuovo Award ($3,000 prize): Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (Bennett Foddy)
• Best Student Game ($3,000 prize): Baba Is You (Hempuli)
• Audience Award ($3,000 prize): Celeste (Celeste Team)
• ID@Xbox Gaming for Everyone Award: SpecialEffect
• alt.ctrl.GDC Award ($3,000 prize): Puppet Pandemonium
• Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($30,000 prize): Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)

Meanwhile, the 18th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) crowned Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which won Game of the Year, Best Audio and Best Design.

Jason Roberts’ Gorogoa won two prizes (Best Mobile Game and Innovation Award), as did Studio MDHR for Cuphead (Best Debut and Best Visual Art).

In terms of special awards, Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail received this year’s Ambassador Award, recognising his “work helping incubators, local events, universities, community efforts, and games industry policy around the world.” 

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Double Fine’s Tim Schafer, who will also be the recipient of the 2018 Fellowship at the BAFTA Games Awards on April 12th.

Here are the winners of Game Developers Choice Awards:

• Best Audio: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo)
• Best Debut: Studio MDHR (Cuphead)
• Best Design: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo)
• Best Mobile Game: Gorogoa (Jason Roberts/Buried Signal)
• Innovation Award: Gorogoa (Jason Roberts/Buried Signal)
• Best Narrative: What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow)
• Best Technology: Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games)
• Best Visual Art: Cuphead (Studio MDHR)
• Best VR/AR Game: SUPERHOT VR (The SUPERHOT Team)
• Audience Award: NieR:Automata (PlatinumGames)
• Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo)
• Ambassador Award: Rami Ismail
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Tim Schafer