2025 Independent Games Festival Awards nominees revealed

The final nominees for the 2025 Independent Games Festival Awards have been announced. The IGF is one of the biggest celebrations of indie games and their creators in the gaming world and is hosted through the Game Developers Conference—the world’s premier forum for video game developers and producers.

The 26th annual IGF Awards had over 500 entries this year alone, with Consume Me by Jenny Jiao Hsia holding the most nominations, dominating the categories of Excellence in Design, Excellence in Narrative, Excellence in Visual Art, the Nuovo Award, and the coveted Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Here’s the full list of nominees for the 2025 Independent Games Festival Awards:

Best Student Game

• A Dual Ascent
• DisplaceMen
• Growth Spurt: A Meandering Intermission into the Afterhours of a Miscalculation
• Slot Waste
• The WereCleaner
• Year Unknown

Excellence in Audio

• Anger Foot
• Despelote
• INDIKA
• ODDADA
• Thank Goodness You’re Here!
• Utopia Must Fall

Excellence in Design

• Balatro
• Blue Prince
• Caves of Qud
• Consume Me
• Pacific Drive
• Tactical Breach Wizards

Excellence in Narrative

• Caves of Qud
• Closer the Distance
• Consume Me
• Despelote
• INDIKA
• No Case Should Remain Unsolved

Excellence in Visual Arts

• Children of the Sun
• Consume Me
• Hauntii
• Judero
• Nine Sols
• Thank Goodness You’re Here!

Nuovo Award

• Consume Me
• Despelote
• Extreme Evolution: Drive to Divinity
• Ginger
• individualism in the dead-internet age: an anti-big tech asset flip shovelware rant manifesto
• Starship Home
• tapeçaria
• The Exit 8

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

• Caves of Qud
• Consume Me
• Despelote
• INDIKA
• Thank Goodness You’re Here!
• UFO 50

This year’s award show will be on March 19, at 6:30 pm PT (March 20, 1:30 pm AEDT), and will be available to watch online through the official GDC Twitch Account.