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Stanley's Papers: IGF 2014 Finalists Revealed

A certain Radiohead song

It's all been a bit Massively Mainstream Games About Aliens today, so it's something of a relief to instead turn my gaze to some of the indie highlights of the last and upcoming year. Though that said, the finalists list - the finalistlist - for the 16th annual Independent Games Festival is, while awash with truly splendid games, somewhat short on surprises, which may add fuel to the fires of those who consider the competition to not quite be what it could. Existent huge successes Papers, Please and The Stanley Parable dominate, with Don't Starve also snagging multiple nods, as does the sadly mobile-only Device 6. Take a look, see if you feel you're being exposed to new stuff or just reminded of what you already know is ace.

I do worry there's a vast glut of games that aren't managing to be seen above the more well-known titles, but let's be happily honest, there's an awful lot of extremely high quality flashing pixel-based entertainment in here.

Here's the full run-down of finalists. Quite a few I haven't played yet, but far fewer I hadn't heard of previously. I'm looking forward to filling in the gaps in my experience for sure. Nice to see Michael 'Smestorp' Brough winning more attention for his disconcerting and clever creations too. 868-HACK is excellent, and hopefully out on PC soon.

Excellence In Visual Art

DEVICE 6 (Simogo)
Gorogoa (Jason Roberts)
The Banner Saga (Stoic)
Perfect Stride (Arcane Kids)
Samorost3 (Amanita Design)
Drei (Etter)

Honorable mentions: Shelter (Might & Delight); Galak-Z (17-BIT); The Swapper (Facepalm Games); The Yawhg (Damian Sommer & Emily Carroll); Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment)

Excellence In Narrative

The Yawhg (Damian Sommer & Emily Carroll)
Paralect (Paralect Team)
DEVICE 6 (Simogo)
Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" (Deirdra Kiai Productions)
The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)
Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)

Honorable mentions: Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games); Gorogoa (Jason Roberts); Redshirt (The Tiniest Shark); Detective Grimoire (SFB Games); Monster Loves You (Radial Games Corp. & Dejobaan Games, LLC.)

Excellence In Design

TowerFall Ascension (Matt Thorson)
868-HACK (Michael Brough)
Mushroom 11 (Untame)
Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)
Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment)
Crypt of the NecroDancer (Brace Yourself Games)

Honorable mentions: The Banner Saga (Stoic); Perfect Stride (Arcane Kids); Threes (Asher Vollmer, Greg Wohlwend & Jimmy Hinson); DEVICE 6 (Simogo); Gorogoa (Jason Roberts)

Excellence In Audio

Samorost3 (Amanita Design)
Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" (Deirdra Kiai Productions)
The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)
Crypt of the NecroDancer (Brace Yourself Games)
DEVICE 6 (Simogo)
The Yawhg (Damian Sommer & Emily Carroll)

Honorable mentions: Sokobond (Alan Hazelden, Harry Lee & Ryan Roth); The Banner Saga (Stoic); Potatoman Seeks the Troof (Pixeljam); Jazzpunk (Necrophone Games); Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment)

Nuovo Award

Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" (Deirdra Kiai Productions)
Luxuria Superbia (Tale of Tales)
Extrasolar (Lazy 8 Studios)
Perfect Woman (Peter Lu and Lea Schonfelder)
SoundSelf (Robin Arnott)
Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)
Save the Date (Paper Dino Software)
Corrypt (Michael Brough)

Honorable mentions: Shelter (Might & Delight); DEVICE 6 (Simogo); Elegy for a Dead World (Dejobaan Games with Popcannibal); SUPERHOT (SUPERHOT Team); 18 Cadence (Aaron A. Reed)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe)
Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment)
Jazzpunk (Necrophone Games)
Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)
DEVICE 6 (Simogo)
Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" (Deirdra Kiai Productions)

Honorable mentions: Crypt of the NecroDancer (Brace Yourself Games); TowerFall Ascension (Matt Thorson); Kerbal Space Program (Squad); 868-HACK (Michael Brough); The Yawhg (Damian Sommer & Emily Carroll)

375 judges whittled down the longlist to these however-many-it-is, and a grand jury will shortly distil it further into a lone winner for each category, to be revealed on Wednesday, March 19th. Good luck and well done to everyone, including the already astonishingly wealthy ones.

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Papers Please

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The Stanley Parable

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About the Author
Alec Meer avatar

Alec Meer

Co-founder

Ancient co-founder of RPS. Long gone. Now mostly writes for rather than about video games.

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