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IGF 2024 finalists are yet again more proof that RPS is right about everything

Venba leads the nomination pack, with A Highland Song, Cocoon and more in hot pursuit

A scene in Venba, a 2D cooking game, showing mother and son in the kitchen together
Image credit: Visai Games
Katharine Castle avatar
News by Katharine Castle Former Editor-in-chief
Published on
21 comments

The Independent Games Festival awards - aka: the only awards that are actually worth paying attention to - have announced the finalists for their 2024 cohort, and wouldn't you know it, there are lots of RPS-endorsed games in there, lemme tell ya. Cooking adventure Venba leads the pack with a total of four nominations, but it's closely followed by Cocoon, A Highland Song, Mediterranea Inferno and 1000xResist, all of which have scooped three noms apiece.

The IGF Awards is always one of my favourite times of the year, as it's consistently done great work highlighting interesting games and the hidden gems that might have flown under your radar. I'm particularly pleased to see some of my personal favs from 2023 make the cut here (hello Cobalt Core, The Wreck, and an honourable mention for Let's! Revolution!). As always, though, the winners for each category will be selected by a jury of game developers, and announced during the Game Developers Conference on March 20th.

Here's the full list of nominees:

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

  • 1000xResist (Sunset Visitor/Fellow Traveller)
  • A Highland Song (Inkle)
  • Anthology of the Killer (Thecatamites, Tommy Tone, A. Degen)
  • Cocoon (Geometric Interactive/ Annapurna Interactive)
  • Mediterranea Inferno (Lorenzo Redaelli, Eyeguys / Santa Ragione)
  • Venba (Visai Games)

Honorable Mentions:

Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc/Focus Entertainment), Final Profit: A Shop RPG (Brent Arnold), Goodbye Volcano High (KO_OP), In Stars and Time (insertdisc5/Armor Games Inc), Rhythm Doctor (7th Beat Games, indienova), Tchia (Awaceb/Kepler Interactive), The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (Deconstructeam/Devolver Digital)

Best Student Game

  • goodbye.monster (Monster Team)
  • Once Upon a Jester (Bonte Avond/Crunching Koalas)
  • Pile Up! (Remoob/Catoptric Games, IndieArk)
  • Planetka (TeTerka)
  • RAM: Random Access Mayhem (Xylem Studios)
  • Try Again (the Rejects)

Honorable Mentions:

A Day With Mochi (San Felicete Studio/Rubika Supinfogame), Barkane: The Folds of Calamity (Chase O'Brien & VGDev), Birds Aren't Real: The Game (USC Games), Cyberside Picnic (Michael Luo/Cathode Radiator), Entangled (Fibula Studio), Lime Juice (Benbees), Re:Fresh (Merge Conflict Studio)

Excellence in Audio

  • A Highland Song (Inkle)
  • Cocoon (Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive)
  • Nour: Play With Your Food (Terrifying Jellyfish/Panic)
  • Rhythm Doctor (7th Beat Games, indienova)
  • Tchia (Awaceb/Kepler Interactive)
  • Venba (Visai Games)

Honorable Mentions:

Anthology of the Killer (Thecatamites, Tommy Tone, A. Degen), El Paso, Elsewhere (Strange Scaffold), Let's! Revolution! (Antfood, BUCK/Hawthorn Games), Planet of Lana (Wishfully/Thunderful Publishing), Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Summerfall Studios/Humble Games)

Excellence in Design

  • Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc/Focus Entertainment)
  • Cobalt Core (Rocket Rat Games/Brace Yourself Games)
  • Cocoon (Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive)
  • Cryptmaster (Paul Hart, Lee Williams, Akupara Games)
  • Final Profit: A Shop RPG (Brent Arnold)
  • Isles of Sea and Sky (Cicada Games, Jason Newman, Craig Collver/Gamera Game)

Honorable Mentions:

20 Small Mazes (FLEB), Peaks of Yore (Anders Grube Jensen/TraipseWare), Price of Flight (WATERBOX), Timberborn (Mechanistry)

Excellence in Narrative

  • 1000xResist (Sunset Visitor/Fellow Traveller)
  • A Highland Song (Inkle)
  • Mediterranea Inferno (Lorenzo Redaelli, Eyeguys/Santa Ragione)
  • The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (Deconstructeam/Devolver Digital)
  • The Wreck (The Pixel Hunt)
  • Venba (Visai Games)

Honorable Mentions:

Goodbye Volcano High (KO_OP), Saltsea Chronicles (Die Gute Fabrik), Slay the Princess (Black Tabby Games), Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Summerfall Studios/Humble Games), The Archivist and the Revolution (Autumn Chen)

Excellence in Visual Arts

  • Anthology of the Killer (Thecatamites, Tommy Tone, A. Degen)
  • Clash: Artifacts of Chaos (ACE Team/Nacon)
  • Darkest Dungeon II (Red Hook Studios)
  • Little Goody Two Shoes (AstralShiftPro LDA, AstralShift/Square Enix)
  • Phonopolis (Amanita Design)
  • Venba (Visai Games)

Honorable Mentions

30 Birds (RAM Games, Ram Ram, Business Goose Studios/ARTE France), Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc/Focus Entertainment), Goodbye Volcano High (KO_OP), NIDUS (Caleb Wood), SLUDGE LIFE 2 (Terri Vellmann, DOSEONE/Devolver Digital)

Nuovo Award

  • 1000xResist (Sunset Visitor/Fellow Traveller)
  • Anthology of the Killer (Thecatamites, Tommy Tone, A. Degen)
  • Cryptmaster (Paul Hart, Lee Williams, Akupara Games)
  • Kevin (1997-2077) (Kevin Du)
  • Mediterranea Inferno (Lorenzo Redaelli, Eyeguys/Santa Ragione)
  • NIDUS (Caleb Wood)
  • The Forest Cathedral (Wakefield Interactive LLC, Brian Wilson/Whitehorn Games)

Honorable Mentions:

BlueSuburbia (alienmelon), goodbye.monster (Monster Team), In Stars and Time (insertdisc5/Armor Games Inc), Nour: Play With Your Food (Terrifying Jellyfish/Panic), The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (Deconstructeam/Devolver Digital)

The final IGF award, meanwhile, is the Audience Award, which you can vote for right now, up until January 31st. The list of nominees includes all the games that made it to finalist status this year, so if you want to show some love to your particular favourite this year, make sure you submit your vote before the deadline.

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