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Venba wins IGF Grand Prize for 2024

Visai Games' cooking adventure also picked up two Game Developers Choice awards

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
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The winners of the 2024 Independant Games Festival were announced at GDC last night, and it was Visai Games' Venba that came home with the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. The cooking adventure was up for four IGF awards in total, including nominations for Excellence in Audio, Narrative and Visual Art. But there was no runaway winner at this year's IGF Awards, with all prizes going to completely different indie games. Come and celebrate the full list of winners below.

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

  • WINNER: Venba (Visai Games)
  • 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)

Excellence in Audio

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

Excellence in Design

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

Excellence in Narrative

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

Excellence in Visual Arts

  • WINNER: Phonopolis (Amanita Design)
  • 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)
  • Venba (Visai Games)

Nuovo Award

  • WINNER: Anthology of the Killer (Thecatamites, Tommy Tone, A. Degen)
  • 1000xResist (Sunset Visitor/Fellow Traveller)
  • 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)

Best Student Game

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

The public-voted Audience Award also went to RAM: Random Access Mayhem this year (which I played the very good Steam Next Fest demo for back in February). This award was open to every game that was nominated for an IGF award this year, which means it beat all other games to the punch. An amazing achievement, especially for a student game!

Finally, Chú Mó from The Chú Mó Team@ArtCenter was awarded the alt.ctrl.gdc Award, which celebrates the most engaging, intriguing and well-executed games using unconventional, accessible or alternative physical controls.

Congratulations again to all involved, and another big round of applause to Venba - which also had further success at the Game Developers Choice Awards last night, which took place immediately after the IGF Awards. There, it also won Best Debut and the Social Impact Award, and you can find a full list of GDC Award winners on the GDC website.

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