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The 2025 Independent Games Festival nominee list features some shockers

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A street fight breaks out in Thanks Goodness You're Here.
Panic

The nominees for the 27th Annual Independent Games Festival have been revealed. UFO 50, Thank Goodness You’re Here, and more will compete for this year’s top honors, the Seamus McNally Grade Prize, but there’s one shocker that didn’t make the final cut: Balatro.

The Independent Games Festival awards ceremony takes place every year at Game Developers Conference, with this year’s set to take place March 17-21. The show celebrates independent games, often nominating unexpected deep cuts and upcoming games that go on to become critical darlings. Last year’s ceremony, for instance, featured multiple nominations for 1000xResist ahead of its official release. That would go on to become one of 2024’s best-reviewed games.

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This year, six games will compete for the Seamus McNally awards: Caves of Qud, Consume Me, Despelote, Indika, Thank Goodness You’re Here, and UFO 50. The most eye-catching game on that list is Despelote, a narrative coming-of-age story set in Ecuador that’s scheduled to launch this year. It’s not only up for the Seamus McNally award but also Excellence in Audio, Narrative, and the show’s Nuovo Award, which honors more experimental games.

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As for other unreleased games nominated this year, Consume Me leads the pack with five total nominations. Raw Fury’s upcoming Blue Prince also made a splash this year, racking up an Excellence in Design nomination and an honorable mention for the Seamus McNally Award.

The big surprise here is that the Game Awards-winning Balatro didn’t make the cut for the Seamus McNally, despite making the honorable mentions list. It wasn’t entirely shut out, though, as it’ll compete in this year’s Design field.

Plenty of other 2024 releases made a major splash. Standouts like Nine Sols, Judero, Tactical Breach Wizards, Children of the Sun, and more all snagged nominations. Here’s the full list.

Best Student Game

  • A Dual Ascent (Mountain Toad Entertainment / Rubika Supinfogame)
  • DisplaceMen (Eversea Club / leafaleaves)
  • Growth Spurt: A Meandering Intermission into the Afterhours of a Miscalculation (Games for my Computer)
  • Slot Waste (Vinny Roca / pickpanpuck productions)
  • The WereCleaner (Howlin’ Hugs / USC Games)
  • Year Unknown (Julian Heuser)

Honorable Mentions

Cards of Heart (GoodMind Games), Duck Paradox (Magic Games / Midwest Games), Lost Garden (Ori Shany, Yoni Pushett, Ramon Zerem), Perfect World (Michael Overton Brown), Timeworks (Starworks Studios)

Excellence in Audio

  • Anger Foot (Free Lives / Devolver Digital)
  • Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic)
  • INDIKA (Odd Meter / 11 bit studios)
  • ODDADA (Sven Ahlgrimm, Mathilde Hoffmann, Bastian Clausdorff)
  • Thank Goodness You’re Here! (Coal Supper / Panic)
  • Utopia Must Fall (Pixeljam)

Honorable Mentions

Animal Well (Billy Basso / Bigmode), Mouthwashing (Wrong Organ / CRITICAL REFLEX), Pacific Drive (Ironwood Studios / Kepler Interactive), Rise of the Golden Idol (Color Gray Games / Playstack), UFO 50 (Mossmouth)

Excellence in Design

  • Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack)
  • Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
  • Caves of Qud (Freehold Games / Kitfox Games)
  • Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder)
  • Pacific Drive (Ironwood Studios / Kepler Interactive)
  • Tactical Breach Wizards (Suspicious Developments)

Honorable Mentions

Animal Well (Billy Basso / Bigmode), No Case Should Remain Unsolved (Somi), UFO 50 (Mossmouth), LOK Digital (Letibus Design, Icedrop Games / Draknek and Friends), Eigengrau (Martin Mauersics), The Rise of the Golden Idol (Color Gray Games / Playstack)

Excellence in Narrative

  • Caves of Qud (Freehold Games / Kitfox Games)
  • Closer the Distance (Osmotic Studios / Skybound Games)
  • Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder)
  • Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic)
  • INDIKA (Odd Meter / 11 bit studios)
  • No Case Should Remain Unsolved (Somi)

Honorable Mentions

Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury), Miniatures (Other Tales Interactive), Mouthwashing (Wrong Organ / CRITICAL REFLEX), Tactical Breach Wizards (Suspicious Developments), Thank Goodness You’re Here! (Coal Supper / Panic), The Thaumaturge (Fool’s Theory / 11 bit studios)

Excellence in Visual Arts

  • Children of the Sun (René Rother / Devolver Digital)
  • Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder)
  • Hauntii (Moonloop Games / Firestoke)
  • Judero (Talha and Jack Co, J. King-Spooner, Talha Kaya)
  • Nine Sols (RedCandleGames)
  • Thank Goodness You’re Here! (Coal Supper / Panic)

Honorable Mentions

Crow Country (SFB Games), Death of the Reprobate (Joe Richardson), Miniatures (Other Tales Interactive), Tiny Glade (Pounce Light), Ultros (Hadoque / Kepler Interactive)

Nuovo Award

  • Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder)
  • Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic)
  • Extreme Evolution: Drive to Divinity (Sam Atlas)
  • Ginger (Kevin Du / lizu ktap)
  • individualism in the dead-internet age: an anti-big tech asset flip shovelware rant manifesto (alienmelon)
  • Starship Home (Creature)
  • tapeçaria (tapestry) (mut/moochi (with help from plunderludics working group))
  • The Exit 8 (KOTAKE CREATE / Active Gaming Media Inc)

Honorable Mentions

Arctic Eggs (The Water Museum, cockydoody, abmarnie, Cameron Ginex / CRITICAL REFLEX), Judero (Talha and Jack Co, J. King-Spooner, Talha Kaya), Onto Maizilind Unto Infinity (Kas Ghobadi, Julián Palacios Gechtman / Kasrah Ghobadi), Price of Flight (WATERBOX), Project Y (Project_Y Production Committee), Refind Self: The Personality Test Game (Lizardry / PLAYISM)

Seamus McNally Grand Prize

  • Caves of Qud (Freehold Games / Kitfox Games)
  • Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder)
  • Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic)
  • INDIKA (Odd Meter / 11 bit studios)
  • Thank Goodness You’re Here! (Coal Supper / Panic)
  • UFO 50 (Mossmouth)

Honorable Mentions:

Animal Well (Billy Basso / Bigmode), Balatro (LocalThunk / Playstack), Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury), Mouthwashing (Wrong Organ / CRITICAL REFLEX), Nine Sols (RedCandleGames), Tactical Breach Wizards (Suspicious Developments)

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Giovanni Colantonio
Giovanni Colantonio
Senior Gaming Editor
As Digital Trends' Senior Gaming Editor, Giovanni Colantonio oversees all things video games at Digital Trends. As a veteran…
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