In early January, when GDC 2015 was still a glint in its organizers' eyes, the Independent Games Festival jurors took a look at 650 games and winnowed those down to six worthy finalists.
On Wednesday, March 4, 2015, organizers announced the winners at the Independent Games Festival Awards.
But before all that — before the ceremony took place, before winner was announced, before all the pomp and circumstance — Charlie Hall and Dave Tach sat down and played the six most honored games, which had been nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. We recorded what we played, we took notes, we cataloged the feelings that arose in the cockles of our hearts. And then we sat down again to talk about about the wildly diverse list of games and what makes them noteworthy.
Press play above for a brief tour of Inkle's 80 Days, Klei Entertainment's Invisible Inc, Patrick Smith's Metamorphabet, 11 bit Studios' This War of Mine, developer The Outer Wilds' The Outer Wilds and Croteam's The Talos Principle. Check out the time codes below, if you're looking for a specific game.
- Metamorphabet - 2:57
- 80 Days - 6:28
- The Talos Principle - 14:19
- Invisible Inc - 22:00
- This War of Mine - 27:15
- The Outer Wilds - 34:27