IGF Award nominations include Untitled Goose Game, A Short Hike, and Slay The Spire

The 22nd annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) Award nominees have been announced. Topping the list for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize are several commercial hits, including Untitled Goose Game and Slay The Spire.

The IGF Awards are delivered each year during the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Named after the late developer of Treadmarks, which won the award in 2000, the jury-selected Grand Prize is among the most sought-after among fledgling game developers. Past winners include Minecraft (2011) and Fez (2012), while titles like Her Story (2016), Night In The Woods (2017), and Return of the Obra Dinn (2018) took home awards more recently.

In 2015 the award was given to the student-created game Outer Wilds. The commercial version of that game would go on to become Polygon’s 2019 game of the year.

This year’s finalists include the following:

• Eliza
• A Short Hike
• Untitled Goose Game
• Mutazione
• Slay the Spire
• Anodyne 2: Return to Dust

Honorable selections include Katana Zero, Lonely Mountains: Downhill, Song of Bloom, Wide Ocean, Big Jacket, Elsinore, and Heaven’s Vault. You can find the full list of nominees, which include additional categories such as Excellent in Design and Excellent in Visual Art, at the IGF website.