Genesis Noir nabs four nominations in 2021 IGF Awards

The Independent Games Festival today revealed its finalists for the 23rd annual IGF Awards, with Feral Cat Den's cosmic mystery game Genesis Noir nominated in four categories, including the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Joining it in the grand prize pool were Thunder Lotus's afterlife management game Spiritfarer, Origame Digital's cyberpunk photography game Umurangi Generation, The Chicory Team's painting adventure Chicory: A Colorful Tale, Tuxedo Labs' voxel-based heist game Teardown, and Kaizen Game Works' open-world murder mystery Paradise Killer.

This year's nominees were pulled from 504 entries into the competition, which is the fewest number of submissions since 2011.

Winners will be revealed at the IGF Awards show on July 21 at 4:30 p.m.

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

• Paradise Killer (Kaizen Game Works)
• Teardown (Tuxedo Labs)
• Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory Team)
• Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den)
• Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital)
• Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus)

Honorable Mentions: A Monster's Expedition (Through Puzzling Exhibitions) (Draknek & Friends), Blaseball (The Game Band), Bugsnax (Young Horses), Carto (Sunhead Games), Disc Room (Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Terri Vellmann, Doseone), NUTS (Joon, Pol, Muuutsch, Char & Torfi), Omori (Omocat), Spelunky 2 (Mossmouth, BlitWorks), There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension (Draw Me A Pixel)

Excellence in Audio

• Say No! More (Studio Fizbin)
• Blind Dive (Lo-Fi People)
• Sunlight (Krillbite Studio)
• Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den)
• Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus)
• A Monster's Expedition (Through Puzzling Exhibitions) (Draknek & Friends)

Honorable Mentions: Ikenfell (Happy Ray Games), Stilstand (Ida Hartmann & Niila Games), BPM: Bullets Per Minute (Awe Interactive), Creaks (Amanita Design), In Other Waters (Jump Over the Age), Olija (Thomas Olsson / Skeleton Crew Studio, Inc.), Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory Team), Mixolumia (davemakes)

Best Student Game

• Vessels (Local Space Survey Corps, LLC)
• Dorfromantik (Toukana Interactive)
• Some Old Stuff (Hao Fan, Harry (Weizhong) Chen, Haku (Minyan Cai), Emi Schaufeld)
• Rainy Season (Inasa Fujio)
• Symphonia (Guillaume Roux, Nicolas Derio, Pierre Vrel, Guillaume Gille, Alexis Grand, Simon Larguier, Martin Lepretre, Corentin Pauvrasseau, Kilian Dufour, Alexandre Mansois, Quentin Vernet, Hicham Benrhannou, Olivier Esman)
• Hadr (Dominik Konečný of Ateliér Duchů)

Honorable Mentions: Quest 4 Papa (Rumba Corp), Bots Are Stupid (Leander Edler-Golla), Faith: The Unholy Trinity, (Airdorf Games), Liquidators (1986 CL3), Pink Gum (Mad Cream Games), Running Souls (Bar Levi, Asaf Kali, Yakir Oz, Michal Shoshan), Flicker of Hope (Studio Whip), Sketchball (Pincun Liu), Bunny Hill (Brendan Roarty)

Excellence in Design

• Teardown (Tuxedo Labs)
• Disc Room (Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Terri Vellmann, Doseone)
• Shady Part of Me (Douze Dixièmes)
• There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension (Draw Me A Pixel)
• Signs of the Sojourner (Echodog Games)
• A Monster's Expedition (Through Puzzling Exhibitions) (Draknek & Friends)

Honorable Mentions: Boomerang X (Dang), Ancient Enemy (Grey Alien Games & Jim Rossignol), Biped (Next Studios), Ynglet (Nifflas & Triple Topping), Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory Team), Moncage (Optillusion), Airborne Kingdom (The Wandering Band), The Last Cube (Improx Games)

Excellence in Narrative

• Lost Words: Beyond the Page (Sketchbook Games)
• Across the Grooves (Nova-box)
• Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den)
• Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital)
• Haven (The Game Bakers)
• In Other Waters (Jump Over the Age)

Honorable Mentions: Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus), Nuts (Joon, Pol, Muuutsch, Char & Torfi), Blaseball (The Game Band), Inkslinger (Gateway: Jacob Hvid Amstrup and Lucas A. V. Møller), Paradise Killer (Kaizen Game Works), South of the Circle (State of Play), Stilstand (Ida Hartmann & Niila Games), Blind Drive (Lo-Fi People)

Excellence in Visual Art

• Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den)
• Arrog (Hermanos Magia and Leap Game Studios)
• In Other Waters (Jump Over the Age)
• Shady Part of Me (Douze Dixièmes)
• Call of the Sea (Out of the Blue)
• Carto (Sunhead Games)

Honorable Mentions: Stilstand (Ida Hartmann 38 Niila Games), Bloodroots (Paper Cult), Omori (Omocat), Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory Team), Going Under (Aggro Crab), Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital)

Nuovo Award

• Blaseball (The Game Band)
• Nightmare Temptation Academy (Lena NW & Costcodreamgurl)
• That Night, Steeped by Blood River (Taylor Swietanski)
• Airplane Mode (Bacronym)
• Welcome to Elk (Triple Topping)
• Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital)
• Chasing Light (Vittgen Inc.)
• Kristallijn (Gaël Bourhis)

Honorable Mentions: Cai Cai Balão (LookUp Games at DADIU 2020), Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den), Gnosia (Petit Depotto), Liquidators (1986 CL3), Night Dreams (Salem Hughes), Rainy Season (Inasa Fujio), Stilstand (Ida Hartmann & Niila Games), There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension (Draw Me A Pixel)