Seumas McNally Grand Prize Winners
The Seumas McNally Grand Prize is the main award given at the Independent Games Festival, during the Game Developers Conference. The award is named after gamedev Seumas McNally (1979–2000), founder of Longbow Digital Arts. McNally died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma shortly after receiving the award, then just the IGF Grand Prize, in 2000 for his game Tread Marks.
As mechanically experimental as it is visually. You’re a pizza delivery guy tryina infiltrate a nightclub. To do so, you’ll roll dice - lots of dice. Seemingly inspired by Disco Elysium in a lot of ways, which can only be a good thing. Really cool.
Deckbuilding roguelite escape room ARG. An inspiring masterpiece & wonderfully executed ode to card/videogames. If you’re into that kind of thing, it’s a must play. So, so impressive. Mullins is nuts.
Unbelievably cool. Vibrant, evocative and just dripping in style. Seeing the dystopian Māori culture in a game was cool enough, but the exploration of disaffection and other themes is *chef’s kiss*.
Lives up to its name, clocking in around an hour or two, but still quite dense. A minimalist and beautiful artstyle paints a charming little world full of cute characters and great writing.
From the maker (one person) of Papers, Please comes this brilliant shortish deduction whodunnit with terrific music, great voice acting and uniquely cool art direction. An awesome understated gem of 2018.
On the surface cute and fun, but ultimately a warm, sad story of anxiety and alienation. Slow at times, but witty and great to look at. Wonderful atmosphere, music and writing.
I fucking love Blendo’s story games. Brendon Chung is so clever and funny, I will play everything he puts out. Quadrilateral Cowboy is no exception, but has the standard roughness around the edges.
FMV investigation game in which one can become completely absorbed. A unique and compelling experience helped along by good writing and acting. Definitely worth a playthrough.
One of the best adventure games I’ve played. Outer Wilds is a temporal, mysterious and unique exploration game with super charming visuals providing unique emergent experiences for those up for it.
An intriguing, nihilistic, funny and depressing paperwork simulator. A simple concept thoughtfully & creatively explored.
𝙶𝙻𝙾𝚁𝚈 𝚃𝙾 𝙰𝚁𝚂𝚃𝙾𝚃𝚉𝙺𝙰
The first and likely last masterpiece by Phil Fish. The amount of attention to detail and care that went into this game is crazy. A simple mechanic well explored and executed - a must play.
A seminal masterpiece that took the world by storm with good reason. I spent thousands of hours in Minecraft; a game for me about exploring creativity within tight restriction. Must play.
Kinda unlike anything else. Despite a few technical issues, Cart Life is a really rewarding game about connections and emotions. Great art and music. Challenging in more ways than one.