Seumas McNally Grand Prize

Seumas McNally Grand Prize 2016 Ceremony

The Seumas McNally Grand Prize is the main award given at the Independent Games Festival (IGF), an annual event that takes place during the Game Developers Conference, one of the largest gatherings of the indie video game industry.[1] It was first awarded as the Independent Games Festival Grand Prize to Fire and Darkness in the 1999 edition of the festival.[2] The next year, it was awarded to Seumas McNally for his game Tread Marks; following McNally's passing from Hodgkin's lymphoma shortly after, the award was renamed in his honor in 2001.

Twenty-six video games have received the award, and more than 50 have been selected as finalists. The award is given alongside a prize of US$10,000.[3] For the 2004 and 2005 years, it was divided into two categories, "Open Category" and "Web/Downloadable", although they were merged back into a single prize in 2006.[4][5][6] From 2011 onwards, a list of "Honorable Mentions" was introduced, composed of games that had been considered for the prize but had not become finalists.[7]

Gish and Seed are the only games to become finalists in multiple editions of the event. Additionally, Gish is the only finalist to win the prize in a subsequent edition of the festival.[2][4][5][8] FTL: Faster Than Light was the first game to have been both an honorable mention and a finalist, achieving the former in 2012 and the latter in 2013. The Stanley Parable achieved the same feat, becoming an honorable mention in 2013 and a finalist in 2014.[9][10][11] Games do not have to be published in order to qualify for the prize; when Fez won the award in 2012, it was still undergoing pre-release certification.[12] Some developers have won the prize twice, either solo or as part of a larger team: Alec Holowka for Aquaria and Night in the Woods, and Lucas Pope for Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn.

Recipients

[edit]
Year Winner Developer Finalists[a] Honorable mentions[b] Ref.
1999 Fire and Darkness Singularity Software
  • Acidia
  • Bulbous II
  • BFRIS Zero-Gravity Fighter Combat
  • Crime Cities
  • EverNight
  • Flagship: Champion
  • Food Chain
  • Journey Into The Brain
  • Mind Rover
  • Resurrection
  • Seed
  • Sleights
  • Terminus
  • V.D.
 — [2]
2000 Tread Marks Longbow Games — [8]
2001 Shattered Galaxy Nexon
  • Archmage: Stabat Mater
  • Chase Ace 2
  • Hardwood Spades
  • Hostile Space
  • IronSquad
  • SabreWing
  • Strifeshadow
  • Takeda
  • Virtual U
 — [13]
2002 Bad Milk Dreaming Media — [14]
2003 Wild Earth Super X Studios — [15]
2004[c] Savage: The Battle for Newerth S2 Games — [4]
Oasis Mind Control Software
  • AlphaQUEUE
  • Beesly's Buzzwords
  • Billiard Boxing
  • Chomp! Chomp! Safari
  • Dr. Blob's Organism
  • Dungeon Scroll
  • Gish
  • Space Station Manager
  • Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates
 —
2005[c] Gish Chronic Logic — [5]
Wik and the Fable of Souls Reflexive Entertainment —
2006 Darwinia Introversion Software — [6]
2007 Aquaria Bit Blot — [16]
2008 Crayon Physics Deluxe Kloonigames — [17]
2009 Blueberry Garden Erik Svedang — [18]
2010 Monaco Pocketwatch Games — [19]
2011 Minecraft Mojang [7]
2012 Fez Polytron [9]
2013 Cart Life Richard Hofmeier [10]
2014 Papers, Please Lucas Pope [11][20]
2015 Outer Wilds Team Outer Wilds [21]
2016 Her Story Sam Barlow [22]
2017 Quadrilateral Cowboy Blendo Games [23][24]
2018 Night in the Woods Infinite Fall [25][26]
2019 Return of the Obra Dinn Lucas Pope [27][28]
2020 A Short Hike adamgryu [29][30]
2021 Umurangi Generation Origame Digital [31]
2022 Inscryption Daniel Mullins Games [32]
2023 Betrayal at Club Low Cosmo D Studios [33]
2024 Venba Visai Games [34]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ From 1999 and until 2005, a list of award-specific finalists was not given. Instead, overall finalists were revealed alongside specific award winners.
  2. ^ Honorable mentions were introduced in 2011.[7]
  3. ^ a b The Seumas McNally Grand Prize was split into two categories in 2004 and 2005: "Open Category" and "Web/Downloadable".[4][5] A single award was given again from 2006 onwards.[6]

References

[edit]
Specific
  1. ^ Dominguez, James (14 March 2014). "Locals indie game studios recognised in major industry event". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  2. ^ a b c "1999 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  3. ^ "About the IGF". Independent Games Festival. UBM Tech. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d "2004 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d "2005 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  6. ^ a b c "2006 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  7. ^ a b c "2011 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  8. ^ a b "2000 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  9. ^ a b "2012 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  10. ^ a b "2013 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  11. ^ a b "2014 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  12. ^ de Matos, Xav (7 March 2012). "Fez wins 2012 IGF 'Seumas McNally Grand Prize'". Joystiq. AOL Inc. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  13. ^ "2001 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  14. ^ "2002 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  15. ^ "2003 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  16. ^ "2007 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  17. ^ "2008 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 13 February 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  18. ^ "2009 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 13 February 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  19. ^ "2010 Independent Games Festival Winners & Finalists". Independent Games Festival. United States: UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  20. ^ "Papers, Please takes the grand prize at 16th annual IGF Awards". Gamasutra. 19 March 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  21. ^ Pitcher, Jenna (March 4, 2015). "OUTER WILDS LEADS THE 17TH ANNUAL INDEPENDENT GAMES FESTIVAL AWARDS". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on March 8, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
  22. ^ "The 17th Annual Independent Games Festival Finalists". Independent Games Festival. UBM plc. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  23. ^ Hall, Charlie (January 9, 2017). "Hyper Light Drifter, Inside and Virginia among nominees for 2017 IGF Awards". Polygon. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
  24. ^ Makuch, Eddie; Imms, Jason (March 1, 2017). "Watch The Game Developers Choice Awards Right Here Tonight". GameSpot. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  25. ^ "2018 Independent Games Festival announces Main Competition finalists!". Gamasutra. January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  26. ^ Chan, Stephanie (March 21, 2018). "Night in the Woods wins the grand prize at the Independent Games Festival". Venture Beat. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
  27. ^ "2019 Independent Games Festival reveals this year's finalists!". Gamasutra. January 3, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  28. ^ "Return of the Obra Dinn takes Grand Prize at the 21st IGF Awards!". Gamasutra. March 20, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  29. ^ "HERE ARE YOUR FINALISTS FOR THE 2020 INDEPENDENT GAMES FESTIVAL AWARDS!". Independent Games Festival. January 7, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  30. ^ "A Short Hike wins Grand Prize at the 2020 Independent Games Festival!". Gamasutra. March 18, 2020. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  31. ^ "Genesis Noir leads IGF finalists with four nominations". Gamasutra. May 7, 2021. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
  32. ^ Rousseau, Jeffrey (January 7, 2022). "Unpacking and Inscryption lead 2022 IGF Awards nominations". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  33. ^ Tran, Edmond (March 23, 2023). "IGF Awards 2023: All the winners and finalists". GamesHub. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  34. ^ Panecasio, Steph (2024-03-21). "IGF Awards 2024: All the winners and finalists". www.gameshub.com. Archived from the original on 2024-03-21. Retrieved 2024-03-21.
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