The Independent Games Festival Awards for 2022 were as competitive as ever, given the incredibly strong array of indie titles that were released in 2021. Australia’s beloved Unpacking led the charge for nominations at the 2022 IGF Awards, alongside Devolver’s meta-narrative card game Inscryption, both of which graced GamesHub’s Game of the Year 2021 awards.
Inscryption ended up sweeping every award it was nominated for, including Excellence in Audio, Narrative, and Design and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize award.
IGF chair Kelly Wallick hosted the awards, starting off by voicing a collective desire to be able to express and experience joy without guilt, and highlighting the ability of games to help express that joy through an incredibly tumultuous time for the world. She ended the awards by announcing that she was stepping down from the role after 7 years, to give the opportunity to someone new.
Congratulations to all the finalists, honourable mentions, and winners at the 2022 IGF Awards!
IGF Awards 2022 Winners and nominees
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
- Cruelty Squad
- Inscryption [WINNER]
- Loop Hero
- The Eternal Cylinder
- Unpacking
- Unsighted
Honourable Mentions include: Toem, Norco, Overboard!, Saturnalia, Dodgeball Academia, Webbed, Fuzz Dungeon
Excellence in Audio
- Toem
- Unpacking
- Jett: The Far Shore
- Mini Motorways
- Sable
- Inscryption [WINNER]
Honourable Mentions include: Severed Steel, A Musical Story, Death’s Door, The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Overboard!, The Wild at Heart
Excellence in Design
- Inscryption [WINNER]
- Unpacking
- Overboard!
- Strange Horticulture
- Webbed
- Midnight Protocol
Honourable Mentions include: Loop Hero, Unsighted, Mini Motorways, Card Shark, KeyWe, Sunshine Heavy Industries
Excellence in Narrative
- Last Call
- Neurocracy
- Closed Hands
- Overboard!
- Inscryption [WINNER]
- Unpacking
Honourable Mentions include: Card Shark, Norco, The Big Con, Tux and Fanny, Opus: Echo of Starsong, Sable, Blackhaven
Excellence in Visual Art
- The Eternal Cylinder
- Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery
- Papetura [WINNER]
- Fuzz Dungeon
- The Wild at Heart
- Jett: The Far Shore
Honourable Mentions include: Inscryption, A Musical Story, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Saturnalia, Stonefly, Cris Tales
Best Student Game
- Cai Cai Balão
- Abriss – build to destroy
- Letter Lattice
- SmallLife
- Nainai’s Recipe
- Live Adventure [WINNER]
Honourable Mentions include: Astreia’s Gift, There You Are, The Bleeding Tree, dumpling,love, Lysfangha, Jivana, Hook Up, Come with Me
Nuovo Award
- Memory Card [WINNER]
- Okthryssia and Saturnia’s Bureaucratic Adventures
- Space Hole 2020
- Tux and Fanny
- Cruelty Squad
- Sparkles & Gems
- Fuzz Dungeon
- Cuccchi
Honourable Mentions include: Last Call, The Shape of Time, The Under Presents, ~Song of Homunculus~, Card Shark, The Vale: Shadow of the Crown
Audience Award
- Mini Motorways [WINNER]
