The shortlist for the 15th IGF award finalists has been revealed. There were more than 580 entries this year, across an incredibly diverse range of genres, requiring the attention of some 200 judges to help pare down the games into seven award categories, with five nominees apiece.
Contenders for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize are as follows:
80s-video-nasty-inspired, bloody, top-down actioner, Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games)
Unforgiving, calamity-prone spaceship survival sim, FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)
Socially astute mundane-job sim-cum-arcade game, Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)
Meta-critical toy-burning casual-game satire, Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)
Gorgeous magic-realist adventure, Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)
Meanwhile, honourable mentions went to Gone Home (The Fullbright Company); Thirty Flights of Loving (Blendo Games); The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe); Super Hexagon (Terry Cavanagh); Starseed Pilgrim (Droqen & Ryan Roth).
Head over to the IGF site to see the full list of nominees each of the categories - visual art, narrative, technical excellence, design, audio and the Nuovo award for "abstract and unconventional game development". The winners will be announced as part of the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, on Wednesday 27 March.
