This year's GDC has been the source of many interesting industry tidbits . But forget them for now, because it also hosted two award shows last night. Shiny, slightly crass and easily digestible in a handy list format - we've got all the winners from the Independent Games Festival Awards and Game Developers Choice Awards right here. Did Hotline Miami's masked protagonist beat the living snot out of the FTL crew for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize? Did Incredipede's creepy-crawly monstrosities scare away the other Visual Art nominees? Did any game not called Journey win a GDC Award? Read on to find out.
We'll start with the IGF Awards, primarily because its the one that wasn't dominated by a PS3-exclusive game about plodding through a desert.
Independent Games Festival Awards
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
- Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games)
- FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)
- Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)
- Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)
- Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)
Excellence in Visual Art
- Incredipede (Northway Games and Thomas Shahan)
- Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)
- Guacalamelee! (Drinkbox Studios)
- Loves in a Dangerous Spacetime (Asteroid Base)
- Year Walk (Simogo)
Excellence in Narrative
- Thirty Flights of Loving (Blendo Games)
- Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)
- Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)
- Dys4ia (Auntie Pixelante)
- Gone Home (The Fullbright Company)
Technical Excellence
- StarForge (CodeHatch)
- Perspective (DigiPen Widdershins)
- Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)
- Intrusion 2 (Aleksey Abramenko)
- LiquidSketch (Tobias Neukom)
Excellence In Design
- Samurai Gunn (Beau Blyth)
- FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)
- Starseed Pilgrim (Droqen & Ryan Roth)
- Super Hexagon (Terry Cavanagh)
- Super Space (David Scamehorn and Alexander Baard/DigiPen)
Excellence In Audio
- Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)
- Bad Hotel (Lucky Frame)
- 140 (Jeppe Carlsen)
- Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games)
- Pixeljunk 4AM (Q-Games)
Best Student Game
- ATUM (NHTV IGAD)
- Back to Bed (Danish Academy of Digital Interactive Entertainment)
- Blackwell's Asylum (Danish Academy of Digital Interactive Entertainment)
- Farsh (NHTV IGAD)
- Knights of Pen & Paper (IESB - Instituto de Ensino Superior de Brasilia & UnB - Universidade de Brasilia)
- the mindfulxp volume (Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center)
- Pulse (Vancouver Film School)
- Zineth (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
Nuovo Award
- Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)
- Spaceteam (Henry Smith)
- Dys4ia (Auntie Pixelante)
- Bientot l'ete (Tale of Tales)
- 7 Grand Steps (Mousechief)
- MirrorMoon (SantaRagione + BloodyMonkey)
- VESPER.5 (Michael Brough)
- Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)
Audience Award
- FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)
Thoughts? Firstly, congratulations to Zineth, deserved winner of Best Student Game. It's great, and you should play it . More obviously, well done to Richard Hofmeier for the runaway success of Cart Life. I'm sure many will be surprised by just how well it's done, especially among such a strong list of contenders for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. If you're currently thinking "Cart What now?" let Christopher Livingston's Sim-plicity column on the game fill you in.
Elsewhere in the list, I'm surprised to see Little Inferno getting a Technical Excellence award (it had nice fire, I guess), unsurprised to see FTL nab the Audience Award, and marginally disappointed to see Hotline Miami go back to its DeLorean with nothing. Although, hey, it's still got a chance at a Games Developer Choice Award! Haha, no, just kidding. Journey won everything .
Game Developers Choice Awards
Game of the Year
- Dishonored (Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
- The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)
- Mass Effect 3 (BioWare/Electronic Arts)
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games/2K Games)
- Journey (Thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)
Innovation Award
- Mark of the Ninja (Klei Entertainment/Microsoft Studios)
- Journey (Thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)
- FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)
- The Unfinished Swan (Giant Sparrow/Sony Computer Entertainment)
- ZombiU (Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft)
Best Audio
- Journey (Thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games/Devolver Digital)
- Sound Shapes (Queasy Games/Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Assassin's Creed III (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
- Halo 4 (343 Industries/Microsoft Studios)
Best Debut
- Humble Hearts (Dust: An Elysian Tail)
- Polytron Corporation (Fez)
- Giant Sparrow (The Unfinished Swan)
- Subset Games (FTL: Faster Than Light)
- Fireproof Games (The Room )
Best Downloadable Game
- The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)
- Spelunky (Derek Yu/Andy Hull)
- Trials: Evolution (RedLynx/Microsoft Studios)
- Mark Of The Ninja (Klei Entertainment/Microsoft Studios)
- Journey (Thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)
Best Game Design
- Dishonored (Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
- Mark Of The Ninja (Klei Entertainment/Microsoft Studios)
- Spelunky (Derek Yu/Andy Hull)
- Journey (Thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games/2K Games)
Best Handheld/Mobile Game
- Gravity Rush (SCE Japan Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Hero Academy (Robot Entertainment)
- Sound Shapes (Queasy Games/Sony Computer Entertainment)
- The Room (Fireproof Games)
- Kid Icarus: Uprising (Sora/Nintendo)
Best Narrative
- Spec Ops: The Line (Yager Entertainment/2K Games)
- Mass Effect 3 (BioWare/Electronic Arts)
- Dishonored (Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
- The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)
- Virtue's Last Reward (Chunsoft/Aksys Games)
Best Technology
- Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
- PlanetSide 2 (Sony Online Entertainment)
- Halo 4 (343 Industries/Microsoft Studios)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Treyarch/Activision)
- Assassin's Creed III (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Best Visual Arts
- Borderlands 2 (Gearbox Software/2K Games)
- Journey (Thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
- Dishonored (Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
- Halo 4 (343 Industries/Microsoft Studios)
Ambassador Award
- Chris Melissinos, curator of The Smithsonian's The Art of Video Games exhibit
Pioneer Award
- Spacewar creator Steve Russell
Audience Award
- Dishonored
Lifetime Achievement Award
- BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk
Conclusion: award show judges really love Journey.
