Few award ceremonies are worth your time, and tonight’s GDC awards will inevitably demonstrate that, but the Independent Games Festival Awards is very often an exception. Deliberately seeking out the most interesting, impressive and peculiar indie games, the winners and finalists reveal a wealth of games to buy or wishlist immediately. 2026’s ceremony is one of the best yet, seeing some truly incredible games get recognition.
Declaration of interests: I was a first-round judge in this year’s IGFs, meaning I had access to the hundreds of games submitted, and spent many, many hours of my spare time playing through a mixture of the OK, the quite good, and the exceptional. (Oh, and those games that appear to be a loading screen and nothing else that people pay to submit every single year.) Dozens and dozens of judges from all across the games industry play through games randomly assigned to them, and then people start championing the stand-out entries in lively discussions, encouraging more eyes onto the hidden treasures, allowing entirely unknown games to bubble to the surface and reach the second round of judging.
I’ve never been privy to what arcane rituals take place from then on, but the good news is the efforts of us first-rounders seem to be effective, and as a result the IGF finalists this year were an extraordinary pool of truly indie games (and despite Sandfall yet again submitting Clair Obscur to an indie prize designed for truly independent developers, it was thankfully eliminated early on). So let’s get on with the good stuff. Here are the finalists and winners, along with my thoughts on games you’ll especially want to check out. Winners are in bold at the top of each list.
Best Student Game
- Poco (Whalefall, Micah Boursier)
- BubbleBeast DigiDungeon (EchoLane)
- Kiloton (Jack Morehart)
- Prší (Herdek)
- Sip Fisher (Syphon Software)
- SPRKLS.exe (PesiiDom)
Excellence in Audio
- Baby Steps (Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy, Devolver Digital)
- BALL x PIT (Kenny Sun & Friends, Devolver Digital)
- Blippo+ (YACHT, Telefantasy Studios, Noble Robot, Panic)
- Eclipsium (Housefire, CRITICAL REFLEX)
- Morsels (Furcula, Annapurna Interactive)
- Wheel World (Messhof, Annapurna Interactive)
Excellence in Design
- Titanium Court (AP Thomson, Fellow Traveller)
- Angeline Era (Analgesic Productions)
- Baby Steps (Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy, Devolver Digital)
- Öoo (NamaTakahashi, tiny cactus studio, Tsuyomi)
- Skin Deep (Blendo Games, Annapurna Interactive)
- Time Flies (Playables, Panic)
I’ll add more thoughts about the amazing Titanium Court below, but I want to highlight two other games among these excellent finalists.
Öoo is an incredible puzzle game created by NamaTakahashi, in which you play as a little caterpillar whose body is made of bombs. While a truly original concept, at first the puzzle solving might seem obvious, but the game becomes increasingly exceptional the further you play. It’s a true metroidbrania, and I’m delighted it reached the finals.
Time Flies is the second-most recent game by Playables, a developer who makes these wonderfully animated experimental ideas like Cars, My Exercise, and Plug & Play. Time Flies is the first of their games to have more of a sense of a goal, rather than a toy—you’re a fly with a to-do list, but a very short time to live. It’s packed with surprises, and unlike anything else.
Excellence in Narrative
- Perfect Tides: Station to Station (Three Bees)
- Baby Steps (Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy, Devolver Digital)
- Promise Mascot Agency (Kaizen Game Works)
- Titanium Court (AP Thomson, Fellow Traveller)
- Type Help (William Rous)
- Wednesdays (The Pixel Hunt, ARTE France)
I’m just over the moon about Perfect Tides: Station to Station‘s win. It’s not often you can play a game in January and be so sure it’ll be your game of the year, but Station to Station is immediately one of my top five games I’ve ever played. It’s wonderful that it got a Grand Prize nomination, and I’d love it to have won that too, but narrative is absolutely this game’s heart and greatest strength. I feel like my primary purpose in life to make everyone else play this game has now been made a lot easier by this win.
Meanwhile, make sure to check out Type Help. It’s the game that inspired TR-49, and is currently receiving a remake by the team behind Roottrees, but I’d suggest playing it in its original form. It’s free, after all.
Excellence in Visual Arts
- Eclipsium (Housefire, CRITICAL REFLEX)
- Blippo+ (YACHT, Telefantasy Studios, Noble Robot, Panic)
- CARIMARA: Beneath the forlorn limbs (Bastinus Rex, CRITICAL REFLEX)
- Loco Motive (Robust Games, Chucklefish)
- Morsels (Furcula, Annapurna Interactive)
- Skate Story (Sam Eng, Devolver Digital)
Another win that I’m just delighted about. I get to boast that I was playing Eclipsium before it was cool, a game I found so visually fascinating that I reached out to its developer to find out how it was achieved. This walking-sim is one of the most artistically interesting games in years, with its super-complicated lo-fi art creating an atmosphere like no other. It’s a game where the world breathes around you.
Nuovo Award
- HORSES (Andrea Lucco Borlera, Santa Ragione)
- Baby Steps (Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy, Devolver Digital)
- Blippo+ (YACHT, Telefantasy Studios, Noble Robot, Panic)
- Mini Mini Golf Golf (Three More Years) Plum Road Tea Dream (Reveal Game Studio)
- Titanium Court (AP Thomson, Fellow Traveller))
- kevin’s PLAYING in berlin (Kevin Du)
- Wednesdays (The Pixel Hunt, ARTE France)
WINGS Award (Women and Gender-Marginalized Led Games)
- 13Z: The Zodiac Trials (Mixed Realms Pte Ltd)
- Ambrosia Sky (Soft Rains)
- Backpack Battles (PlayWithFurcifer, IndieArk)
- The Wandering Village (Stray Fawn Studio, Stray Fawn Publishing, Whisper Games)
- Yes, Your Grace 2: Snowfall (Brave at Night)
Ambrosia Sky is a properly fantastic game, a bonkers combination of Prey and PowerWash Simulator, in which you clean your way through an asteroid colony, and I really hope that its finalist position can gain it a lot more attention. (13Z is not yet out, and doesn’t even have a release date at this point.)
Audience Award
- Wednesdays (Pierre Corbinais, The Pixel Hunt, exaheva, Christophe Galati)
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
- Titanium Court (AP Thomson, Fellow Traveller)
- Baby Steps (Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy, Devolver Digital)
- Angeline Era (Analgesic Productions)
- Blippo+ (YACHT, Telefantasy Studios, Noble Robot, Panic)
- HORSES (Andrea Lucco Borlera, Santa Ragione)
- Perfect Tides: Station to Station (Three Bees)
Baby Steps almost had an odd night, being the most nominated game, then winning only in Audio. But a well-deserved win! And as I said, I’m so pleased Perfect Tides 2 achieved the honor of being a finalist. I must admit to not yet having played Blippo+ or Angeline Era, and while I’m not here to be negative, I’m not quite sure why HORSES got quite so far, given it’s really only OK—I suspect a fair amount might be a reaction to the brouhaha surrounding it’s being banned late last year.
But I’m pleased to agree with the celebration of Titanium Court. It’s an odd win in some ways, given it is neither on sale nor has a release date, and that’s even more peculiar given just how complete the build submitted to the competition appears to be. It is a wonderfully strange strategic RPG deckbuilding puzzle…something. And honestly, it could have won in every category, including the weird-focused Nuovo and even Audio, given its music is stunning. The animations are astonishing, the way the game is played almost inexplicable, and the nature of its narrative is for once appropriately described by the word “surreal.” It’s a very deserving winner, and it feels like it would be a very big mistake not to release it as soon as is humanly possible!
