'Her Story,' 'Undertale' and more headline IGF 2016 finalists

Innovative games Her Story, Superhot, Mini Metro, Darkest Dungeon, Undertale, and Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes are up for the grand prize at the 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards. The IGF holds its 18th consecutive Awards show on Wednesday, March 16th in San Francisco, during the annual Game Developers Conference. These six games are up for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, which nets the winner $30,000. All told, the Awards offer $50,000 for victorious indie developers across a range of categories.

For example, GNOG, Panoramical, Oxenfree, Darkest Dungeon, Mini Metro and Armello are up for Excellence in Visual Art, while Black Closet, Her Story, The Beginner's Guide, The Magic Circle, Undertale and That Dragon, Cancer are up for Excellence in Narrative.

The IGF received 750 entries for this year's Awards, a record number for the competition. The Awards will be livestreamed on March 16th on the Game Developers Choice Awards Twitch channel, hosted by Capybara Games Co-Founder and President Nathan Vella (that's the guy working on Below).

To get a feel for what the IGF Awards are all about, check out our backstage interview with 2013 winner Richard Hofmeier, creator of Cart Life.

Here are the 2016 IGF Awards finalists, as provided by the IGF itself:

Excellence in Visual Art

Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga)
Gnog (KO_OP)
Armello (League of Geeks)
Oxenfree (Night School Studio)
Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios Inc.)

Honorable Mentions: Forkride Grilltime Sloth (Black Pants Game Studio [Sebastian Stamm]); Epistory - Typing Chronicles (Fishing Cactus); Kingdom (noio & Licorice); Alto's Adventure (Snowman); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); Astroneer (System Era Softworks)

Excellence in Narrative

The Beginner's Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.)
Black Closet (Hanako Games)
That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games)
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
Undertale (Toby Fox)
The Magic Circle (Question)

Honorable Mentions: Oxenfree (Night School Studio); Orion Trail (Schell Games); Cibele (Star Maid Games); Contradiction (Tim Follin / Baggy Cat Ltd); The Writer Will Do Something (Tom Bissell and Matthew S. Burns)

Excellence in Design

Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
Kingdom (noio & Licorice)
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games)
Superhot (SUPERHOT)
Infinifactory (Zachtronics)

Honorable Mentions: Gang Beasts (Boneloaf); Imbroglio (Michael Brough); Duskers (Misfits Attic); Chaos Reborn (Snapshot Games);TIS-100 (Zachtronics); Soft Body (Zeke Virant)

Excellence in Audio

Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga)
That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games)
Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios Inc.)
Lumini (Speelbaars)
Undertale (Toby Fox)

Honorable Mentions: Heart Forth, Alicia (Alonso Martin); The Beginner's Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.); Gnog (KO_OP);Oxenfree (Night School Studio); Kingdom (noio & Licorice); Inside My Radio (Seaven Studio)

Nuovo Award

The Beginner's Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.)
Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga)
Fantastic Contraption (Northway Games & Radial Games)
Orchids To Dusk (Pol Clarissou)
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
Cibele (Star Maid Games)
Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games)
Progress (Tim Garbos, Martin Kvale and Joel Nyström)

Honorable Mentions: Enough (cabbibo); Sentree (Glitchnap); Affordable Space Adventures (KnapNok Games and Nifflas' Games);Vignettes (Pol Clarissou, Armel Gibson); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); Sage Solitaire (Zach Gage); TIS-100 (Zachtronics)

Best Student Game

Pitfall Planet (Bonfire Games)
Ape Out (Gabe Cuzzillo)
Beglitched (Jenny Jiao Hsia & Alec Thomson)
Circa Infinity (Kenny Sun)
Orchids To Dusk (Pol Clarissou)
Chambara (team ok)

Honorable Mentions: Anarcute (Anarteam); Gathering Sky (A Stranger Gravity); Not Everything is Flammable (DAM: David Shiyang Liu, Alex Hu and Mac Lotze); FAR (Mr. Whale's Game Service); Sumer (Studio Wumpus); Bad Blood (Winnie Song)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios Inc.)
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games)
Superhot (SUPERHOT)
Undertale (Toby Fox)

Honorable Mentions: The Beginner's Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.); Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga);Affordable Space Adventures (KnapNok Games and Nifflas' Games); Twelve Minutes (Luis Antonio); Oxenfree (Night School Studio);That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games); Cibele (Star Maid Games); Soft Body (Zeke Virant)