The 2017 Independent Games Festival opens calls for submissions

Submissions are now officially open for the 2017 Independent Games Festival, the signature competition for indie games, to be held for its 19th year during GDC 2017 in San Francisco next March. This directly follows a record-breaking year which saw over 750 entries for the 2016 event, including top prizewinners like Her Story, Mini Metro and Undertale.

The deadline for all submissions to the IGF this year will be October 24th, with finalists announced in early January 2017. Finalists' games will once again be playable at the packed IGF Pavilion on the Game Developers Conference 2017 Expo Floor, and will compete for over $50,000 in prizes.

As per normal, these awards include the Excellence in Visual Art, Audio, Design and Narrative Awards, which will have six finalists each, with the winner getting $3,000 in each category. There will also be six finalists for the $30,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

This year also sees the return of the Best Student Game award ($3,000 prize), and the special Nuovo Award ($5,000, eight finalists) will be offered again to honor the game title that 'makes the jurors think differently about games as a medium'. Finally, the IGF Audience Award ($3,000 prize) will be decided by a public vote from all of the competition finalists.

Organizers are also welcoming the alt.ctrl.GDC Award, an affiliated award to be given out during the IGF ceremony, honoring intriguing and inventive games using unique one-of-a-kind controllers. Finalists and the winner for this award will be picked from entries into the popular on-site GDC exhibit, which will open a little later in 2016.

More information on this year's Independent Games Festival's changes and awards is available via IGF Chairperson Kelly Wallick’s blog post.

The Independent Games Festival is the longest-running and highest profile independent video game festival, summit and showcase. It has served as a springboard for several games that have gone on to become critical and cultural hits. Previous IGF prize winners from the past 18 years include Her Story, Papers, Please, Spelunky, Minecraft, Limbo, World of Goo, Braid, Castle Crashers, Everyday Shooter and many more of the game industry's breakthrough independent titles.

Winners will be announced on stage at the high-profile Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday, March 1st, 2017, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with the IGF Pavilion open from March 1st-3rd, and the sister Independent Games Summit event taking place on February 27th and 28th. 

The Independent Games Festival is a part of the 2017 Game Developers Conference, which will be held from March 1st through March 3rd, 2017 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. IGF continues to be the largest annual gathering of independent video game developers, showcasing top talent across the industry and keeping a pulse on the future of independent games.

Submissions to the competition are now open to all independent game developers; here are the important dates you should mark on your calendar as you prepare for IGF 2017:

For a complete list of information on the 2017 Independent Games Festival, including submission specifics and frequently asked questions, please visit the official Independent Games Festival website