The Independent Games Festival (IGF) juries have announced the Main Competition finalists for its prestigious 17th annual awards, honoring the most influential and outstanding development in independent video games. The IGF has nominated over 30 extraordinary game titles released in the past year.

Candidates for the 2015 IGF Awards were distributed to a group of esteemed evaluators from across the industry for evaluation. Expert juries specializing in distinct disciplines for each category then selected the IGF finalists following playthroughs and recommendations from the nearly 650 IGF Main Competition entrants.

This year’s finalists are led by various standout titles nominated for multiple awards, including inkle's globe-trotting interactive fiction game 80 Days, Croteam's philosophical first-person puzzle game The Talos Principle and the brutally earnest wartime survival simulator This War Of Mine from 11 Bit Studios.

Multiple juries also recognized titles like Invisible Inc., Klei Entertainment's hardcore tactical stealth game, and Patrick Smith's playful, interactive alphabet Metamorphabet, while the Nuovo jury honored 'abstract... and unconventional game development' with a unique selection of games, including Andi McClure and Michael Brough's chaotic paint program Become A Great Artist In Just Ten Seconds.

The IGF Awards will take place the evening of Wednesday, March 4h at the San Francisco Moscone Convention Center. The IGF Awards will precede the Game Developers Choice Awards, which recognizes the best games of the year across all sections of video game development. Winners of the IGF Awards will also receive nearly $60,000 of prizes in various categories, including the $30,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

The full list of finalists in each category for the 2015 Independent Games Festival, with additional "honorable mentions," is as follows:

Excellence In Visual Art

Donut County (Ben Esposito)

Lumino City (State of Play Games)

Else Heart.Break() (Niklas Åkerblad, Erik Svedäng, et al.)

Memory of a Broken Dimension (XRA)

Metamorphabet (Patrick Smith)

Oquonie (XXIIVV and Kokorobot)

Honorable mentions: Crawl (Powerhoof); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine); Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club); The Sailor's Dream (Simogo); The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts).

Excellence In Narrative

80 Days (Inkle Studios)

Coming Out Simulator 2014 (Nicky Case)

Ice-Bound: A Novel of Reconfiguration (Down to the Wire)

Pry (Tender Claws)

This War of Mine (11 Bit Studios)

Three Fourths Home ([Bracket]Games)

Honorable mentions: Curtain (Llaura, Dreamfeeel); Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) (Upper One Games/E-Line Media); Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wilds); The Fall (Over The Moon); The Sailor's Dream (Simogo); The Talos Principle (Croteam).

Excellence In Design

80 Days (Inkle Studios)

Framed (Loveshack)

Invisible Inc. (Klei Entertainment)

Killer Queen (Joshua DeBonis & Nikita Mikros)

Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wilds)

The Talos Principle (Croteam)

Honorable mentions: Desert Golfing (Captain Games); Dungeon of the Endless (Amplitude Studios); Endless Legend (Amplitude Studios); Helix (Michael Brough); Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games); Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club),

Excellence In Audio

Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure (SuperChop Games)

Phonopath (Kevin Regamey)

Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games)

The Sailor's Dream (Simogo)

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)

Thumper (Drool)

Honorable mentions: Deep Under the Sky (Rich Edwards and Colin Northway); Fotonica (Santa Ragione); Goat Simulator (Coffee Stain Studios); Hotline Miami 2 (Dennaton); Nuclear Throne (Vlambeer); Smash Hit (Mediocre).

Nuovo Award

Become A Great Artist In Just 10 Seconds (Michael Brough and Andi McClure)

Bounden (Game Oven)

Desert Golfing (Captain Games)

Elegy For A Dead World (Dejobaan Games & Popcannibal)

How Do You Do It? (Nina Freeman, Emmett Butler, Jonathan Kittaka and Deckman Coss)

Plug & Play (Mario von Rickenbach and Michael Frei / Etter Studio)

Rooftop Cop (Stephen Lawrence Clark)

Tetrageddon Games (Nathalie Lawhead)

Honorable mentions: Curtain (Llaura, Dreamfeeel); Ice-Bound: A Novel of Reconfiguration (Down to the Wire); International Jetpack Conference (Rob Dubbin and Allison Parrish); Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wiilds); Phonopath (Kevin Regamery); Push Me Pull You (House House).

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

80 Days (Inkle Studios)

Invisible Inc. (Klei Entertainment)

Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wilds)

The Talos Principle (Croteam)

Metamorphabet (Patrick Smith)

This War of Mine (11 Bit Studios)

Honorable mentions: Donut County (Ben Esposito); Endless Legend (Amplitude Studios); Killer Queen (Joshua DeBonis & Nikita Mikros); Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games); The Sailor's Dream (Simogo); The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts).

More information on the platforms and availability of these Main Competition finalists can be found on the IGF 2015 finalists page.

All finalist games will be playable, and their creators available to talk to, at the IGF Pavilion on the Game Developers Conference 2015 Expo floor from March 4th-6th, 2015, at San Francisco's Moscone Center, as part of a week of independent game-related content that also includes the Independent Games Summit (March 2nd-3rd) and the IGF Awards ceremony.

Voting for the IGF Audience Award winner, choosable from all Main Competition finalists, will begin in February. IGF Student Showcase award winners, competing for the Best Student Game award at the Festival, will be announced later in January.

The Independent Games Festival was established by UBM Tech's Game Network to encourage the rise and development of independent games and serve as a launch pad to celebrate the best independent game titles. Notable finalists and winners since its 1999 debut have included precedent-setting games such as Papers, Please, Braid, World of Goo, Super Meat Boy, Cart Life, FTL: Faster Than Light, and Minecraft among others.

For more information on the Independent Games Festival, please visit the official IGF website at www.igf.com. For those interested in registering for GDC 2015, which includes the Independent Games Summit, the IGF Pavilion and the IGF Awards Ceremony, please visit www.gdconf.com.

Gamasutra, GDC and the IGF are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech.