The 2019 Independent Games Festival submissions are now open!

UBM Tech Game Network, organizers of the 2019 Game Developers Conference (GDC), is now accepting submissions for the 21st annual Independent Games Festival (IGF), the longest running festival, summit and showcase of independent games.

The IGF is part of the Game Developers Conference 2019, which will take place from March 18th through March 22nd at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center. Entries for all of the IGF categories will be accepted now through October 1, 2018, with finalists announced in early January 2019.

Finalists will compete for over $50,000 in prizes and their games will be playable at the packed IGF Pavilion on the GDC 2019 Expo Floor. The award categories include Excellence in Visual Art, Audio, Design and Narrative, each of which will have six finalists, with the winner in each category receiving $3,000. Additional awards include the Best Student Game award ($3,000 prize) which will recognize student developers, the special Nuovo Award ($3,000, eight finalists) which honors the title that 'makes the jurors think differently about games as a medium', and the IGF Audience Award ($3,000 prize) which will be decided by a public vote from all of the competition finalists. Finally, six finalists will be selected for the $30,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Returning for the third time is the alt.ctrl.GDC Award ($3,000), 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 2019 exhibit of the same name.

Winners will be announced on stage at the high-profile Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday, March 20th, 2019, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with the IGF Pavilion open from March 20th-22nd, and the sister Independent Games Summit event taking place on March 18th and 19th.

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 20 years include Night in the Woods, Quadrilateral Cowboy, 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. 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. Important dates for IGF 2019 are as follows:

●      July 30, 2018 - Submissions are Open

●      October 1, 2018 - Submission Deadline

●      Early January, 2019 - IGF Finalists Announced

●      March 18 - March 22, 2019 - Game Developers Conference 2019

●      March 18 - March 19, 2019 - Independent Games Summit @ GDC 2019

●      March 20 - March 22, 2019 - IGF Pavilion @ GDC 2019

●      March 20, 2019 - IGF Awards Ceremony (Winners announced)

This year, Independent Games Festival organizers are particularly interested in receiving submissions from those making interesting or experimental works who might otherwise not enter because of the fee. Those under-represented creators interested in applying for a waiver on the full ($75) entry fee can find additional details and the waiver application form on the submissions page. Entries should be submitted by September 14th, and if selected, they will be given the opportunity to enter IGF 2019 for free.

For more information on the 2019 Independent Games Festival, including submission specifics and frequently asked questions, please visit the official Independent Games Festival website. IGF entries can be submitted here.

For more information on GDC 2019 in general visit the show’s official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. Official photos are available via the Official GDC Flickr account.

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