Submissions are now open for the 25th Independent Games Festival Awards

It's time for your game to shine: Submissions are now open for the 2023 Independent Games Festival, celebrating 25 years of indie excellence at GDC!

The Game Developers Conference is now accepting submissions for the 25th annual Independent Games Festival—the longest-running festival, summit, and awards showcase celebrating independent games and their creators. Creators have until November 16, 2022 to enter in all categories for the coveted IGF Awards.

Click here for the IGF 2023 submissions page.

The IGF will nominate six finalist standout titles in each of these categories: Excellence in Visual Art, Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Design, Excellence in Narrative, and Best Student Game. The Nuovo Award, which honors the title that “makes the jurors think differently about games as a medium,” will have eight finalists. The IGF Audience Award will be decided by a public poll that features all the competition's finalists. Six finalists will be selected to compete for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Finalists will be selected by hundreds of industry peers across game development and media, with specially selected juries picking the winners of each award. Last year, Seamus McNally Grand Prize winner Inscryption made history as the first game to win the top prize at both the IGF Awards and the Game Developers Choice Awards in the same year. Could this become a repeat trend in 2023? Only one way to find out!

For those making interesting or experimental works who, because of the entry fee, might otherwise not enter the contest, you can apply for a waiver on the $75 entry fee by November 1, 2022. If you're interested in becoming a judge for the 2023 IGF Awards, more information will be available in the coming weeks on how to apply.

IGF is part of GDC 2023, which will be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center from March 20 to March 24, 2023.

Entries will be accepted through November 16, 2022 at 11:59pm PT, with finalists announced around January 2023. Submission applications are available here. For more information on the 2023 Independent Games Festival, including submission specifics, rules, and frequently asked questions, please visit the IGF website.

GDC returns to San Francisco in March 2023! For more information, be sure to visit our website.

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