Organizers of the 2025 Game Developers Conference (GDC) have announced the finalists for the 27th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF), the longest-running festival, summit, and expo celebrating independent games and the people who make them. The IGF is part of the 2025 Game Developers Conference, which will take place in person at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco from March 17–21.
Leading the way in terms of nominations with five spots is Consume Me from developers Jenny Jiao Xia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet WP, and Ken “coda” Snyder, followed by Despelote, which has the distinction of having four nominations.
Consume Me is a darkly humorous personal game about creator Jenny Jiao Xia’s relationship with food, based on her own experiences with diets and eating disorders. It has been nominated for Excellence in Design, Excellence in Narrative, Excellence in Visual Arts, the Nuovo Award, and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.
Despelote, from developers Julian Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena, is an adventure game about childhood and the magical power of football over the people of Quito, Ecuador in 2001. The game was nominated for the Outstanding Achievement in Audio, Outstanding Achievement in Narrative, Nuovo Award, and the Seamus McNally Grand Prize.
In addition to the categories listed below, the People’s Choice Awards invite GDC viewers to cast their votes on their favorite indie game of the year. The public can vote using the People’s Choice Awards ballot.
Following an initial evaluation by hundreds of judges, the nearly 500 entries for the 2025 IGF Awards were distributed to a diverse panel of expert jury members from across the gaming industry for final consideration. This is a special aspect of the IGF Awards, as it puts the power in the hands of current video game professionals, allowing them to vote and determine the best independent games of the year. The juries in each category (Audio, Visual, Student, New, Design, Narrative, and the Seamus McNally Grand Prize) then selected the finalists after playing, discussing, and judging in depth.
Winners will be announced during the Independent Games Festival Award, which will take place at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2025 on Wednesday, March 26 (simulcast on the GDC Twitch). The IGF Awards ceremony immediately precedes the Game Developers Choice Awards, which celebrates the best games of the year across all areas of video game development. All GDC 2025 Passholders can attend both the Game Developers Choice Awards and IGF in person at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
The full list of finalists in each category of the 2025 Independent Games Festival, as well as honorable mentions, is available on the event’s official website. For more information about the Game Developers Conference, visit the official website.