Cosmo D Studios’ Betrayal At Club Low won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game at the 25th annual Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday.
Betrayal At Club Low is an indie-tabletop-inspired RPG that takes place in the eponymous former coffin factory-turned-nightclub. Putting players in the shoes of an undercover agent trying to rescue his old colleague, players engage in tactile dice-driving gameplay that gives them multiple ways to approach each undercover mission, and tense decisions (and consequences) at every turn.
Here is a video highlighting this year's winners.
In addition to the Grand Prize, Betrayal At Club also won the Nuovo Award, which honors titles that make the awards jurors think differently about games as a medium—making Betrayal at Club Low the second game in IGF Awards history to win both the Grand Prize and the Nuovo Award in the same year (following Cart Life in 2013).
IMMORTALITY, a haunting new cinema-inspired mystery game from Half Mermaid Productions, the creator of Her Story, won Excellence in Narrative at this year's IGF Awards. Excellence in Design winner The Case of the Golden Idol is a detective game from Color Gray Games that allows players to think and investigate freely to build their own theories behind 12 strange and gruesome murders.
The Best Student Game, Slider by Daniel Carr, is a charming pixel art puzzle game that has players rearranging map tiles to unlock treasures, and in the process, help reconnect humanity and find your cat. Minimalistic puzzle adventure The Forest Quartet by Mads & Friends was awarded Best Audio, while DeskWorks' RPG Time: The Legend of Wright won Excellence in Visual Art.
Potionomics by Voracious Games won the community-driven Audience Award, which is chosen by fans through a public voting process.
The winners of the 25th annual IGF Awards are:
Excellence in Visual Art
RPG Time: The Legend of Wright (DeskWorks)
Excellence in Audio
The Forest Quartet (Mads & Friends)
Excellence in Design
The Case of the Golden Idol (Color Gray Games)
Excellence in Narrative
IMMORTALITY (Half Mermaid Productions)
Nuovo Award
Betrayal at Club Low (Cosmo D Studios)
Best Student Game
Slider (Daniel Carr)
Audience Award
Potionomics (Voracious Games)
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
Betrayal at Club Low (Cosmo D Studios)
The 2023 IGF Awards, which took place at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, is part of the longest-running festival, summit, and showcase celebrating independent games and their creators. All IGF titles, including both finalists and winners, are playable for any GDC pass holder at the IGF Pavilion located on the GDC Expo Floor in San Francisco's Moscone Center through Friday, March 24.
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