Last night during the award ceremony of the Independent Game Festival (IGF) and Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) at GDC 2022 in San Francisco, Daniel Mullins Games’ horror puzzle game Inscryption was crowned the big winner. The game was the first ever to win the most important prize at both award shows. It picked up the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the IGF and Game of the Year at the GDCA.
But that was not all. Inscryption won another three awards, thereby sweeping every category it was nominated in. Excellence in Design, Sound and Narrative were the other ones. The game is doing really well at award shows recently, because 2 weeks ago Inscryption also won the SXSW Gaming Award for Excellence in Game Design.
There were several games that picked up more than one award. Ratchet & Clank won the Best Visual Art and Best Technology awards, while Witch Beam’s Unpacking took away the Best Audio and Innovation awards. Best Debut and The Audience Award went to Valheim from Iron Gate Studio.
The Ambassador Award went to Steven Spohn, CEO of the AbleGamers Charity Foundation. The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Yuji Horii, creator and designer of the Japanese RPG series, Dragon Quest.
The winners of the 2022 Independent Games Festival Awards:
- Best Student Game: Live Adventure – Live Adventure Team
- Excellence in Design: Inscryption – Daniel Mullins Games
- Excellence in Visual Art: Papetura – Petums
- Excellence in Audio: Inscryption – Daniel Mullins Games
- Nuovo Award: Memory Card – Lily Zone
- Excellence in Narrative: Inscryption – Daniel Mullins Games
- Audience Award: Mini Motorways – Dinosaur Polo Club
- Seumas McNally Grand Prize: Inscryption – Daniel Mullins Games
The winners of the 2022 Game Developers Choice Awards:
- Best Debut: Iron Gate Studio for Valheim
- Best Visual Art: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – Insomniac Games
- Best Audio: Unpacking – Witch Beam
- Best Narrative: Psychonauts 2 – Double Fine Productions
- Social Impact Award: Boyfriend Dungeon – Kitfox Games
- Innovation Award: Unpacking – Witch Beam
- Best Technology: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – Insomniac Games
- Best Design: It Takes Two – Hazelight Studios
- Audience Award: Valheim – Iron Gate Studio
- Game of the Year: Inscryption – Daniel Mullins Games