Seumas McNally Grand Prize

Seumas McNally Grand Prize 2016 Ceremony

The Seumas McNally Grand Prize is the main award given at the Independent Games Festival (IGF), an annual event that takes place during the Game Developers Conference, one of the largest gatherings of the indie video game industry.[1] It was first awarded as the Independent Games Festival Grand Prize to Fire and Darkness in the 1999 edition of the festival.[2] The next year, it was awarded to Seumas McNally for his game Tread Marks; following McNally's passing from Hodgkin's lymphoma shortly after, the award was renamed in his honor in 2001.

Twenty-six video games have received the award, and more than 50 have been selected as finalists. The award is given alongside a prize of US$10,000.[3] For the 2004 and 2005 years, it was divided into two categories, "Open Category" and "Web/Downloadable", although they were merged back into a single prize in 2006.[4][5][6] From 2011 onwards, a list of "Honorable Mentions" was introduced, composed of games that had been considered for the prize but had not become finalists.[7]

Gish and Seed are the only games to become finalists in multiple editions of the event. Additionally, Gish is the only finalist to win the prize in a subsequent edition of the festival.[2][4][5][8] FTL: Faster Than Light was the first game to have been both an honorable mention and a finalist, achieving the former in 2012 and the latter in 2013. The Stanley Parable achieved the same feat, becoming an honorable mention in 2013 and a finalist in 2014.[9][10][11] Games do not have to be published in order to qualify for the prize; when Fez won the award in 2012, it was still undergoing pre-release certification.[12] Some developers have won the prize twice, either solo or as part of a larger team: Alec Holowka for Aquaria and Night in the Woods, and Lucas Pope for Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn.

  1. ^ Dominguez, James (14 March 2014). "Locals indie game studios recognised in major industry event". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
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  12. ^ de Matos, Xav (7 March 2012). "Fez wins 2012 IGF 'Seumas McNally Grand Prize'". Joystiq. AOL Inc. Retrieved 10 April 2014.