So it is time for 2017 [url=http://igf.com/finalists-and-winners]awards.

This years nominees are:

Seumas McNally Grand Prize:
Inside (Playdead)
Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe)
Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)
Event[0] (Ocelot Society)
Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
Overcooked (Ghost Town Games)

Honorable Mentions: 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (iNK Stories); Orwell (Osmotic Studios); Imbroglio (Michael Brough); Virginia (Variable State); Duskers (Misfits Attic); Oiκοςpiel, Book I (David Kanaga)

Nuovo Award:
Islands: Non-Places (Carlburton LLC)
Close (Tobias Zarges and Moritz Eberl)
Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor (Sundae Month)
Oiκοςpiel, Book I (David Kanaga)
Everything (David OReilly)
Virginia (Variable State)
Mu Cartographer (Titouan Millet)
Lieve Oma (Florian Veltman)

Honorable Mentions: Memoir En Code: Reissue (Alex Camilleri); Far from Noise (George Batchelor); Ladykiller in a Bind (Love Conquers All Games); Witchball (S.L.Clark); Project Perfect Citizen (Bad Cop Studios); Wheels of Aurelia (Santa Ragione); Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)

Excellence in Visual Art:
The Flame in the Flood (The Molasses Flood)
Inside (Playdead)
Virginia (Variable State)
Old Man’s Journey (Broken Rules)
Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
She Remembered Caterpillars (jumpsuit entertainment)

Honorable Mentions: Inks (State of Play); Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall); Mu Cartographer (Titouan Millet); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); Sundered (Thunder Lotus Games); Un Pas Fragile (PAF team)

Excellence in Audio:
The Flame in the Flood (The Molasses Flood)
GoNNER (Art in Heart)
Virginia (Variable State)
Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
Everything (David OReilly)
Inside (Playdead)

Honorable Mentions: 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (iNK Stories); Kingdom: New Lands (Noio); Dropsy (Tendershoot, A Jolly Corpse); Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor (Sundae Month); Sentris (Timbre Interactive); TumbleSeed (TumbleSeed Team)

Excellence in Design:
Imbroglio (Michael Brough)
Ultimate Chicken Horse (Clever Endeavour Games)
Duskers (Misfits Attic)
Overcooked (Ghost Town Games)
Event[0] (Ocelot Society)
Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)

Honorable Mentions: She Remembered Caterpillars (jumpsuit entertainment); Elsinore (Golden Glitch Studios); Inside (Playdead); Antihero (Tim Conkling); Replica (Somi); Space Pirate Trainer (I-Illusions)

Excellence in Narrative:
Ladykiller in a Bind (Love Conquers All Games)
1979 Revolution: Black Friday (iNK Stories)
Virginia (Variable State)
Orwell (Osmotic Studios)
Event[0] (Ocelot Society)
One Night Stand (Kinmoku)

Honorable Mentions: A Normal Lost Phone (Accidental Queens); The Lion’s Song (Mi’pu’mi Games); Far from Noise (George Batchelor); Inside (Playdead); Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe); Burly Men at Sea (Brain&Brain); Sorcery! 4 (inkle / Steve Jackson)[

The awards ceremony will take place on 1st March.
Personalty I have high hopes for Islands: Non-Places, Stardew Valley, Quadrilateral Cowboy and The Flame in the Flood

Oh Boy, Boyer

From the so called hate movement, which has nothing to do with journalistic ethics.

There is a sale for it in humblebundle and the strangest thing just happened to me. I wanted to buy Burly Men At Sea, one of the few in the sale with a drm-free version -at least I don't have here yet-, and they don't let me unless a link a steam account to it.
WTF?
That never happened to me in HB before. Does anybody know if it's a sale thing or a general new requirement for buying games on HB?

There are several interesting games that I would want here in GOG. Alas, we are what we are.

I can confirm that. Whenever I try to purchase a game included in the IGF sale I get the prompt to link a Steam account. This doesn't happen with other games though, so it must indeed be related to the sale (or to the free game that gets added to the shopping cart). Strange...

Thanks.
I did try to remove the free game just in case that was it, but they REALLY want you to have it.

Sigh. These folks are overdue a proper nom.

Also, how the fuck didn't GoNNER get an Excellence in Visual Art something? Even the static screenshots are terrifying (in a good, powerful, artistic way).

Ladykiller got nominated because it's a sex game. The narrative is honestly meh.
My pick would've been Sorcery!'s new game plus.

Duskers is not well-designed. At all. Even the concept was floating around dev blogs for years (I remember a tablet game prototype by Sophie Houlden, more novel and also cuter).

I'm rooting for Stardew, Virginia, HLD, GoNNER, --- and 1979 respectively.

How reliable are these awards?
What about Owlboy, Enter the Gungeon, Darkest Dungeon, Superhot, etc?
Virginia in almost every category isn't a good sign..

Once they've been running for a few years (which is the case here), they are reliable the same way all awards are reliable : in a "if you loved this then you'll love that" way based on the previous winners.

It seems to particularly reward experimental artsy games, like "Her story", "Papers please", "Little inferno", etc. As I did like these, it tells me I'll probably love "Virginia" (good to know). But still, it seems to be about a specific sub-category of indie games.

The audience awards broaden it a bit.

It works fine for me. Can put the game into the cart and go to checkout (via card) without the need for a Steam account. Maybe it was a bug?

Checked again and once you entered all your data and finalized the purchase, it also asks for a Steam account. Hope it didn't take my money. :(

Indeed To be honest, I did not like the graphics in GoNNER. It became too muddled, and it in many ways it actually cam in the way of the gameplay more than it aided it. It may look OK on paper, but the execution was not to my liking.

I think it's worth checking out the stuff you don't know about, if only to know what to avoid.

Superhot and Darkest Dungeon were nominated for 2016. Not sure how that works.

Owlboy should have been nominated for Visual Excellence. Maybe next year?

That's strange. The free bonus game isn't even available on Steam, just as DRM-Free download at Humble. So why would you need to link your Steam account then??

No idea. I've sent a mail to support. Guess we will have to wait what they have to say (if they answer at all, their support isn't the best).