Nuovo Award

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The Nuovo Award or Innovation Award is an 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] [2] [3] The award is given to honor "abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which advances the medium and the way we think about games". [3] [4] The award was designed as a way for art games to compete with traditional indie games, and the winner was originally selected from a group of finalists and given a prize of US$2,500. [3] In 2011, the IGF increased the prize money to US$5,000 due to the increased quality of the entries. [5]

Contents

The former IGF chairman Brandon Boyer described the Nuovo finalists as experimental games that attempted to distinguish themselves from established conventions, and would not fit in any of the other IGF award categories. [2] [4] Nominations for the award are made by the IGF's judges. Eight finalists are chosen by an elected jury from among the nominees and a few others are given honorable mentions if they receive insufficient votes to become finalists. The winner is decided from among the finalists by jury voting. [3] Jury members include notable game developers and previous winners and finalists, including individuals such as Jason Rohrer, Paolo PederciniIan Bogost, and Daniel Benmergui. [3] [5] In the fourteen years since the award's debut, 105 games have been nominated as finalists, while 84 games have been chosen as honorable mentions. Sixteen games have won the award, the first being the platformer Between (2009), while the latest to be awarded is Anthology of the Killer (2024).

Recipients

Jason Rohrer won for Between (2009). Jason rohrer 2012.png
Jason Rohrer won for Between (2009).
Daniel Benmergui won for Storyteller (2012). Daniel Benmergui, Gamelab 2018 (42441621474).jpg
Daniel Benmergui won for Storyteller (2012).
Nathalie Lawhead won for Tetrageddon Games (2015). Nathalie Lawhead - Independent Games Festival 2015 (cropped).jpg
Nathalie Lawhead won for Tetrageddon Games (2015).
Bennett Foddy won for Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (2018). Bennett foddy gdc 2018 cropped.jpg
Bennett Foddy won for Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (2018).
Recipients
YearWinnerDeveloperFinalists [lower-alpha 1] Honorable mentions [lower-alpha 2] Ref.
2009 Between Jason Rohrer [6] [7]
2010Tuning Cactus [8] [9]
2011 Nidhogg Messhof [10]
2012 Storyteller Daniel Benmergui
  • Deep Sea
  • Four Letter Word
  • GlitchHiker
  • Hundreds
  • POP
[11]
2013 Cart Life Richard Hofmeier [12]
2014Luxuria Superbia Tale of Tales
  • Corrypt
  • Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!"
  • Extrasolar
  • Papers, Please
  • Perfect Woman
  • Save the Date
  • SoundSelf
[13]
2015 Tetrageddon Games Nathalie Lawhead
  • Become A Great Artist In Just 10 Seconds
  • Bounden
  • Desert Golfing
  • Elegy for a Dead World
  • How Do You Do It?
  • Plug & Play
  • Rooftop Cop
[14]
2016 Cibele Star Maid Games [15]
2017Oiκοςpiel, Book I David Kanaga [16]
2018 Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy Bennett Foddy [17]
2019Black RoomCassie McQuarter [18]
2020The Space BetweenChristoph Frey [19]
2021 Blaseball The Game Band
  • Nightmare Temptation Academy
  • That Night, Steeped by Blood River
  • Airplane Mode
  • Welcome to Elk
  • Umurangi Generation
  • Chasing Light
  • Kristallijn
[20]
2022Memory CardLily Zone [21]
2023 Betrayal at Club Low Cosmo D Studios [22]
2024 Anthology of the Killer Thecatamites
  • 1000xResist
  • Cryptmaster
  • Kevin (1997-2077)
  • Mediterranea Inferno
  • Nidus
  • The Forest Cathedral
[23]

Notes

  1. From 2009 to 2010, there were five finalists instead of eight.
  2. Honorable mentions were introduced in 2011.

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