Just recently, we were able to witness a rather intriguing development in the gaming landscape, that of a brand-new award show honoring video games. It was the first-ever Indie game Award, created by the Six One Indie Collective and held on Thursday, December 19. It definitely isn’t the first set of awards to be given to indie games (heck, the Independent Games Festival has been doing that for over twenty-five years now), but this was one of the first that matched a more traditional format similar to those of The Game Awards, complete with its own little awards show, which you can check out below.
Hosts Mike Towndrow and Kyle Stephenson, both from Six One Indie, were quick to emphasize this would be an awards-only event, with no new game announcements or such. And to further esure a diverse selection of games, they also reminded everyone that each eligible game (those released between November 1 of 2023 and 2024 for this initial event) could only receive one nomination per general category, with the awards for Community Management, the Industry Impact awards, and of course, Game of the Year. On top of all that, to emphasize that this was a celebration of the year’s best indie games in general, even the ones that weren’t nominated, the word “winner” wasn’t even used to describe any of the award recipients. It was a night where the indie game community really came together.
There was one wrinkle when it came to the nominees, though. In the category for Solo Development, it was revealed that Neil “Aerial_Knight” Jones, the developer behind Aerial_Knight’s We Never Yield, contacted the team behind the award and voluntarily withdrew, as he did not consider his game to be more “traditionally” developed solo, unlike the others. Instead, Neil presented a touching tribute to Daniel Wilkins, who composed the soundtrack alongside Jones, and who tragically passed away earlier this year. Another loving tribute was held for Coffee Talk creator Mohammad Fahmi, who passed away in 2022, with the inaugural Mohammas Fahmi Storyteller Award being named in his honor. The show was dedicated to the memory of both Daniel and Mohammad.
Outside of the traditional categories, the Industry Impact awards also recognized some of the year’s biggest trailblazers, which included Strange Scaffold, the developer/publisher known for their output of experimental and/or bite-sized games; Indie publishers New Blood, who aside from released several good games, helped draw more attention to the gaming industry’s current condition; Outersloth, the indie game fund created by Innersloth that has already led to some acclaimed titles receiving assistance; And Day of the Devs, the non-profit showcase for all sorts of various indie games created by Double Fine and iam8bit. In addition, Aggro Crab received the award for Community Management, with the nominees revealed during the show.
So the first Indie Game Awards seem to have been a pretty big success, successfully helping over sixty indie games get recognized. And you’re likely wondering just what those games were and who ended up taking home the initial awards, so let’s get straight to the list already…
Recipients will be highlighted in bold.
Debut Game
Notable Achievement in Accessibility
Visual Design
Bite-Sized Game
Innovation
Emotional Impact
Gameplay Design
Community Management
Women-Led Game
Solo Development
Industry Impact
Game of the Year
It was an impressive show indeed for such a relatively small production (for now, anyway), and plans appear to already be underway for next year’s Indie Game Awards (including an expansion to include games in Early Access), so here’s hoping that we see an even bigger splash next year that can honor the creativity that indie games can bring to world of gaming. It delivered the type of positive, inspirational vibes that we all need, and it would arguably be extremely hard for any gaming awards to top that. For now, feel free to check out the event’s Steam page if you’re interested in any of the games featured.
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