Last night it was revealed that Fez, a fusion of 2D and 3D platform gaming, has won top honours at the 14th annual Independent Games Festival.
The Seumas McNally Grand Prize is worth $30,000 USD and this year goes to the Montreal-based studio Polytron, the developers of quirky indie title Fez. Lead developer Phil Fish has recently been in the news for different reasons, after he told an audience that Japanese games "suck". These inflammatory comments were made at a Q&A session after the screening of film Indie Game: The Movie earlier in the week at GDC.
Other indie games to receive recognition were the existentialist adventure Dear Esther (Excellence in Visual Art), randomly generated platformer Spelunky (Excellence in Design) and turn-based strategy title Frozen Synapse (Audience Award).
Here's the complete list of winners from this years IGF:
Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($30,000)
Fez, by Polytron
Nuovo Award ($5,000)
Storyteller , by Daniel Benmergui
Excellence in Visual Art ($3,000)
Dear Esther, by thechineseroom
Technical Excellence ($3,000)
Antichamber, by Demruth
Excellence in Design ($3,000)
Spelunky, by Mossmouth
Excellence in Audio ($3,000
Botanicula, by Amanita Design
Best Mobile Game ($3,000)
Beat Sneak Bandit, by Simogo
Audience Award ($3,000)
Frozen Synapse, by Mode 7 Games
Best Student Game ($3,000)
Way, by CMU Entertainment Technology Center/Coco & Co