Consume Me wins the Grand Prize at the 27th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards.
The IGF awards, held as part of the 2025 Game Developers Conference, celebrated the most innovative and exceptional independent games of the past year.
The top award of the night, the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game, was awarded to Consume Me, the deeply personal and darkly humorous game developed by Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, and Ken “coda” Snyder. The game, which explores themes of dieting and disordered eating, also won the prestigious Nuovo Award.
Elsewhere, a diverse lineup of independent games received recognition across various categories. Hauntii, the action-adventure by Moonloop Games that follows a ghost’s journey through the afterlife, picked up the Excellence in Visual Art award. The Excellence in Audio prize went to Despelote, the captivating slice-of-life adventure by Julián Cordero and Sebastián Valbuena, that explores the cultural effect of football in early 2000s Ecuador.
Tactical Breach Wizards took home the Excellence in Design award for its unique blend of turn-based tactics and magic-infused strategy. And the Excellence in Narrative award went to the sci-fi fantasy roguelike Caves of Qud.
The WereCleaner won the coveted Audience Award and the alt.ctrl.GDC Award, which honours games that use unconventional control schemes, went to ChromaCorp.
Here is the full list of winners and nominees for the 2025 Independent Games Festival Awards.
Congratulations to every developer and studio from the team at Thumbsticks.
About The Author
More Stories
Community-Centered Connectivity Initiatives Earn Viddy Awards Recognition
Zombie IXPs: The Four Types of Exchanges That Refuse to Die, but Fail to Live
The Shift in Peering Threatening the Internet’s Foundations