Fez wins IGF 2012 Grand Prize

The movers and shakers of the indie scene came together at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last night for the 2012 Independent Games Festival awards ceremony, where prizes aplenty were handed out to this year's winners and future stars.

Polytron's eternally in-development puzzle-platformer Fez lifted the Grand Prize and $30,000, four years after it won an IGF award for Excellence In Visual Art. Other notable winners include Dear Esther, Frozen Synapse, and Spelunky.

The majority of the winners were decided by the hundreds of IGF judges and jurors, while the Audience Award was chosen by a vote on IGN, and the XBLA Prize was decided by a separate jury with Microsoft. Over $60,000 was awarded as prize money in total.

GameSpot recorded the ceremony if you want to see it unfold, speeches and all, but here are your 2012 IGF winners.

Best Student Game - $3,000

Winner:

• Way (Carnegie Mellon University, Entertainment Technology Center)

Runners-up:

• The Bridge (Case Western Reserve University)

• Dust (Art Institute of Phoenix)

• The Floor Is Jelly (Kansas City Art Institute)

• Nous (DigiPen Institute of Technology)

• One and One Story (Liceo Scientifico G.B. Morgagni)

• Pixi (DigiPen Institute of Technology - Singapore)

• The Snowfield (Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab)

Way

Technical Excellence - $3,000

Winner:

• Antichamber by Demruth

Runners-up:

• Fez by Polytron

• Prom Week by Expressive Intelligence Studio, UC Santa Cruz

• Realm of the Mad God by Wild Shadow Studios & Spry Fox

• Spelunky by Mossmouth

Antichamber

Excellence In Design - $3,000

Winner:

• Spelunky by Mossmouth

Runners-up:

• Atom Zombie Smasher by Blendo Games

• English Country Tune by Stephen Lavelle

• Frozen Synapse by Mode 7 Games

• Gunpoint by Tom Francis, John Roberts and Fabian van Dommelen

Spelunky

Best Mobile Game - $3,000

Winner:

• Beat Sneak Bandit by Simogo

Runners-up:

• ASYNC Corp by Powerhead Games

• Faraway by Steph Thirion

• Ridiculous Fishing by Vlambeer

• Waking Mars by Tiger Style

Beat Sneak Bandit

Excellence In Visual Art - $3,000

Winner:

• Dear Esther by thechineseroom

Runners-up:

• Botanicula by Amanita Design

• Lume by State Of Play Games

• Mirage by Mario von Rickenbach

• Wonderputt by Damp Gnat

Dear Esther

Excellence In Audio - $3,000

Winner:

• Botanicula by Amanita Design

Runners-up:

• Dear Esther by thechineseroom

• Pugs Luv Beats by Lucky Frame

• To The Moon by Freebird Games

• Waking Mars by Tiger Style

Botanicula

Audience Award - $3,000

Winner:

• Frozen Synapse by Mode 7 Games

Frozen Synapse

XBLA Award

The winner picks up an XBLA publishing deal and funding from Microsoft.

Winner:

• Super T.I.M.E. Force by Capybara Games

Super T.I.M.E. Force

Nuovo Award - $5,000

Winner:

• Storyteller by Daniel Benmergui

Runners-up:

• At a Distance by Terry Cavanagh

• Dear Esther by thechineseroom

• Fingle by Game Oven Studios

• GIRP by Bennett Foddy

• Proteus by Ed Key and David Kanaga

• Johann Sebastian Joust by Die Gute Fabrik

• Way by CoCo & Co.

Storyteller

Seumas McNally Grand Prize - $30,000

Winner:

• Fez by Polytron

Runners-up:

• Dear Esther by thechineseroom

• Frozen Synapse by Mode 7 Games

• Johann Sebastian Joust by Die Gute Fabrik

• Spelunky by Mossmouth

Fez