# Seumas McNally Grand Prize

The Seumas McNally Grand Prize is the main 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. It was first awarded as the Independent Games Festival Grand Prize to Fire and Darkness in the 1999 edition of the festival. The next year, it was awarded to Seumas McNally for his game Tread Marks; following McNally's passing from Hodgkin's lymphoma shortly after, the award was renamed in his honor in 2001.
Twenty-six video games have received the award, and more than 50 have been selected as finalists. The award is given alongside a prize of US$10,000. For the 2004 and 2005 years, it was divided into two categories, "Open Category" and "Web/Downloadable", although they were merged back into a single prize in 2006. From 2011 onwards, a list of "Honorable Mentions" was introduced, composed of games that had been considered for the prize but had not become finalists.
Gish and Seed are the only games to become finalists in multiple editions of the event. Additionally, Gish is the only finalist to win the prize in a subsequent edition of the festival. FTL: Faster Than Light was the first game to have been both an honorable mention and a finalist, achieving the former in 2012 and the latter in 2013. The Stanley Parable achieved the same feat, becoming an honorable mention in 2013 and a finalist in 2014. Games do not have to be published in order to qualify for the prize; when Fez won the award in 2012, it was still undergoing pre-release certification. Some developers have won the prize twice, either solo or as part of a larger team: Alec Holowka for Aquaria and Night in the Woods, and Lucas Pope for Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn.

## Recipients

| Year | Winner | Developer | Finalists | Honorable mentions |
| 1999 | Fire and Darkness | Singularity Software | Acidia Bulbous II BFRIS Zero-Gravity Fighter Combat Crime Cities EverNight Flagship: Champion Food Chain Journey Into The Brain Mind Rover Resurrection Seed Sleights Terminus V.D. | — |
| 2000 | Tread Marks | Longbow Games | Blix Hardwood Hearts King of Dragon Pass Moonshine Runners Quaternion The Rift (Far Gate) Rogue Wars Seed | — |
| 2001 | Shattered Galaxy | Nexon | Archmage: Stabat Mater Chase Ace 2 Hardwood Spades Hostile Space IronSquad SabreWing Strifeshadow Takeda Virtual U | — |
| 2002 | Bad Milk | Dreaming Media | Ace of Angels Banja Taiyo Championship Euchre The Egg Files Insaniquarium Kung-Fu Chess Pencil Whipped Static World Dance | — |
| 2003 | Wild Earth | Super X Studios | BaseGolf Furcadia Mr. Bigshot Pontifex II Reiner Knizia's Samurai Strange Adventures In Infinite Space Teenage Lawnmower Terraformers Word Ninja | — |
| 2004 | Savage: The Battle for Newerth | S2 Games | acmi {{park}} Anito: Defend a Land Enraged Bontago Facade Fashion Cents Fuzzee Teevee Spartan Starshatter Take Command: 1861 The Civil War | — |
| 2004 | Oasis | Mind Control Software | AlphaQUEUE Beesly's Buzzwords Billiard Boxing Chomp! Chomp! Safari Dr. Blob's Organism Dungeon Scroll Gish Space Station Manager Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates | — |
| 2005 | Gish | Chronic Logic | Alien Hominid Dark Horizons Lore Hyperbol Kisses Legion Arena Protöthea Steer Madness Supremacy: Four Paths To Power War! Age of Imperialism | — |
| 2005 | Wik and the Fable of Souls | Reflexive Entertainment | Creatrix Detective Brand Golf Global Defense Network Lux N Revolved RocketBowl Star Chamber Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space | — |
| 2006 | Darwinia | Introversion Software | Dofus Professor Fizzwizzle Weird Worlds: Return To Infinite Space Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa | — |
| 2007 | Aquaria | Bit Blot | Armadillo Run Bang! Howdy Everyday Shooter Roboblitz | — |
| 2008 | Crayon Physics Deluxe | Kloonigames | Audiosurf Hammerfall Noitu Love 2: Devolution World of Goo | — |
| 2009 | Blueberry Garden | Erik Svedang | CarneyVale: Showtime Dyson Night Game Osmos | — |
| 2010 | Monaco | Pocketwatch Games | Joe Danger Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken Super Meat Boy Trauma | — |
| 2011 | Minecraft | Mojang | Amnesia: The Dark Descent Desktop Dungeons Nidhogg SpyParty | Neptune's Pride Super Crate Box Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale Bit.Trip Runner Retro City Rampage |
| 2012 | Fez | Polytron | Dear Esther Frozen Synapse Johann Sebastian Joust Spelunky | Antichamber FTL: Faster Than Light Proteus SpaceChem Where is my Heart? |
| 2013 | Cart Life | Richard Hofmeier | FTL: Faster Than Light Hotline Miami Kentucky Route Zero Little Inferno | Gone Home Starseed Pilgrim Super Hexagon The Stanley Parable Thirty Flights of Loving |
| 2014 | Papers, Please | Lucas Pope | Device 6 Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" Don't Starve Jazzpunk The Stanley Parable | 868-HACK Crypt of the NecroDancer Kerbal Space Program The Yawhg TowerFall Ascension |
| 2015 | Outer Wilds | Team Outer Wilds | 80 Days Invisible, Inc. Metamorphabet The Talos Principle This War of Mine | Donut County Endless Legend Killer Queen Shovel Knight The Sailor's Dream The Vanishing of Ethan Carter |
| 2016 | Her Story | Sam Barlow | Darkest Dungeon Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes Mini Metro Superhot Undertale | Affordable Space Adventures Cibele Oxenfree Panoramical Soft Body That Dragon, Cancer The Beginner's Guide Twelve Minutes |
| 2017 | Quadrilateral Cowboy | Blendo Games | Inside Stardew Valley Event[0] Hyper Light Drifter Overcooked | 1979 Revolution: Black Friday Orwell Imbroglio Virginia Duskers Oiκοςpiel, Book I |
| 2018 | Night in the Woods | Infinite Fall | Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy West of Loathing Into the Breach Heat Signature Baba Is You | Tacoma Rain World Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator Cosmic Top Secret Hollow Knight Cuphead Everything is Going to Be OK |
| 2019 | Return of the Obra Dinn | Lucas Pope | Minit Opus Magnum Noita Hypnospace Outlaw Do Not Feed the Monkeys | Beat Saber Iconoclasts Mirror Drop Moss Subnautica Wandersong Virtual Virtual Reality Unavowed |
| 2020 | A Short Hike | adamgryu | Eliza Untitled Goose Game Mutazione Slay the Spire Anodyne 2: Return to Dust | Katana Zero Lonely Mountains: Downhill Song of Bloom Wide Ocean, Big Jacket Astrologaster Heaven's Vault |
| 2021 | Umurangi Generation | Origame Digital | Chicory: A Colorful Tale Genesis Noir Paradise Killer Spiritfarer Teardown | A Monster's Expedition (Through Puzzling Exhibitions) Blaseball Bugsnax Carto Disc Room Nuts Omori Spelunky 2 There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension |
| 2022 | Inscryption | Daniel Mullins Games | Cruelty Squad The Eternal Cylinder Loop Hero Unpacking Unsighted | Dodgeball Academia Fuzz Dungeon Norco Overboard Saturnalia Toem Webbed |
| 2023 | Betrayal at Club Low | Cosmo D Studios | The Case of the Golden Idol Immortality Neon White Not For Broadcast Tunic | Citizen Sleeper Hardspace: Shipbreaker Roadwarden RPG Time: The Legend of Wright Terra Nil Tinykin |
| 2024 | Venba | Visai Games | 1000xRESIST A Highland Song Anthology of the Killer Cocoon Mediterranea Inferno | Chants of Sennaar Final Profit: A Shop RPG Goodbye Volcano High In Stars and Time Rhythm Doctor Tchia The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood |