Informa Tech, the organizers of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2022 are now accepting submissions for the 24th annual iteration of the Independent Games Festival (IGF), the longest running festival, summit and showcase celebrating independent games and their creators.

The IGF is part of the Game Developers Conference 2022, which will be a hybrid event held physically at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center from March 21 - 25, 2022. Entries for all of the IGF categories will be accepted now through October 12, 2021, with finalists announced in early January 2022.

The IGF will nominate six finalist standout titles in each of the categories of Excellence in Visual Art, Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Design, Excellence in Narrative and Best Student Game. The Nuovo Award, which honors the title that 'makes the jurors think differently about games as a medium,' will have eight finalists. The IGF Audience Award will be decided by a public poll that features all the competition finalists. Six finalists will be selected to compete for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Finalists will be selected by hundreds of industry peers across game development and media, with specially selected juries picking the winners of each award. The IGF will ensure a safe and accessible awards ceremony for GDC 2022; nominees will have the opportunity to accept awards in-person or submit a remote acceptance speech.

The Independent Games Festival has served as a springboard for breakthrough independent titles. Previous IGF prize winners include Umurangi Generation, A Short Hike, Return of the Obra Dinn, Quadrilateral Cowboy, Night in the Woods, Her Story, Spelunky, Braid, Castle Crashers, and many more critical and cultural hits.

Submissions to the competition are now open to all independent game developers. Important dates for IGF 2022 are as follows:

● August 31, 2021 - Submissions are Open

● October 12, 2021 - Submission Deadline

● Early January, 2022 - IGF Finalists Announced

● March 21 – March 25, 2022 – Game Developers Conference 2022

● March 21 – March 22, 2022 – Independent Games Summit @ GDC 2022

● March 23 – March 25, 2022 – IGF Pavilion @ GDC 2022

● March 23 – IGF Awards Ceremony (Winners Announced)

To encourage submissions from those making interesting or experimental works who, because of the entry fee, might otherwise not enter the contest, the Independent Games Festival organizers offer applications for a waiver on the full ($75) entry fee. Creators interested in applying for the waiver should see the form on the submissions page. Applications are due by September 27, 2021. If selected, entrants will be invited to submit to the IGF 2022 without paying the entry fee.

For more information on the 2022 Independent Games Festival, including submission specifics and frequently asked questions, please visit the official Independent Games Festival website. IGF entries can be submitted here. As in years past, the IGF Awards will be livestreamed alongside the Game Developers Choice Awards on the official GDC Twitch channel.

For more details on the Game Developers Conference, please visit the GDC’s official website, or the recently launched gamedeveloper.com. You can also subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. Official photos are available via the Official GDC Flickr account: www.flickr.com/photos/officialgdc/.