The Indie Game Awards Will Reveal Categories and Open Submissions on August 27

Organized by Six One Indie, this will be the The Indie Game Awards’ second ever showing. The award show first debuted in December 2024. Last year’s event feted a who’s who of smaller games, ranging from those recognized by the larger gaming space, like Balatro and Nine Sols, to potentially overlooked gems like 1000x Resist and Cryptmaster. Some of the awards the IGAs distributed included, but were not limited to, Balatro winning two for Game of the Year and Gameplay Design, Another Crab’s Treasure winning one for Accessibility, Thank Goodness You’re Here winning one for Bite-Sized Game, and 1000x Resist winning one for Narrative.

While still a fresh-faced showcase that could mix things up this December, there were noteworthy aspects of last year’s IGAs that make this second show worth paying attention to. For starters, the debut show was significantly shorter than most other game award shows—or any big game showcases, for that matter. Last year’s show clocked in at about one hour and 17 minutes. Compared to the 2024 Game Awards, which was well over three hours long (even without including the pre-show!), or even last week’s Gamescom ONL, which was two hours, the IGAs won’t take up an entire evening to watch.

Additionally, that time is mostly spent getting to know the recipients of awards and other game designers rather than the trailers, promotion, and inexplicable celebrity cameos that make up the supermajority of other awards shows. In fact, there was even an award created in honor of a game developer, Coffee Talk developer Mohammad Fahmi, who passed away in 2022. The debut show also made space to give tribute to Never Yield composer Daniel Wilkins, who passed away in 2024. 

Overall, while the Indie Game Awards is missing the spectacle afforded by a show that charges several zeroes for a trailer slot (and defines itself with a fairly nebulous term like “indie”), it is a pleasant watch due to its investment in the people behind games rather than whatever the next big game is supposed to be. It makes for a refreshing departure from the usual flood of advertising players are asked to watch, so it’ll be interesting to see how the show changes from its debut when the second Indie Game Awards are held in December 2025.