A Short Hike wins the Seamus McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Game Festival

[Deleted member 51789]

A Short Hike wins Grand Prize at the 2020 Independent Games Festival!

Adam Robinson-Yu’s A Short Hike won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game at the 22nd annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards tonight!

igf.com

Full winners:

Excellence in Visual Art ($2,000) - Knights and Bikes (Foam Sword)

Excellence in Audio ($2,000) - Mutazione (Die Gute Fabrik)

Excellence in Design ($2,000) - Patrick's Parabox (Patrick Traynor)

Excellence in Narrative ($2,000) - Heaven's Vault (Inkle)

Nuovo Award ($2,000) - The Space Between (Christoph Frey)

Best Student Game ($2,000) - Bore Dome (Goblin Rage)

Audience Award ($2,000) - A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($10,000) - A Short Hike (Adam Robinson-Yu)

 

[samred]

well deserved. and it's still free on EGS for another 12 hours or so. so are Mutazione and Anodyne 2 (also Seamus nominees).

 

[Phabh]

Really? What's so good about it? It looks cute at least but also pretty limited.

 

[Deleted member 51789]

Really? What's so good about it? It looks cute at least but also pretty limited.

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It's just a very relaxing game with charming characters, and exploring the island as you hike up the mountain (in order to get phone signal) is just a very chill experience. Has an almost meditative quality to it - music is wonderful too.

 

[samred]

It's just a very relaxing game with charming characters, and exploring the island as you hike up the mountain (in order to get phone signal) is just a very chill experience. Has an almost meditative quality to it - music is wonderful too.

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On top of this, I will say that its smooth control and progression in skills is gentle yet satisfying. I don't wanna spoil the exact progression, but it all feels really nice—in a "oh, they clearly played Breath Of The Wild" way without being BotW, if that makes sense.

 

[Ravelle]

It's a good blend between Animal Crossing and Breath of The Wild.

 

[Phabh]

It's just a very relaxing game with charming characters, and exploring the island as you hike up the mountain (in order to get phone signal) is just a very chill experience. Has an almost meditative quality to it - music is wonderful too.

Click to shrink...

Ok but usually the winners are more innovative than that. I'll play it when it releases on Switch.

 

[Bluforce]

I bought it on Steam, and it is awesome.
I love It. Already played for 5 hours and I want to play more.

 

[Bradford]

Best game I've played yet this year and certainly well deserved.

 

[Aurica]

It's such a well put together game. Mechanically sound, aesthetically pleasing, a nice sense of progression, damn fun, and not too long. Wonderful game.

 

[samoscratch]

I just played it and it's fantastic, thank you!

 

[Phabh]

So I finished it yesterday, and yeah it's a fantastic game and now understand why it won. The scope is limited but perfectly designed. Everything fits and is purposeful. It's really like a tiny BOTW. Fully open-ended but with subtle restrictions and an «invisible hand» to guide the player. It's state of the art.

 

[Fowler]

So I finished it yesterday, and yeah it's a fantastic game and now understand why it won. The scope is limited but perfectly designed. Everything fits and is purposeful. It's really like a tiny BOTW. Fully open-ended but with subtle restrictions and an «invisible hand» to guide the player. It's state of the art.

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I love that you bumped this so we can see the turnaround from your original skepticism! It's a good way to show that A Short Hike really is more than the sum of its parts; it may not seem special from reading about it, but when you play it, everything just CLICKS.

 

[Phabh]

I love that you bumped this so we can see the turnaround from your original skepticism! It's a good way to show that A Short Hike really is more than the sum of its parts; it may not seem special from reading about it, but when you play it, everything just CLICKS.

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Yes exactly :)

 

[DrWong]

Wonderful game.