The Indie Groundbreaker Awards
Submissions are now closed for the 2024 Indie Groundbreakers!
The IGDN is pleased to present the Indie Groundbreaker Awards, which are designed to shine a spotlight on excellence in the indie game design community. These awards will recognize games (and game designers) who are creating new and exciting game designs that push the boundaries in innovation, in promoting diversity, and in expanding what it means to be “indie.”
The Indie Groundbreaker Awards, while presented by the IGDN, are meant to recognize all indie designers across the industry. Therefore, our judging panel will be made up of professionals from both inside and outside our organization. These judges will provide an unbiased group decision, as games they have worked on will not be eligible for submission this year.
Important Dates:
Submissions Open: October 1st, 2024
Submissions Close: October 31st, 2024
Nominees Announced: March 19th, 2025
Winners Announced: April 13th, 2025
Submissions
Submissions will continue all through June. SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED. We ask that all games are submitted digitally this year. Games must have been released since the last Indie Groundbreakers submission period (June 1st, 2024) and must not have been submitted to a previous Indie Groundbreaker Awards.
Award Categories
There are 5 award categories. Every game submitted will be eligible to win in any one category, as determined by the judges.
Most Innovative – Recognizing the most innovative and unique game design
Best Art – Recognizing the best artwork and illustrations.
Best Graphic Design – Recognizing the best logos, graphic design, and layout.
Best Rules – Recognizing best mechanics, judging on rules set & clarity
Best Setting – Recognizing the most evocative, interesting, solid and unique setting.
Game of the Year – An overall award given to the best game of the year.
JUDGING
Each year a panel of judges decides the winners and runner ups. Two judges are IGDN members and two are from outside the membership.
Judges can apply by emailing IndieGroundbreaker@gmail.com with the subject line “[year] JUDGE APPLICANT” .
Judges are selected by the IGDN leadership team annually.
Judges decide on finalists in each category from among the nominees, to be announced 30 days before GenCon.
Eligible Games
The awards submissions must conform to the following requirements:
GAMES MUST:
Type of games: The game must be considered a LARP, tabletop RPG, Card Game, Board Game, or some variant within (such as a dice game).
Independently published: The game must be conceived and published by artists, designers, and developers. The judges retain final judgment over whether or not a product
is “indie.”Complete, published and available: The game must be available on some kind of store-front, whether it be a free pdf download on DriveThruRPG, purchased through Amazon, or distributed through Alliance. Furthermore, the game must be complete, including all pieces and information necessary for a full (non-demo) game. Reasonable exceptions apply for universally available materials, such as the need for pencils and paper.
Recent: Games must have been released since the last Indie Groundbreakers.
GAMES CANNOT BE:
Sports or Sport-like: The game should be able to be played well without the need to train the player’s physical attributes in order to get better at it. While obvious exclusions are things like tennis and baseball, this also includes other physical games that do not have a storytelling component.
Video Games: Games that solely rely on digital interface. Electronic components are welcome, but must focus on the above “game must be” criterium.
Re-releases & Second editions: Previously released products are only eligible if they have not previously won in any category. If a new edition is a substantial revision (i.e. D&D 5th Edition) it can be declared eligible by unanimous consent of the judges.
Judges: Games created by or produced by a judge of that year’s awards are disqualified.
Illegal or unethical.
Winners & Prizes
AWARD WINNERS
An IGDN PDF gaming bundle.
Acknowledgments on hall of fame award page.
Rights to the Indie Groundbreaker Awards Winner logo and acknowledgements on the winning game.
RUNNER UPS
Rights to the Indie Groundbreaker Awards Winner logo.
Acknowledgements as a Indie Groundbreaker Runner-Up.
*Physical copies will not be returned. They will be used by the judges to determine quality and then raffled off to help cover the costs of the awards program.
GAME OF THE YEAR
An IGDN PDF gaming bundle.
Recognition on hall of fame award page.
Rights to the Indie Groundbreaker Awards Game of the Year logo and acknowledgements on the winning game.
The “Game of the Year” is invited to display and sell their winning game at all major conventions with an IGDN presence, free of cost (shipping not included), for the next year.
JUDGES
Digital copies of all submitted games.
Acknowledgements on the hall of fame award page.
And the 2024 nominees are…
Game of the Year
Doomsong – Jack Cæsar (Game Design), Morgan Finley (Writing), Chris Cæsar (Graphic Design), Moritz Krebs & Chris Cæsar (Art)
Triangle Agency – Lead Designer: Caleb Zane Huett. Designer: Sean Ireland. Art Director: Ryan Kingdom. Layout Artists: Ben Mansky, Michael Shillingburg. Artists: Kanesha Bryant, Corviday, G.C. Houle, Kodasea, Nathan Rhodes
His Majesty The Worm – Josh McCrowell, writer
Last Train To Bremen – Caro Asercion (Game Design, Layout, & Art Direction), Conner Fawcett (Illustration & Layout Development), Weaver Walker (Dramaturgy & Editing)
Revolt! – Jason Price (Writing & Game Design), Juan Ochoa (Artwork), Chaim Holtjer (Cartography), Vee Hendro (Layout & Graphic Design), Will Jobst (Editing)
Most Innovative
Psychic Trash Detectives – Brigitte Winter (Game Designer), Ava Eery (Illustrator)
Bettin’ Bullets – James Kerr (Writing, Design, Art)
O Captain – Leon Barillaro & Scott Bullock (Designers), El Segal (Artist), Sadie Lowry (Editor), Anja Svare (Layout)
Last Train To Bremen – Caro Asercion (Game Design, Layout, & Art Direction), Conner Fawcett (Illustration & Layout Development), Weaver Walker (Dramaturgy & Editing)
The Score – Steve Dee (Designer)
Best Rules
Revolt! – Jason Price (Writing & Game Design), Juan Ochoa (Artwork), Chaim Holtjer (Cartography), Vee Hendro (Layout & Graphic Design), Will Jobst (Editing)
For Small Creatures Such As We - Anna Blackwell (designer), Shanice Fagan (additional design), Jason Caffoe, Josh Clark, Saga Mackenzie, and Fiona Ruthven (art)
His Majesty The Worm – Josh McCrowell, writer
Last Train To Bremen – Caro Asercion (Game Design, Layout, & Art Direction), Conner Fawcett (Illustration & Layout Development), Weaver Walker (Dramaturgy & Editing)
Our Woodland Gods – Robert Turk (Writer and designer), Melissa Robb (illustrator)
Best Art
Maskwitches Of Forgotten Doggerland – Jon Hodgson (Writer, designer, artist), Paul Bourne (Layout)
May You Fish In Interesting Times – Carol Wu (illustration), W.H. Arthur (game design, writing and layout)
Revolt! – Jason Price (Writing & Game Design), Juan Ochoa (Artwork), Chaim Holtjer (Cartography), Vee Hendro (Layout & Graphic Design), Will Jobst (Editing)
Doomsong – Jack Cæsar (Game Design), Morgan Finley (Writing), Chris Cæsar (Graphic Design), Moritz Krebs & Chris Cæsar (Art)
Forgery – Banana Chan (Designer)
Best Setting
BURGERpunk – Caitlin Fortier (Writer/Game Designer), Jeff Martin (Illustrator/Book Design)
Viva La Queer Bar – Sandra Dahlhoff, Andrea Rick (Writers/Game Designers), Andrea Rick (Writer: Essay/Bar Portraits), Hannah van den Höövel (Cover Illustrator), Andrea Rick (Interior Art/Layout).
Letters To Sandra – Kali Lawrie (co-creator), Dan Phipps (co-creator)
Substratum Protocol – Andy Boyd (Writer & Designer), Galen Pejeau (Illustrator), Eric Lazure (Editor), René-Pier Deshaies-Gélinas (Design Consultant)
Gutterpunk – John Thompson (Designer)
Best Design
Deadly Weapons – Adira Slattery (Game and Words), Fen Slattery (Art and Layout)
CORP BORG – Paweł Kicman (writing, game design, layouts), Karol Patoła, Strega Wolf, Artur Hejna, Maciej Pałka, Łukasz Godlewski (art), Kamil Karpiński (cover art), Ian SerVaas (editing & proofreading), Vincent Fugère (art, layouts), Vault Crawler (art & maps).
Motel Spooky Nine – Julie-Anne Muñoz (Designer & layout), Nevyn Holmes (Editor), Sam Fisher (Artist), Jess Kuczynski (Cover artist)
No-Tell Motel – Ken Lowery (design and writing), Shawn McGuan (artist), Kelsea Zwerneman (Layout)
Triangle Agency – Lead Designer: Caleb Zane Huett. Designer: Sean Ireland. Art Director: Ryan Kingdom. Layout Artists: Ben Mansky, Michael Shillingburg. Artists: Kanesha Bryant, Corviday, G.C. Houle, Kodasea, Nathan Rhodes
All previous award winners can be found here
Want to know how to apply or how to contribute? Email us at IndieGroundbreaker@gmail.com