The 17th annual Independent Games Festival handed out its grand prize for best independent game on March 4 and its best student game award to two video games from USC.
Outer Wilds, which was a thesis and advanced games project at USC, won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for best independent game and its accompanying $30,000 cash prize. The game, which also won the Excellence in Design Award, gives players 20 minutes to explore a mysterious solar system trapped in a time loop at the end of the universe.
Close Your, an undergraduate USC game, won best student game. Eight such games from around the world were selected as finalists for the student showcase this year. Two were from USC: Close Your and a•part•ment.
Close Your, which also won the IndieCade Developer’s Choice Award in 2014, is an interactive experiment in human empathy in which players are immersed in the life of a character suffering from memory loss.
Every time the player blinks in real life — there’s a Webcam watching — the character’s life flashes before the players’ eyes, forcing them to make sense of the world. The experience moved one player to tears