There’s a New Videogame Awards Show and It Might Actually Be Okay

It’s been 45 years since Space Invaders and videogames still don’t have a universally recognized, industry-leading, publicly-facing award show the way movies, music, TV, and the theater do. Personally I don’t think that matters—does anybody really need these shows, other than fashion critics, gossip columnists, and insecure artists starving for validation?—but it is weird, given how popular games are. And although that probably won’t change with the December debut of The Indie Game Awards, a new show announced earlier today that focuses on the “indie scene,” it’ll be good to have another award bringing attention to games that might struggle to break through the corporate focus of December’s bigger, more famous game awards show.

Yeah, people have tried to create an Oscars for games, from third-rate dudebro basic cable networks, to the people who ran that show and didn’t have anything else to do after the third-rate dudebro basic cable network canceled it. The result has always been resounding, artless failure—a celebration not of games but of the money they make, and with a showbiz-heavy tilt that always seemed desperately embarrassed of the art form it was supposedly celebrating. Fortunately there are a number of important and respected awards given out within the industry that reward genuine artistry, like the D.I.C.E. Awards, the Game Developers Choice Awards, and the IGF Awards, but none of them are consumer-facing the way the Oscars, Grammys, or Emmys are. That’s for the best when it comes to those game awards’ actual prestige and respectability, of course, but it’s left open a mainstream void that so far has been filled by shows that don’t actually care about games. 

I doubt The Indie Game Awards will take up that spot, but I also don’t think it’s trying to. Its independent focus is right there in the name, after all, which should mean that the biggest hits from the biggest companies won’t be nominated, which will limit its mainstream appeal even as it bolsters its artistic bona fides. And as big as the games industry has gotten, I don’t think there’s actually a large audience out there begging for the Grammys of games, anyways. The consumers who would want a show like that might even be satisfied by the current big name awards show, with its focus on ads and list of presenters who have a new movie to promote to the critical 18 to 34 Male demographic. 

Unlike that show, The Indie Game Awards seem to have their hearts in the right place. The lineup of judges includes some of the best voices in games criticism today, the list of presenters prioritizes actual game designers over random famous people, and the organizers (SixOneIndie) have been a committed part of the scene for a while. And the nominees, which you can find at their site, can’t really be argued with; that list of Game of the Year nominations might as well be Paste’s top 10 list for 2024. This new show is off to a promising start.

I do wish it had a different name. Yes, “indie” is a well-known term within games at this point, and although it can get fuzzy with specific games (Is a game made by an independent developer but distributed or funded by one of the major gaming publishers truly an indie? Were Pavement’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville really “indie rock” since Atlantic helped get the records in stores?), it’s generally understood what it means: games made by a studio or developer without corporate ownership or control. The term “indie” has always been a little disappointing when used with games, though; yeah, it’s important and accurate in describing how they are produced or promoted, but using it to describe the actual games themselves has always felt limiting, almost self-defeating, embracing the language and false dichotomy pushed by the biggest players in the industry and parrotted by too many of their consumers that “real” games have huge budgets and ad campaigns and “indie” games are small, weird, unprofessional trifles that rarely merit attention. Clearly this is a battle that’s been lost, though.

For what The Indie Game Awards are trying to do, the name fits and makes sense. And what they’re trying to do is good and important; as significant as games like UFO 50, Mouthwashing, and 1000xResist are, they’re only going to get praise from the existing award show in minor categories that may not even be handed out during the actual broadcast. If these awards introduce anybody to these specific games or the broader concept of independent games, then they’ve served their purpose. 

The Indie Game Awards will be streaming live on YouTube on Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT. If you want to check out the full list of inaugural Indie Game Awards nominees, as well as info on the judging process and the people chosen to present awards, go visit their website.

Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, TV, travel, theme parks, wrestling, music, and more. You can also find him on Blue Sky.