Results of the 2025 IFDB Awards!

[mathbrush (Brian Rushton)]

Overall Categories

Outstanding Game of the Year 2025:
Type Help, by William Rous

Author’s Choice for Best Game of 2025:
Portrait with Wolf, by Drew Cook

Outstanding Debut 2025:
Slated For Demolition, by Meri Something

Outstanding Game over 2 hours in 2025:
Type Help, by William Rous

Outstanding Short Game of 2025:
Portrait with Wolf, by Drew Cook

Outstanding Underappreciated Game of 2025:
Warden: a (bug)folk horror, by Tabitha and baezil

Most Sequel-worthy game of 2025:
Warden: a (bug)folk horror, by Tabitha and baezil

Trailblazer Award of 2025:
Portrait with Wolf, by Drew Cook

Outstanding Worldbuilding of 2025:
Pharos Fidelis, by DemonApologist

Outstanding Use of Interactivity in 2025:
Tie between Violent Delight, by Coral Nulla and
Portrait with Wolf, by Drew Cook

Outstanding Retro Game of 2025:
Zodiac - An Arthur Blonde Mission, by Charles Moore, Jr.

Outstanding Game for Beginners of 2025:
Marbles, D, and the Sinister Spotlight, by Drew Cook

Outstanding Multimedia Experience of 2025:
Tie between
Marbles, D, and the Sinister Spotlight, by Drew Cook and
Violent Delight, by Coral Nulla

Outstanding technical implementation of 2025:
The Wise-Woman’s Dog, by Daniel M. Stelzer

Outstanding NPC design of 2025:
Who Whacked Jimmy Piñata?, by Damon L. Wakes

Outstanding Puzzle design of 2025:
Type Help, by William Rous

Outstanding Plot of 2025:
A four way tie between
The Witch Girls, by Amy Stevens,
Detritus, by Ben Jackson,
Type Help, by William Rous, and
Lady Thalia and the Case of Clephan, by Emery Joyce and N. Cormier

Outstanding Writing of 2025:
Portrait with Wolf, by Drew Cook

Language Categories

Outstanding German Game of 2025:
Das Schneemädchen, by Michael Baltes

Outstanding Spanish Game of 2025:
Solo dos deseos, by Pablo Martínez Merino (aka Kozelek)

Outstanding French Game of 2025:
Unawarded

Genre Categories

Outstanding Fantasy Game of 2025:
Pharos Fidelis, by DemonApologist

Outstanding Espionage Game of 2025:
Retool Looter, by Charm Cochran

Outstanding Historical Game of 2025:
The Wise-Woman’s Dog, by Daniel M. Stelzer

Outstanding Horror Game of 2025:
The Witch Girls, by Amy Stevens

Outstanding Humor Game of 2025:
HEN AP PRAT GETS SMACKED IN THE TWAT, by Coral Nulla (as Larissa Janus)

Outstanding Mystery Game of 2025:
Type Help, by William Rous

Outstanding Romance Game of 2025:
Pharos Fidelis, by DemonApologist

Outstanding Science Fiction Game of 2025:
Detritus, by Ben Jackson

Outstanding Slice of Life Game of 2025:
The Little Four, by Allyson Gray (as ‘Captain Arthur Hastings, O.B.E.’)

Outstanding Superhero Game of 2025:
Murderworld, by Austin Auclair

Outstanding Surreal Game of 2025:
Portrait with Wolf, by Drew Cook

System Categories

Outstanding Inform 7 Game of 2025:
A tie between
Cut the Sky, by SV Linwood and
Portrait with Wolf, by Drew Cook

Outstanding Twine Game of 2025:
Detritus, by Ben Jackson

Outstanding Ink Game of 2025:
I Got You, by Kastel

Outstanding Choicescript Game of 2025:
Specters of the Deep, by Abigail C. Trevor

Outstanding Inform 6 Game of 2025:
All That Shimmers…, by Andrew Apted

Outstanding PunyInform Game of 2025: Tie between
Kill Wizard, by Dark Star and
All That Shimmers…, by Andrew Apted

Outstanding Game in a Custom System of 2025:
Thousand Lives, by Wojtek Borowicz

Outstanding Godot Game of 2025:
LONER_DOG://Snuff Puppy Carnage Society

Outstanding Ren’py Game of 2025:
Spring Gothic, by Prof. Lily and Kastel and Lacunova and Nitori and Noelle Amelie Aman

Outstanding Adventuron Game of 2025:
Quirky Test, by Andrew Schultz

Outstanding Unity Game of 2025:
Unawarded

Outstanding Bitsy Game of 2025:
Unawarded

Outstanding TADS Game of 2025:
Unawarded

Outstanding Decker Game of 2025:
Violent Delight, by Coral Nulla

Outstanding Dialog Game of 2025:
The Wise-Woman’s Dog, by Daniel M. Stelzer

Outstanding Videotome Game of 2025:
DREAM NO MORE, by KA Tan

Outstanding Dendry/DendryNexus Gameof 2025:
HEN AP PRAT GETS SMACKED IN THE TWAT, by Coral Nulla (as Larissa Janus)

Outstanding Game in an Uncommon System of 2025:
A king has Prnoq Pnkhr Zmtmr STOP daughters STOP fight over power STOP king is murdered STOP chaos STOP code is XYZZY to AAAAA, by Mathbrush

[mathbrush (Brian Rushton)]

Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks for all the voters! I look forward to next year!

Note that a few awards were unawarded due to low participation. This is intentional; there are so many categories in the competition that it would be exhausting for voters to vote in all of them. French awards won’t be run again next year unless it is specifically requested by at least 5 people who intend to vote for the awards. For system awards, I’ll have some discussion closer to next year on what people would like to do.

Thanks again, and have a great 2026!

[Dissolved]

I’m surprised Kinophobia didn’t win any.

[mathbrush (Brian Rushton)]

I think it would have absolutely won several categories if it wasn’t up against Type Help in both being mystery games over 2 hours long. Kinophobia was great!

I’ve noticed in the past when studying the XYZZY awards that people who were nominated but didn’t win (equivalent to our top 2-4 or so per award) were usually just as good as the main winner, only in different ways, and Kinophobia is definitely great!

[Naarel (Edmund K.)]

Congratulations to all of the winners!

[mathbrush (Brian Rushton)]

If anyone who won an award feels inclined to give a speech or thanks, or comment, feel free to, though there is no obligation. Any judges that have thoughts, feel free to speak as well.

[SomeOne2 (Max Fog)]

Congrats to all the winners! The amount of really good games this year was high, so it was a definite challenge in a lot of categories.

[kamineko (Drew Cook)]

Wow! Thanks to everyone for playing and supporting my work! Whenever something like this happens, my partner Callie and I talk about it and tell our friends. It brings a bit of light into our lives.

Callie does all of the art for my games, and I’m lucky to have such a great collaborator.

I wrote a post-mortem that covers both Portrait with Wolf and Marbles, D, and the Sinister Spotlight. I’ll link it here.

Animal Games: Spring Thing 2025

Opening Remarks At the time of this writing, I have released three games. The first, Repeat the Ending, made its debut just two years ago. My second and third games were released just over a month ago as “Back Garden” entries in Spring Thing 2025. The most remarked-upon difference between Main Festival and Back Garden entries is that the latter cannot win prizes or “Best in Show” ribbons. In the long term, though, the more impactful difference is that fewer people review them, which I suppose me…

Thanks again for playing my games!

edit: How could I forget? Thanks to Mathbrush for making this all happen. I really appreciate you.