The Independent Games Festival will be happening on March 21 during the 2017 Game Developers Conference at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center. Organizers have already announced the list of nominees for the event.

Nina Freeman will be hosting Independent Games Festival this year. She has won the Nuovo Award for "Cibele" at the IGF 2016. As of now, Freeman is working with Fullbright for "Tacoma."

Among those listed, Virginia" from Variable State has four nominations and these are for Best Audio, The Nuovo Award, Excellene in Visual Arts and Excellence in Narrative. "Inside" from Playdead, Heart Machine's "Hyper Light Drifter" and Ocelot Society's "Event[0]" got three nominations each.

For the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, the winner will be receiving $30,000. The nominees for this award are "Inside," "Stardew Alley" from Concerned Ape, "Quadrilateral Cowboy" from Blendo Games, "Event[0]," "Hyper Light Drifter" and Ghost Town Games' "Overcooked."

Apart from the $30,000 grand prize, games nominated for each category could benefit from a prize pool of up to $50,000. The awards include Best Student Game, Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Design, Excellence in Narrative, Excellence in Visual Art and the Nuovo Award. Each of these categories has six nominees. The full list is on Dual Shockers, including Honorable Mentions for each category.

With four nominations, "Virginia" has the most number of nods for Independent Games Festival this year. It is a first-person mystery adventure game that was released Sept. 22, 2016.

The Independent Games Festival honors the most innovative, influenctal and acclaimed indie games in the industry, writes PC Gamer. The IGF will be streamed live on Twitch on the said date. The event will be held before the Game Developers Choice Award, which will also be streamed on Twitch.