2011 Independent Games Festival Finalists Revealed

The 2011 edition of the Independent Games Festival has just revealed its list of finalists for the awards that will be given in its Main Competition, with titles like Minecraft or Amnesia: The Dark Descent dominating the list.

At the beginning of each year, independent (indie) game developers are celebrated at the IGF, where a competition is held to reveal the best indie game of the last year.

2010 has been very good to indie developers, with many titles rising up and fighting it out with full-pledged, triple-A games, including Minecraft or Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which won over many gamers last year.

Five nominations were given out for each award, with honorable mentions being chosen by the jury of the Independent Games Festival.

Check out the games and their developers below.

Seumas McNally Grand Prize:

Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games)
SpyParty (Chris Hecker)
Desktop Dungeons (QCF Design)
Minecraft (Mojang)
Nidhogg (Messhof)

Honorable mentions: Neptune's Pride (Iron Helmet Games); Super Crate Box (Vlambeer); Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale (Carpe Fulgur); Bit.Trip Runner (Gaijin Games); Retro City Rampage (Vblank Entertainment).

Excellence In Visual Art

Bastion (Supergiant Games)
The Dream Machine (Cockroach)
Cave Story (2010 Edition) (Nicalis)
Bit.Trip Runner (Gaijin Games)
Hohokum (Honeyslug & Richard Hogg)

Honorable mentions: Retro City Rampage (Vblank Entertainment); Cobalt (Oxeye Game Studio); Faraway (Steph Thirion); Helsing's Fire (Ratloop); Flotilla (Blendo Games).

Technical Excellence

Minecraft (Mojang)
Confetti Carnival (SpikySnail Games)
Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games)
Neverdaunt:8Bit (Robot Loves Kitty)
Miegakure (Marc Ten Bosch)

Honorable mentions: Cobalt (Oxeye Game Studio); Achron (Hazardous Software); Hazard: The Journey Of Life (Demruth); Overgrowth (Wolfire Games); Swimming Under Clouds (Piece Of Pie Studios)

Excellence In Design

Desktop Dungeons (QCF Design)
Super Crate Box (Vlambeer)
Nidhogg (Messhof)
Faraway (Steph Thirion)
Minecraft (Mojang)

Honorable mentions: Helsing's Fire (Ratloop); Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale (Carpe Fulgur); Flotilla (Blendo Games); Bo (Mahdi Bahrami); Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally OK Now [B.U.T.T.O.N.] (Copenhagen Game Collective)

Excellence In Audio

Bastion (Supergiant Games)
Retro City Rampage (Vblank Entertainment)
Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games)
Bit.Trip Beat (Gaijin Games)
Cobalt (Oxeye Game Studio)

Honorable mentions: Bit.Trip Runner (Gaijin Games); Cave Story (2010 Edition) (Nicalis); Jamestown (Final Form Games); NightSky (Nicalis); Planck (Shadegrown Games)

Best Mobile Game:

Shot Shot Shoot (Erik Svedang)
Colorbind (Nonverbal)
Helsing's Fire (Ratloop)
Solipskier (Mikengreg)
Halcyon (Stfj)

Honorable mentions: Flick Kick Football (PikPok); Shibuya (Nevercenter); Spirits (Spaces Of Play); Tentacles (Press Play); Trainyard (Matt Rix)

Another key distinction that will be given out at the 2011 IGF will be the Nuovo Award, which honors "abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which advances the medium and the way we think about games."

Eight contenders are in the running for this award, as well as a $5,000 prize, which will be given to the winner: Monobanda's Bohm, Cardboard Computer's A House In California, Messhof's Nidhogg, Stout Games' Dinner Date, Nicolai Troshinsky's Loop Raccord, Peter Brinson and Kurosh ValaNejad's The Cat and the Coup, Copenhagen Game Collective's Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally OK Now (B.U.T.T.O.N.), and Demruth's Hazard: The Journey Of Life will also be present in a special section of the IGF Pavilion. with a specially increased $5,000 prize being given out to the Nuovo Prize winner.

The IGF 2011 winners will be announced at the major Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday, March 2, 2011, at the end of the bigger Game Developers Conference.