It's perhaps the highest profile contest for indie game developers and today the Independent Games Festival announced the finalists for the 2009 edition in several catagories. The games were chosen out of 226 entries this year with the finalists picked by a number of game developers and journalists.Winning one or more of the awards in the past has lead to bigger things for the games and their creators. Last year's winner of the Seumas McNally Grand Prize (worth $20,000) was Crayon Physics which, ironically, is due to release its commercial version for the PC later today. Hit indie games World of Goo and Audiosurf also won IGF awards last year before being released to great acclaim and sales.
The winners of the 2009 IGF will be announced on March 25 during the Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco. Check out the nominees after the jump:
Seumas McNally Grand Prize:
Blueberry Garden (Erik Svedang)
Osmos (Hemisphere Games)
Carneyvale Showtime (Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab)
Night Game (Nicalis)
Dyson (Rudolf Kremers/Alex May)
Excellence In Visual Art:
Zeno Clash (ACE Team)
PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)
Machinarium (Amanita Design)
Cletus Clay (TunaSnax)
Feist (Filthy Grip)
Excellence In Audio:
Musaic (KranX Productions)
Blueberry Garden (Erik Svedang)
BrainPipe (Digital Eel)
PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)
Retro/Grade (24 Caret Games)
Excellence In Design:
Retro/Grade (24 Caret Games)
Snapshot (Six AM)
Night Game (Nicalis)
Musaic (KranX Productions)
Osmos (Hemisphere Games)
Innovation Award:
Between (Jason Rohrer)
Mightier (Ratloop)
The Graveyard (Tale Of Tales)
Coil (From The Depths)
You Have To Burn The Rope (Mazapan)
Technical Excellence:
PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)
Cortex Command (Data Realms)
Osmos (Hemisphere Games)
The Maw (Twisted Pixel Games)
Incredibots (Grubby Games)
Blueberry Garden (Erik Svedang)
Osmos (Hemisphere Games)
Carneyvale Showtime (Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab)
Night Game (Nicalis)
Dyson (Rudolf Kremers/Alex May)
Excellence In Visual Art:
Zeno Clash (ACE Team)
PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)
Machinarium (Amanita Design)
Cletus Clay (TunaSnax)
Feist (Filthy Grip)
Excellence In Audio:
Musaic (KranX Productions)
Blueberry Garden (Erik Svedang)
BrainPipe (Digital Eel)
PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)
Retro/Grade (24 Caret Games)
Excellence In Design:
Retro/Grade (24 Caret Games)
Snapshot (Six AM)
Night Game (Nicalis)
Musaic (KranX Productions)
Osmos (Hemisphere Games)
Innovation Award:
Between (Jason Rohrer)
Mightier (Ratloop)
The Graveyard (Tale Of Tales)
Coil (From The Depths)
You Have To Burn The Rope (Mazapan)
Technical Excellence:
PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)
Cortex Command (Data Realms)
Osmos (Hemisphere Games)
The Maw (Twisted Pixel Games)
Incredibots (Grubby Games)
East India Company: Battle of Trafalgar_thumbnail.jpg "Men of War: Red Tide")
Men of War: Red Tide
Champions Online: Nemesis Confrontation
Boot Disk: Fallout 2
Dino D-Day
(Possible) Project V13 Screenshots
King's Bounty: Armored Princess
Zero Gear
Boot Disk: Diablo
Please keep reporting on independent game news. If I hadn't found out about them on Big Download, I would never have picked up Aquaria, Cortex Command, and World of Goo. I am enjoying them all immensely.Posted at 12:09PM on Jan 7th 2009 by Spallit