Monaco is one of the stand-out entries in the Independent Games Festival this year, and for good reason. It's one of the most polished games in the competition, and nowhere is this more evident than in the design. Monaco is a game that aims to recreate all of those classic caper movies you remember (Ocean's Eleven, The Italian Job) as a top-down co-op stealth game. If this concept sounds amazing (as it should), then you'll only be happy to know that it pulls the concept off with incredible grace and intelligence, rather than falling flat like it could have. This high-concept execution is what carried Monaco to finalist status in both design and overall categories.

Monaco's entire goal is to reach the desired loot for each level and make it back to the escape van without dying. You have a choice of seven different characters, each with their own particular strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Locksmith can open locks extremely easily and has smoke bombs to distract guards, but isn't all that great at hacking or physical endeavors such as opening windows. The Cleaner, in comparison, can knock out unsuspecting guards and feign death, but can't really do anything besides guard removal with any sort of skill. When playing alone, each different character can completely alter the way you play a level, as the strengths and weaknesses make one path better than another.

The main appeal of Monaco comes from playing with friends, and it's an awesome experience. Up to four people can play together, and this neatly corresponds with the four initial characters you can play as before you unlock the others. With players working together, formerly difficult levels become much easier. As an example, the Hacker can look through the security cameras to see where a guard's patrol route is, while the Locksmith and the Cleaner hide in a locked closet near the route. When the guard passes by, the Cleaner leaps out to chloroform the guard, allowing the Prowler to open a window for the whole crew to leap out of to their getaway van. This is only a hypothetical, but merely the thought of something like this gives most co-op fans shivers down their spines, so Monaco's excellent execution only showcases the great design in both single-player and multiplayer aspects.

To keep the chatter down, we're simply going to abbreviate this game's rather extensive title to AAAAAA! for the rest of the article. If you read Big Download on a regular basis, you'll know that we liked AAAAAA! when it came out last year to a good critical response. It's one of the silliest, most addicting games we've played in recent memory, and the absurdity of its base-jumping mechanics mixed with the incredibly unique style is what caught our attention more than anything. It's a well-designed game, but its inclusion as a finalist in design may seem unusual.

AAAAAA! is, as mentioned, a base-jumping game. You must leap off of a structure, plummeting downwards until you deploy your parachute and land safely. There's a few extra things you can do along the way, like crash into giant colored plates, flip off the spectators, or spray paint government property, but this is first and foremost a game about falling really fast next to dangerously solid objects. Dejobaan has crafted a game that is incredibly simple in both execution and design, and this is where they - and by extension, AAAAAA! - excel.

AAAAAA! was included not merely because the gameplay is addicting and arcade-like, but because the style merges with the design so elegantly. It has this madcap, eccentric genius feel to it, with weird monotone voices and random meditation videos being commonplace. It's surreal, absurd, and completely lovable, and this marriage of insanity and simplicity is why AAAAAA! sits comfortably as a finalist in the design excellence category. It may not have made any other categories this year, but it doesn't really need to.

Star Guard was one of the more controversial choices to be included as a finalist, thanks in part to its simplicity of design, aesthetic, and... well, everything. The story is non-existent, the gameplay is very standard, and the graphics have a minimalist feel about them that not a lot of people like. But here it sits on the list of design excellence finalists, almost in defiance of its peers. The IGF judges obviously favored the design of Star Guard, but why? It's not especially complex. Just about every other game indicated as a finalist is vastly more complex than Star Guard is, even the incredibly simple ones.

Star Guard is about a man trying to find the Wizard on Mars so that he can kill him. That's it. On his way to the Wizard, the player must progress through increasingly difficult levels, fighting off enemies and traps alike so that he can free Mars from the Wizard's overbearing tyranny. You get only one weapon, there's two kinds of enemies as well as a few traps, and levels are roughly linear, although there's some divergence to get special items for bragging rights. This game is clear and focused in its goal, and that goal is to get you to the Wizard so that you can kill him and prove just how much of a badass you are.

The reason why Star Guard is a finalist is because nothing in the game feels out of place. It's the execution of such a finely-tuned design that sets Star Guard apart from everything else. There's absolutely nothing superfluous, and while there's a minimal amount of variety in the enemies, the levels are constructed in such ways that you still feel a challenge and are not bored despite seeing the same thing over and over again. The game is even color-coded: green is friendly, yellow is the level, and red is anything that can kill you. There's nothing quite as focused as Star Guard in the competition, and that's why it is a finalist.