With the IGF finalists announced, game makers only have a short while longer to find out the best of the best in indie games from last year. From the best overall game to the one with the most impressive art, there's several different categories for indie game designers to aspire to be the top of. This week we're going to take a look at a few of the games that have made it to the finals.

While some look only at gameplay, and others look at visuals, and yet others still look at technical innovation, there's still the matter of audio. Audio is such a small part, but the impact it can have upon a game is tremendous. With the right music and sound effects, an okay game can be changed into a fantastic one. By contrast, a great game with terrible music and sound effects will be almost unplayable for many, as it pulls you out of the experience greatly. Nobody knows this better than indies, so here's the five finalists for audio excellence in the IGF.

Once again, Rocketbirds Revolution makes an appearance as a finalist. This time, it's the audio that has been taken notice of. In case you missed the first nomination, Rocketbirds Revolution is about Hardboiled Chicken, an operative infiltrating the nation of Albatropolis to eliminate its leader and free the people from tyranny. It plays very similar to the adult platforming games such as Flashback and Prince of Persia, which makes it very unique. Not many games choose to embrace this slow, methodical pace, but Rocketbirds does it so effectively that you will wonder why most do not use it. You can give Rocketbirds a try on the developer's website, as it's a flash game already released.

The audio for Rocketbirds Revolution is just as polished as the visuals, with some excellent music and sound. The music in the intro and intermissions is from artist New World Revolution, better known for his work on Mel Gibson films such as Apocalyptico and Passion of the Christ. The music in the game is actually available as an EP titled Karmakaze through Amazon or iTunes, so if that's your thing, give it a listen! The sounds and ambient music are also excellent, fitting the game's theme and pace perfectly. Nothing feels out of place, and the sounds only serve the reinforce the slow maturity of the gameplay mechanics. Our favorite part of the sound effects is the gunfire, which is weighty and solid, unlike a lot of games that have very light gunfire sound.

Trauma deserves a spot on the audio finalists almost more than any of the other finalists. It's an excellent game that challenge the player in new and interesting ways while providing engaging visuals and audio. A quick re-cap: you play a woman exploring her dreams at the insistence of a psychiatrist. She was involved in a car wreck, which damaged her body and psyche alike. You must use gesture drawing and exploration to progress through the levels, finding more and more about the woman as you do so. It's a reflection of all the point-and-click adventure games we know and love, but with an added layer of gameplay and an engaging arthouse style that keeps the game mysterious and foreboding. It's surprising that it didn't make it into the Nuovo finalists, but at least it garnered an honorable mention.

The audio in Trauma is twofold. First, there is the music, which has a calm, zen-like feel to it, even as the game is showing you surreal and disturbing imagery. You always feel at peace in regards to the music, and it seems to reflect a sensibility one might see in the works of Philip Glass. The sound effects are alright and serve their purpose admirably, but the biggest boon the audio brings is some excellent voice-acting. There's only two voices you will ever hear in the game: the psychiatrist and the woman you play as. The psychiatrist has a normal, almost friendly, voice, and he often asks about the woman's life. The woman, in contrast, has a cold and monotone voice with a hint of sadness and despair beneath. It's some of the best voice-acting we've ever seen in a game, especially given how clear the quality is of the recording is.

Closure is one of only a few games to make it into three finalist categories this year In Closure's case, the categories are technical, audio, grand prize, and Nuovo. It's also the only game to be featured in both the Nuovo and main competitions, which makes it entirely unique. The basic gameplay break-down (we'll do a bigger one come grand prize finalist discussion) is thus: you are a miner, and you must find light to traverse through tunnels. Anything not illuminated does not exist, which means you can fall through floors, bypass walls, and lose items if you don't use the mechanic properly. It's smart and engaging as both a platformer and a puzzle game, and we're sure you'll lose yourself in it as soon as it is released.

The audio in Closure is dark, mysterious, and manages to convey the mood of the game absolutely perfectly. You always feel like there's something lurking in the darkness, even though you know for a fact through the game mechanics that nothing exists in the darkness. It has to enter the light to become real. This paranoia and claustrophobia is greatly enhancing to the game's mood, even if the game itself is rather peaceful and thoughtful. Nothing is as good of a motivator as an unknown danger lurking within darkness, and from the grue of Zork fame to the feeling present in Closure, this much is blatantly true. The sound itself is very minimalistic, with quiet pitter-pattering and the soft crunching of glass being the things you will hear most often. Perhaps the best part is how ominous and scary the music gets when you go underwater. It's enough to send shivers down your spine!