As you may or may not have already heard -- hopefully the former, since you are all about supporting the indie scene ... right? Right!? -- the finalists for the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival have been unveiled.
For those of you who do actually follow the latest indie happenings, you will surely recognize names like Super Meat Boy!, Joe Danger, Owlboy, Shank, Shatter, AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! (who could forget?), and even some of the art games such as Enviro-Bear 2000 and Today I Die.
Pocketwatch Games' Monaco is one of the few finalists I didn't recognize, and as expected, it looks really promising. The ten winners for the Student Showcase will be announced next week; based on what I've seen of the entries, it should be another solid line-up of groundbreaking games.
For the full list of games, either click through the break or head on over to the official IGF Web site where you'll find more details about the competition as well as specific dates and times to be aware of.
Seumas McNally Grand Prize:
Joe Danger (Hello Games)
Monaco (Pocketwatch Games)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)
Super Meat Boy! (Team Meat)
Excellence In Visual Art
Shank (Klei Entertainment)
Owlboy (D-Pad Studios)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)
Limbo (Playdead)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)
Excellence In Design
Miegakure (Marc Ten Bosch)
Star Guard (Sparky)
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard For Gravity (Dejobaan Games)
Monaco (Pocketwatch Games)
Cogs (Lazy 8 Studios)
Excellence In Audio
Super Meat Boy! (Team Meat)
Shatter (Sidhe)
Closure (Closure Team)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)
Technical Excellence
Closure (Closure Team)
Limbo (Playdead)
Heroes Of Newerth (S2 Games)
Joe Danger (Hello Games)
Vessel (Strange Loop Games)
Nuovo Award
Today I Die (Daniel Benmergui)
A Slow Year (Ian Bogost)
Tuning (Cactus)
Closure (Closure Team)
Enviro-Bear 2000 (Justin Smith)
Contest:
2:30 PM on 01.04.2010
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My brain is trained to pick up patterns like this. Call me crazy.
Their Project Rhapsody looks fantastic too. Like Chrono Trigger's battle system with Secret of Mana's ring menu system mixed with a classic RPG setup. I want to go to there.