On Tuesday afternoon the Independent Games Festival juries announced the finalists for the 14th Annual Independent Games Festival main competition which celebrates the best and brightest from the indie games scene.

The Independent Games Festival nominations represent a selection of top indie titles from the previous year hand-picked by experts in the field. The awards will be held on 7 March together with the Game Developers Choice Awards during GDC 2012.

The titles which were nominated represent some of the most original and interesting indie games ever produced, with stand-out titles such as Proteus, Johann Sebastian Joust, Frozen Synapse, Spelunky and Dear Esther receiving nominations and mentions in multiple categories (see full list of nominations below).

Ed Key, half of the team behind Proteus together with David Kanaga, said: “I’m delighted of course: Nuovo was the category I was most hopeful for, along with Audio, so it was nice to get an Honourable Mention there (props to David!).”

Proteus is a first-person game which allows players to explore a mysterious, artistically stylised island to an ambient musical backing which dynamically shifts depending on the players location.

“It’s a really staggering list of fellow nominees so I’m just looking forward to being set up on a stand in that group. It should be amazing, especially with games of Johann Sebastian Joust going on in the vicinity.”

Johann Sebastian Joust stands alongside Proteus, as well as several other titles, in competition for the Nuovo Award (and a prize of $5,000), which is aimed at honouring ‘abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development’.

The unconventional game makes use of multiple Playstation Move controllers and requires players to bump their opponents’ controller without their own becoming knocked about. The quirky game has proven to be very popular at Wild Rumpus indie games events.

“We’re humbled and honoured! We had hoped that we might make the Nuovo category”, said Douglas Wilson, Producer and Partner at Johann Sebastian Joust developer Die Gute Fabrik, “but we didn’t think Seumas McNally would be in the cards. Wow.”

The Seumas McNally Grand Prize is named for computer game programmer Seumas McNally, who sadly passed away in 2000 shortly after having received the IGF Grand Prize. The winner of the 14th Annual Independent Game Festival Awards will take $30,000 home together with the prestigious award.

“I also want to add that I’m very proud of the Where Is My Heart team”, added Mr Wilson. “I didn’t work on the game myself, but I love that game to bits. Where is my Heart received three honourable mentions (Audio, Design, Seumas McNally). I’d give them my finalist spot if I could. They deserve it.”

Turn-based strategy game Frozen Synapse from Mode7 studios, which was named IndieGames.com Strategy Game Of The Year at last year’s Indievisibility Awards, is also contending for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, but has also received a nomination in the Excellence In Design category.

Paul Taylor from Mode7 said: “We’re delighted that Frozen Synapse has been recognised in this way and it’s fantastic to be nominated alongside so many other brilliant games.

“Making Frozen Synapse was a battle at times, especially for our Lead Designer Ian, so I’m really pleased that both the code and design sides of the game are being flagged up here.

“We’re really looking forward to heading out to GDC and meeting all of the other indies out there.”

2011 has been a phenomenal year for indie games the world over, and the IGF Awards will hopeful further encourage and celebrate a section of the games industry that is all too often over-looked. Looking at the categories below, it is no exaggeration to say that naming any one of those games best in that category will be no easy feat.

Come back and join us at Joystuck in March to find out which lucky few manage to battle their way to the top and grab one of the coveted prizes at the GDC 2012!

IGF Award Categories:

Excellence In Visual Art

Botanicula (Amanita Design)
Dear Esther (thechineseroom)
Lume (State Of Play Games)
Mirage (Mario von Rickenbach)
Wonderputt (Damp Gnat)

Honourable mentions:

Beat Sneak Bandit (Simogo); Dustforce (Hitbox Team); Fader(Chris Makris); Proun (Joost van Dongen); Toren (Swordtales)

Technical Excellence

Antichamber (Demruth)
Fez (Polytron)
Prom Week (Expressive Intelligence Studio, UC Santa Cruz)
Realm of the Mad God (Wild Shadow Studios & Spry Fox)
Spelunky (Mossmouth)

Honourable mentions: 

Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games); Nitronic Rush (DigiPen Institute of Technology); Reflow (Xymatic); Super T.I.M.E Force (Capy); Tiny and Big – Grandpa’s Leftovers (Black Pants)

Excellence In Design

Atom Zombie Smasher (Blendo Games)
English Country Tune (Stephen Lavelle)
Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games)
Gunpoint (Tom Francis, John Roberts and Fabian van Dommelen)
Spelunky (Mossmouth)

Honourable mentions: 

Faraway (Steph Thirion); FTL (Justin Ma & Matthew Davis);Johann Sebastian Joust (Die Gute Fabrik); SpaceChem (Zachtronics Industries); Where Is My Heart (Die Gute Fabrik)

Excellence In Audio

Botanicula (Amanita Design)
Dear Esther (thechineseroom)
Pugs Luv Beats (Lucky Frame)
To The Moon (Freebird Games)
Waking Mars (Tiger Style)

Honourable mentions: 

Beatbuddy (THREAKS); Beat Sneak Bandit (Simogo); Fez(Polytron); Proteus (Ed Key and David Kanaga); Where Is My Heart (Die Gute Fabrik)

Best Mobile Game

ASYNC Corp (Powerhead Games)
Beat Sneak Bandit (Simogo)
Faraway (Steph Thirion)
Ridiculous Fishing (Vlambeer)
Waking Mars (Tiger Style)

Honourable mentions:

Fingle (Game Oven Studios); Hundreds (SemiSecret and aeiowu); iBlast Moki 2 (Godzilab); Temple Run (Imangi Studios); Tentacles (Press Play ApS)

Nuovo Award

At a Distance (Terry Cavanagh)
Dear Esther (thechineseroom)
Fingle (Game Oven Studios)
GIRP (Bennett Foddy)
Proteus (Ed Key and David Kanaga)
Johann Sebastian Joust (Die Gute Fabrik)
Storyteller (Daniel Benmergui)
Way (CoCo & Co.)

Honourable mentions: 

Deep Sea (WRAUGHK); Four Letter Word (Terry Cavanagh);GlitchHiker (Aardbever); Hundreds (SemiSecret and aeiowu); POP (Rob Lach)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

Dear Esther (thechineseroom)
Fez (Polytron)
Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games)
Johann Sebastian Joust (Die Gute Fabrik)
Spelunky (Mossmouth)

Honourable mentions: 

Antichamber (Demruth); FTL (Justin Ma & Matthew Davis);Proteus (Ed Key and David Kanaga); SpaceChem (Zachtronics Industries); Where Is My Heart (Die Gute Fabrik)