The Indie Game Competition, in collaboration with Gamespot, have revealed the ten finalists for the main competition. The winner of the competition will be announced 10 February at the D.I.C.E summit in Las Vegas. Together with Gamepot, the competition is hosted by The Guildhall at SMU and The Academy of Interactive Sciences.

The games competing for the prizes on offer include Atom Zombie Smasher (Blendo Games), Closure (Eyebrow Interactive), Demolition Inc (Zeroscale), Nitronic Rush (Team Nitronic), Paradox Shift (Paradox Shift),  Symphony (Empty Clip Studios Inc), The Bridge (Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda), The Dream Machine (Team Dream), The Fourth Wall (The Fourth Team) and finally The Swapper (Facepalm Games).

Ty Taylor is half the duo working on The Bridge, an indie platformer where the player controls the direction of gravity to navigate impossible architecture. When asked about about his place among the finalists, he said:

“I was thrilled when I got the call that The Bridge was a finalist in the IGC. I admit that when I entered the contest I was pessimistic, as in the past, fantastic games such as Limbo, Cogs, and Miegakure were finalists. I’m happy, humbled, and cautiously optimistic with the finalist status.

“I was able to play The Swapper and The Dream Machine at IndieCade, and both of games have a beautiful aesthetic to them. I highly recommended the original Flash version of Closure, and from their video it looks like they’ve really added to the game since then, and I can’t wait to try the new version.

“Overall, all of the other finalists look fantastic, and I have no doubt that whoever wins the IGC will be completely deserving of the award.”

Among the awards on offer are those aimed at celebrating technical, artistic and gameplay achievement. Each winner of one of these awards will net themselves a prize of $2,500. The grand prize winner will receive the substantial sum of $10,000.

“I’d say our reaction has been much excitement mixed with surprise”, said Jordan Hemenway, Audio Director with Team Nitronic. Nitronic Rush, their studio’s title entered in to the competition, is described as a survival driving game. The player must use boost and jump functions to survive the hazards of the track, echoing similar racing games of the 1990s.

“Oddly enough this is the second year that two of us on the team have been finalists in IGC (myself and Jason Nollan for the games Solace and Subsonic respectively).

“Due to how much fun we had last year, we’re really excited that Team Nitronic gets a chance to take part in this year’s event.”

Olli Harjola, from Facepalm Games, the studio behind The Swapper, said:

“It was a great surprise to see The Swapper nominated among some games I’ve really enjoyed playing lately.”

The competition is also operating a Gamer’s Choice Award, allowing the fans of the nominees a chance to vote for their favourite and have their say.

One event on the horizon which is set to showcase the current talent from the indie development scene is the 14th Annual Independent Games Festival awards, scheduled to take place during GDC in March.