The Independent Games Festival (or IGF) announced their nominees for the 14th annual festival this morning. The IGF is one of the few videogame award events that focus solely on games made by independent developers. Even though the definition of "independent" is somewhat fuzzy (a Pixel Junk game was featured in a previous IGF), I get the feeling that these awards actually carry weight in the development community (unlike--I don't know--Spike's poor excuse of an award show that is more about new teaser trailers than recognizing developers). But I'll get off my soap box and move on to the actual nominees.

While there are good number of obscure titles nominated, there are plenty of relatively known games like Fez, Frozen Synapse, and To the Moon. Check out the list, I think that there are some really cool games that are worth looking into and supporting when they come out.

Without further ado: 

Seumas McNally Grand Prize Finalists: 

• Dear Esther

• FEZ

• Frozen Synapse

• Johann Sebastian Joust

• Spelunky

Excellence In Visual Art Finalists:

• Botanicula

• Dear Esther

• Lume

• Mirage

• Wonderputt

Excellence In Design Finalists:

• Atom Zombie Smasher

• English Country Tune

• Frozen Synapse

• Gunpoint

• Spelunky

Excellence in Audio Finalists:

• Botanicula

• Dear Esther

• Pugs Luv Beats

• To the Moon

• Waking Mars

Best Mobile Game Finalists:

• ASYNC Corp.

• Beat Sneak Bandit

• Faraway

• Ridiculous Fishing

• Waking Mars

Nuovo Award Finalists:

• At a Distance

• Dear Esther

• Fingle

• GIRP

• Johann Sebastian Joust

• Proteus

• Storyteller

• WAY

If you want to read more about any of the games listed, be sure to go to IGF's website. They have screenshots and game descriptions for each game.