The 13th annual Independent Games Festival will be kicking off in just over a month. The event celebrates the brightest and most influential creations to come out of the independent video game development community in the past year.<\/p>\n
This year’s finalists<\/a> are led by multiple nominations for standout titles including Frictional Games’ psychological horror game Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Mojang’s acclaimed 3D worldbuilding sandbox title Minecraft, which received three nominations each.<\/p>\n Other multiple-nominated titles include South African bred QCF Design’s short playtime ‘dungeon crawl’ adventure Desktop Dungeons<\/a>; Messhof’s two-player retro fencing game Nidhogg, which received 3 nominations including a Nuovo Award nod; and Supergiant Games’ lush isometric adventure title Bastion.<\/p>\n All of the finalists will be competing for a share of nearly US$50,000 in prizes in the various categories, including the US$20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize. The awards will take place at the conclusion of the Independent Games Festival Awards on the evening of 2 March 2011.<\/p>\n The Audience Awards portion of the show has been opened up for public vote, so now’s your chance to vote for your favourite. All of the games nominated are available for trial so informed decisions can be made. Around the MyGaming offices we’re showing some patriotism and voting for the worthy Desktop Dungeons, a game which certainly stands on its own merit, despite South African origins.<\/p>\n