The Independent Games Festival (IGF) has announced the Main Competition finalists for the thirteenth annual presentation of its awards. All of the IGF finalists will be playable on the Expo show floor at the historic 25th Game Developers Conference (GDC), to be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Center February 28-March 4, 2011. In addition, nearly $50,000 of prizes in various categories, including the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize will be awarded to these games at the Independent Games Festival Awards on the evening of March 2 immediately preceding the acclaimed Game Developers Choice Awards.
The full list of finalists for the 2011 Independent Games Festival, with jury-picked ‘honorable mentions’ to those top-quality games that didn’t quite make it to finalist status, is as follows:
| Seumas McNally Grand Prize | |
| Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games) | |
| Desktop Dungeons (QCF Design) | |
| Minecraft (Mojang) | |
| Nidhogg (Messhof) | |
| SpyParty (Chris Hecker) | |
| Honorable mentions: | |
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| Excellence In Visual Art | |
| Bastion (Supergiant Games) | |
| Bit.Trip Runner (Gaijin Games) | |
| Cave Story (2010 Edition) (Nicalis) | |
| The Dream Machine (Cockroach) | |
| Hohokum (Honeyslug & Richard Hogg) | |
| Honorable mentions: | |
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| Technical Excellence | |
| Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games) | |
| Confetti Carnival (SpikySnail Games) | |
| Miegakure (Marc ten Bosch) | |
| Minecraft (Mojang) | |
| Neverdaunt:8Bit (Robot Loves Kitty) | |
| Honorable mentions: | |
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| Excellence In Design | |
| Desktop Dungeons (QCF Design) | |
| Faraway (Steph Thirion) | |
| Minecraft (Mojang) | |
| Nidhogg (Messhof) | |
| Super Crate Box (Vlambeer) | |
| Honorable mentions: | |
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| Excellence In Audio | |
| Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games) | |
| Bastion (Supergiant Games) | |
| Bit.Trip Beat (Gaijin Games) | |
| Cobalt (Oxeye Game Studio) | |
| Retro City Rampage (Vblank Entertainment) | |
| Honorable mentions: | |
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| Best Mobile Game | |
| Colorblind (Nonverbal) | |
| Halcyon (Stfj) | |
| Helsing’s Fire (Ratloop) | |
| Shot Shot Shoot (Erik Svedang) | |
| Solipskier (Mikengreg) | |
| Honorable mentions: | |
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