2012 IGF Awards Finalists Announced

The Independent Games Festival has revealed this year's list of finalists, who'll be competing for recognition in seven different categories, including Excellence in Design, Best Mobile Game, and the Seamus McNally Grand Prize.

The list of nominees reads like a who's who of the indie community's heavy hitters, with popular games like Atom Zombie Smasher and Frozen Synapse, as well as titles from well known developers Terry Cavanagh and Amanita Design. Masochists will also be happy to learn that QWOP's rock climbing sequel, GIRP, is up for the Nuovo Award, which celebrates experimental gameplay.

Leading the pack are Dear Esther, an experimental first-person game that began life as a Half-Life 2 mod, and Spelunky, a roguelink platformer, both of which picked up three nods each. They'll both be competing for the $30,000 Grand Prize, alongside Frozen Synapse, Fez, and the experimental motion-controlled title Johann Sebastian Joust.

Here's the full list of nominees.

Excellence In Visual Art

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

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)

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)

Excellence In Audio

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

Best Mobile Game

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

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.)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

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

The winners will be announced at a March 7 awards ceremony at San Francisco's Moscone Center, as part of this year's Game Developers Conference. You can find more details over on the IGF's official site.