Here are the finalists in the ceremony's six categories:
Seumas McNally Grand Prize:
Blueberry Garden
Dyson
Night Game
Osmos
Excellence in Visual Art:
Cletus Clay
FEIST
Machinarium
Excellence in Audio:
Blueberry Garden
BrainPipe
Musaic Box
PixelJunk Eden
Retro/Grade
Excellence in Design:
Musaic Box
Night Game
Osmos
Retro/Grade
Snapshot
Innovation Award:
Between
Coil
The Graveyard
Mightier
Technical Excellence:
IncrediBots
Osmos
PixelJunk Eden
Every year, this list is filled with games we've never heard of, and at least one game that seems strange by its inclusion. I can safely say that I haven't heard of most of these games yet, and that's pretty exciting, as the IGF has had a decent track record lately with one or more games breaking out and becoming pretty important. Last year, both Braid and Audiosurf were involved in the IGF. They both went on to be big.
And the game that seems strange by its inclusion, for me, is PixelJunk Eden. That game was published by Sony Computer Entertainment America. Sony. In my book, a publishing deal with a huge company like Sony sort of precludes you from being counted as "indie."
So that got me wondering about the eligibility requirements for these awards. After poking around the site a bit, this is the bit I found on that:
Independently Created: The Nominating Committee must be confident that the submitted game was created in the 'indie spirit' by an independent game developer, fulfilling the question asked on the entry form. The Nominating Committee reserves the right to refuse any game at its sole discretion.
So would this mean that, like, Gears of War 2 would considered a game by an independent game developer since Epic's a private company? Does that game's dark, emotional slant give it "indie spirit?" Sounds way too open to interpretation to me.