IndieCade Announces 2010 Finalists; Shacknews Sponsoring, Presenting Most 'Fun/Compelling' Award

IndieCade, the International Festival of Independent Games, has announced the thirty-two finalists selected for 2010. The IndieCade 2010 festival is open to the public and is taking place from October 8-10 in Culver City, CA. If you're a Los Angeles local (or within driving distance that weekend), check out the various admission options. The Los Angeles Times called IndieCade the "video game industry's Sundance," for a reason, y'know.

IndieCade 2010 finalists LIMBO and VVVVVV

On the night of October 8, an awards ceremony will be held to dish out accolades to the best in show. Your favorite gaming community, Shacknews, is a "Key Sponsor" for the event, which will be hosted by "artist and storyteller LeVar Burton." Shacknews will also be presenting the "Fun/Compelling" award to the game that we feel is the most, well, fun and compelling. The finalists were selected by a panel of 160 international jurors from over 350 submissions.

We've included a list of the awards and the eligible finalists below, but you can also head on over to our sister-site, Indie Games Channel, to check out trailers for a good number of the nominees' games. A lot of the games on the list are free, and some are even playable in your browser. Feel free to check them out and let us know who you think are the strongest contenders.

Unlike other award ceremonies, all of the 2010 IndieCade finalists are eligible to win in any of the following categories:

• Jury Award

• Aesthetics

• Fun/Compelling (presented by Shacknews.com)

• Gameplay Innovation (presented by BBC Worldwide)

• Technical Innovation

• World/Story

• Vanguard (presented by G4tv.com)

• Sublime Experience

• Wildcard

• Documentary

• Sound

• The IndieCade 2010 Honorary Trailblazer Award for Lifetime Achievement

And now, the list of IndieCade 2010 Finalists. Check out the article on Indie Games Channel for some trailers and official game information.

• 1066 - The game (Preloaded / Channel 4, United Kingdom)

• A Slow Year (Ian Bogost, USA)

• Auditorium (Cipher Prime, USA)

• B.U.T.T.O.N. (Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally OK Now) (Copenhagen Game Collective, Denmark)

• BIT.TRIP RUNNER (Gaijin Games, USA)

• Blue Lacuna (Aaron Reid, USA)

• Cargo Delivery (Cat in the Sky, Brazil)

• Castle Vox (Sillysoft, Canada)

• Continuity (Ragtime Games, Sweeden)

• Creaky Old Memory (DADIU, Denmark)

• Every Day The Same Dream (Molleindustria, Italy)

• Faraway (Steph Thirion, USA)

• FATALE (Tale of Tales, Belgium)

• feelforit (Chris DeLeon, USA)

• Fractal (Cipher Prime, USA)

• Gentlemen of the South Sandwiche Islands (Taylor and Gray, USA)

• Groping in the Dark (Team Arex, South Korea)

• Humans vs. Zombies (Gnarwhal Studios, USA)

• LIMBO (Playdead, Denmark)

• Miegakure (Marc ten Bosch, USA)

• Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess (Mediatonic, UK)

• Recurse (Matt Parker, USA)

• Retro/Grade (24 Caret Games, USA)

• Sixteen Tons (Nathalie Pozzi and Eric Zimmerman, USA)

• Socks, Inc. (Jim Babb/Data Played, USA)

• Solace (One Man Down, USA)

• Spirits (Spaces of Play, Germany)

• Tic-Tac-Totum (Jesse Fuchs, USA)

• The Cat and the Coup (Peter Brinson, USA)

• The Games of Nonchalance (Nonchalance, USA)

• TRAUMA (Krystian Majewski, Germany)

• VVVVVV (Terry Cavanagh, Ireland)