Juries for the Independent Games Festival have announced award finalists for their 14th awards presentation. These awards honor the best in independent games during the previous year. Almost 200 independent game experts made their recommendations, and the finalisst were chosen from those titles. Several games even managed to get multiple nominations, including Dear Esther, Spelunky, Fez, Frozen Synapse and Johann Sebastian Joust.

All finalists will be playable at the Game Developers Conference 2012′s IGF Pavilion from March 7-9 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. The Independent Games Summit itself is held March 5-6.

In addition, juries are in the process of identifying finalists for the first-ever XBLA Prize, which includes a guaranteed publishing deal on Xbox LIVE and its related platforms — including Windows Phone and…well, just plain Windows.

Here’s what’s up for $60,000 in prize money, including honorable mentions:

Excellence In Visual Art

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

Honorable mentions: Beat Sneak Bandit (Simogo), Dustforce (Hitbox Team), Fader (Chris Makris),
Honorable mentions: Beat Sneak Bandit (Simogo), Dustforce (Hitbox Team), Fader (Chris Makris), Proun (Joost van Dongen), Toren (Swordtales)

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)

Honorable mentions: Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games), Nitronic Rush (DigiPen Institute of Technology), Reflow (Xymatic), Super T.I.M.E. Force (Capy), Tiny & Big – Grandpa’s Leftovers (Black Pants)

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)

Honorable mentions: Faraway (Steph Thirion), FTL (Justin Ma & Matthew Davis), Johann Sebastian Joust (Die Gute Fabrik), SpaceChem (Zachtronics Industries), Where Is My Heart? (Die Gute Fabrik)

Excellence In Audio

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

Honorable mentions: Beatbuddy (Threaks), Beat Sneak Bandit (Simogo), Fez (Polytron), Proteus (Ed Key and David Kanaga), Where Is My Heart? (Die Gute Fabrik)

Best Mobile Game

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

Honorable mentions: Fingle (Game Oven Studios), Hundreds (SemiSecret & aeiowu), iBlast Moki 2 (Godzilab), Temple Run (Imangi Studios), Tentacles (Press Play)

Nuovo Award
[Designed to honor abstract, shortform and unconventional game development.]
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.)

Honorable mentions: Deep Sea (Wraughk), Four Letter Word (Terry Cavanagh), Glitchhiker (Aardbever), Hundreds (SemiSecret & aeiowu), POP (Rob Lach)

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

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

Honorable mentions: Antichamber (Demruth), FTL (Justin Ma & Matthew Davis), Proteus (Ed Key and David Kanaga), SpaceChem (Zachtronics Industries ), Where Is My Heart? (Die Gute Fabrik)

“While the sheer number of fantastic entries in this year’s festival made whittling down this selection of finalists a difficult task for our judges and juries, that overwhelming show of quality is proof that independents truly are driving the future of games,” said IGF Chairman Brandon Boyer. “I’m tremendously excited to see a wider audience discovering and getting to experience all of the beauty and brilliance showcased this year.”