Independent Games Festival to pick the best of indie mobile games

For those interested in funding game startups, the list of nominees at the Independent Games Festival is always a good place to look for prospects. One of last year’s winners was The World of Goo, developed by 2DBoy, which went on to become a major hit for 2008. This year, there’s a mobile competition, dubbed 2009 IGF Mobile, for which the nominees were named today.

The winners will be announced during the Game Developers Conference Mobile conference on March 24, and they will also be honored during the main Independent Games Festival Awards on March 25, 2009. The finalists for the main IGF are listed here.

It’s interesting to see so many iPhone/iPod touch games on this year’s list. The number of mobile entries topped 100 this year. (And please check out the link to our upcoming GameBeat 09 game conference coming up March 24.)

Here’s the list:

IGF Mobile Best Game
Cubic Republic (IKS Mobile) – Flash Lite
Smiles (Sykhronics Entertainment) – iPhone/iPod touch
Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch [pictured above]
Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch
Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS

Innovation In Mobile Game Design
Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS
Galcon (Hassey Enterprises) – iPhone/iPod touch
Eliss (Steph Thirion) – iPhone/iPod touch

Achievement In Art
Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch
Dizzy Bee (Igloo Games) – iPhone/iPod touch
Ruben & Lullaby (Song New Creative) – iPhone/iPod touch

Technical Achievement
Football Tycoon (Dynamo Games) – Java
Real Racing (Firemint) – iPhone/iPod touch
Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS

Audio Achievement
Radio Flare (Studio Radiolaris) – iPhone/iPod touch
Zen Bound (Secret Exit) – iPhone/iPod touch
Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch

Best iPhone Game
Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch
Dizzy Bee (Igloo Games) – iPhone/iPod touch
Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch
Zen Bound (Secret Exit) – iPhone/iPod touch
Frenzic (The Iconfactory) – iPhone/iPod touch