Minecraft lands 3 IGF nominations

Nominations for this year's Independent Games Festival have been released, with industry favourite Minecraft leading the way.

The Mojang Specifications title stands to win in three categories, as does Frictional Games' Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

Desktop Dungeons from QCF Design, Gaijin Games' Bit.Trip Runner, Messhof's Nidhogg and Bastion from Supergiant Games picked up two nominations each.

The IGF will be taking part once again as part of this year's GDC in San Francisco, and present six main awards, totalling $50,000 in prize money, plus the Nuovo Award for short, abstract titles that challenge the way people think about games.

The full list of nominations is as follows:

Seamus McNally Grand Prize

• Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games)
• Desktop Dungeons (QCF Design)
• Minecraft  (Mojang)
• Nidhogg (Messhof)
• SpyParty (Chris Hecker)

Excellence In Visual Art

• Bastion (Supergiant Games)
• Bit.Trip Runner (Gaijin Games)
• Cave Story (2010 Edition) (Nicalis)
• The Dream Machine (Cockroach)
• Hohokum (Honeyslug & Richard Hogg)

Technical Excellence

• Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games)
• Confetti Carnival (SpikySnail Games)
• Miegakure (Marc ten Bosch)
• Minecraft (Mojang)
• Neverdaunt:8Bit (Robot Loves Kitty)

Excellence In Design

• Desktop Dungeons (QCF Design)
• Faraway (Steph Thirion)
• Minecraft (Mojang)
• Nidhogg (Messhof)
• Super Crate Box (Vlambeer)

Excellence In Audio

• Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games)
• Bastion (Supergiant Games)
• Bit.Trip Beat (Gaijin Games)
• Cobalt (Oxeye Game Studio)
• Retro City Rampage (Vblank Entertainment)

Best Mobile Game

• Colorblind (Nonverbal)
• Halcyon (Stfj)
• Helsing's Fire (Ratloop)
• Shot Shot Shoot (Erik Svedang)
• Solipskier (Mikengreg)

The Nuovo Award

• Bohm (Monobanda)
• A House In California (Cardboard Computer)
• Nidhogg (Messhof)
• Dinner Date (Stout Games)
• Loop Raccord (Nicolai Troshinsky)
• The Cat and the Coup (Peter Brinson and Kurosh ValaNejad)
• Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally OK Now (BUTTON) (Copenhagen Game Collective)
• Hazard: The Journey Of Life (Demruth)