IGF organizers have announced they’re accepting submissions for the 14th annual competition which last year saw Minecraft take the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. This year a record amount of cash prizes will be up for grabs at just under $60,000. With the aforementioned McNally winner taking home a whopping $30,000–a 50% increase from last year.

Other notables include the abstract-applauding Nuovo Award which will net a dev $5,000, and $3,000 each for the rest of the categories: Excellence in Visual Art, Audio, and Design, Technical Excellence, Best Mobile Game, the Best Student Game, and Audience Award.

All games selected as finalists will be playable at the IGF Pavilion on the GDC show floor from March 7-9, 2012. If you’re an indie developer interested in submitting an entry, you can get more info here. Main competition submissions have until October 17, while students get an extra couple of weeks and have through October 31.

The key dates from today through the festival itself:

- June 30, 2011 – Submissions Open

- October 17, 2011 – Submission Deadline, Main Competition

- October 31, 2011 – Submission Deadline, Student Competition

- January 5, 2012 – Finalists Announced, Main Competition

- January 12, 2012 – Finalists Announced, Student Competition

- March 5 – March 9, 2012 – Game Developers Conference 2012

- March 5 – March 6, 2012 – Indie Games Summit @ GDC 2012

- March 7 – March 9, 2012 – IGF Pavilion @ GDC 2012

- March 7, 2012 – IGF Awards Ceremony (Winners Announced!)

Of course we can’t wait for the finalist list to hit so we can try out all of those great games that perhaps are still in their infant stages at this very moment. Oh the unknown potential!

[Gamasutra]