After what seems like forever, we finally get a look at the finalists for the 14th annual Independent Games Festival. The juries have announced their picks for all the categories and they include some games that have already received several awards so far as well as some newcomers.

If you played Vlambeer’s Super Crate Box when it first released on PC, you know that it is two things: ridiculously addictive and downright unfairly challenging. Well, I’m happy to say that it seems Halfbot has been able to translate the title over to the iOS. In some cases, though, it’s a bit more difficult and annoying. On the other hand with OpenFeint integration, achievements and unlocks get a lot funner, but on the way to those achievements… I wanted to chuck my phone at the nearest bystander so he could experience at least some of the pain I was experiencing. Yes, it’s fun.

The Indie Fund’s first foray, Q.U.B.E., has been available for purchase for a couple of weeks now from several online outlets. Dominic gave us a quick preview at the time of release but recently – and to coincide with its 6th Jan appearance on Steam – I’ve given myself enough time to play it through for review.

I’m a sucker for games with colorful, vivid artwork, so when I saw LucidDreams’ ‘A Walkabout Journey’, my interest was immediately piqued. Its style is really quite impressive, mixing a dreamlike aesthetic with a somewhat Burton-esque edge.

In the game, you control a rag-tag group of adventurers who must be guided through a variety of the levels. Honestly, I’m not 100% on what they are, and even the app store description calls them ‘mysterious characters’. They look like a bit of an odd cross between scary redheaded children, clowns and those not-at-all-terrifying dolls with button eyes.  While I found the environment beautiful, the characters were more on the off-putting side.

You may have seen a rash of sites announcing their own Google Currents section over the last few days and, well, we’re now one of them! For too long DIYGamer has been relegated to either an RSS reader (which few people use) or the mobile browser which is often slow and clunky on even tablets. Well, today, I’m announcing that we’re officially on Google Currents!

Epic Inventor has been one of my favorite finds of 2011. With its side scrolling platform gameplay reminiscent of Terraria combined with a few unique aspects in building plots and resource gathering I thought it combined the some of my favorite bits of Terraria with other features missing from the Minecraft-like sidescroller.

2011 was an amazing year for indie games. Huge releases seemingly every week, discounts all over the place, bundles, addons, expansions and general greatness upon greatness. However, gears were set in motion in the final months of last year ensuring that the first few months of this one might well bring us some of the best games of 2012. Here’s a few personal picks to keep an eye on in 2012, many of them available as public alpha builds at the moment.

It’s that time of year. Once again, as everybody gets prepared for the new year, we’ve been slaving away over a massive pile of indie games that got released in 2011 in order to bring you our very best. And what a year it was!

I’m a huge fan of action runner games like Canabalt and Robot Unicorn Attack, where you avoid obstacles as your character runs. It’s so great to run as fast as you can, jumping to avoid doom and getting faster to the point where the you can’t see what’s happening and you start frantically crying as you try to dodge falling debris. Well, the last part is mainly just me I imagine, but I still think running platform games are good fun that most people can enjoy. I don’t get to see enough 3D ones, though. I also don’t get to see enough where you’re a massive mountain of a man who looks a bit like ‘The Thing’s’ less rational cousin and you smash right through rocks and barrels. Definitely a nice touch.

Exactly one month ago we launched our holiday spectacular: a crazy idea I had to give away a single indie game for each and every article we published. It started off with the help of some of the best indie game developers I’ve ever had the opportunity to meet and ended with a surge of commenters that really has been my biggest and best present of the year. And now it’s over…