IndieCade 2009 is now over and with it, a new batch of stunning independently (mostly) developed games have one won awards. Hosted this year in Culver City, CA gamers, developers, and press bustled about this small southern California town for four days of presentation, speeches, awards and most importantly, games! This year there have been a slew of comments comparing the young game awards to the Sundance Film Festival, which seems to sit well with the awards presenters who are taking aim at a growing demographic within the game industry that prefer artistically driven, creative games that are often free.

The primary difference between Sundance and IndieCade is that Sundance (and other, prestigious independent film festivals) tend to set trends for the coming years, inspire the mainstream or often times propel the careers of young directors and actors who successful display their film. IndieCade has yet to prove it can do this. By and large the indy genre remains inconsequential to the mainstream consumer base and publishers alike. Games tend not to influence much beyond other indy games and very few developers have been able to leverage their success as an indy developer into a larger career in the industry. Now, to be fair we have seen smaller, sort-of independent games such as Defense Grid: The Awakening, World of Goo and Braid tap into the mainstream and prove that indy (sort of) games are financially viable but the success of these games was in no way linked to IndieCade. It will be interesting to watch the growth and development of this niche and the award ceremony that caters to it and see if the comparisons that have been so common this year can hold water.

A full list of winners and links to their sites (or media) can be found here, on the IndieCade blog:

http://www.indiecade.com/index.php?/blog/entries/indiecade-applauds-2009-finalists-and-awardees/

The most impressive I’ve seen from the selection this year has to be Closure, developed by Tyler Glaiel and Jon Schubbe which is a platform puzzle game that uses beautiful and somewhat creepy art design, using light and shadow to guide a player threw increasingly complex levels. If you haven’t checked it out yet you really need to. Closure kicks open the doors for a new world of flash gaming creates an atmosphere for the player.