Finalists in the Independent Games Festival for 2014 have been announced, running the gamut of creativity and novelty that characterizes the indie games scene. This year in particular saw a record number of student submissions.

Simogo's Device 6 - one of our favorite games of 2013 - is up for an award in Excellence in Visual Art, on top of Excellence in Narrative and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Lucus Pope's Papers, Please is up for a bunch of awards too, including the Nuovo award as well as Excellence in Design and the Grand Prize.

The Stanley Parable, another one of our top selections of 2013, is a finalist in Excellence in Audio and the Grand Prize, while Brace Yourself Games' Crypt of the Necrodancer is nominated for Design. Klei's Don't Starve is up for Design and the Grand Prize, and Jason Roberts' Gorogoa received a nod for Visual Art.

This year's grand prize looks to be a heated competition between Papers, Please, The Stanley Parable, Don't Starve, Device 6, Jazzpunk and - deep breath - Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" Winners for each category will be chosen on March 19, at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

For the full list of this year's nominees, along with each category's jury-selected honorable mentions, head past the break.