Google Play Indie Game Festival finalists announced

Last month we brought you the news that Google would be hosting the Google Play Indie Games Festival in San Francisco on September 23. Today, Google announced the 20 finalists that will take part in the competition designed to showcase what smaller studios are capable of. The event will honor 20 of the best games from indie developers and give those in attendance the opportunity to play the new and unreleased titles.

The finalists:

• 7 Pin Pool by SPG Inc.
• Age of Rivals by Roboto Games
• Best Brawlers – PvP Arena by V2 Games Inc.
• Brave Hand (unreleased) by Heart shaped Games
• Covens by Raincrow Studios, LLC
• Crashy Cars by pixelbizarre
• Dokudo by Sense of Wonder
• Flipping Legend by Hiding Spot
• Gladiator Rising by Happii Gamer Studio
• Jigsaw Story by Happy Square Studio Inc.
• Loteria Latin Bing by Gorilla Bean Games
• Maruta Escape (unreleased) by Busan Sanai Games
• NoStranger by Black Vein Productions
• Slayaway Camp by Blue Wizard Digital
• Space Tunnel by Spacewave Studios
• Splitter Critters by RAC7
• Star Vikings Forever by Akupara Games
• Storm Wars by Zom.bio
• Tiny Bubbles (unreleased) by Pine Street Codeworks
• Topsoil by Nico Prins

The finalists were selected for standing out in overall design, fun, and quality. In addition to playing the games and chatting with the developers, fans will get a say in who walks away a winner. The top 10 apps from the fan vote will head to a group of esteemed judges the will select three games as overall festival winners. Here is who Google tapped for judging duties:

• Alex the Gamerette, YouTube Creator
• Lina Chen, Co-founder & CEO of Nix Hydra
• Emily Greer, CEO of Kongregate
• Jamil Moledina, Games Strategic Lead, Google
• Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer for GamesBeat
• Sarah Thomson, BD Lead, Indie Games, Google Play

If you’d like some more information on the Google Play Indie Game festival, including on how to register for attendance, you can head over to Google’s page dedicated to the event.