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Eight student stunners shortlisted for Independent Games Festival 2013

You can play them now.

The eight wonders of the student indie game making world have been selected for the Independent Games Festival 2013 Student Showcase.

They'll all be playable at GDC in March, and they'll all receive $1000 for being selected. They each stand a chance at winning an additional $3000 if they're awarded the crown of Best Student Game, too.

I like the sound of Knights of Pen & Paper the most, from Brazil. It's a turn-based RPG styled like a tabletop pen-and-paper RPG of old. It's got bright pixelated retro graphics.

But there's also ATUM from the Netherlands, a Blade Runner-inspired point-and-click platform puzzler; Back to Bed (Denmark), an isometric puzzle game about guiding a sleepwalking man safely back to bed; Blackwell's Asylum (Denmark), a nerve-racking escape from a 1980s women's asylum; and Farsh (Netherlands), a puzzle game about unrolling Persian carpets.

There's Pulse (Canada), a suspenseful survival game that casts you as a blind girl who must make noise to act as her vision; the mindful xp Volume (US), a collection of eight games that focus on communication and expression; and Zineth (US) a mega-speed futuristic skiing game.

Most of those games are playable on the above linked websites. Give them a go!

Vying for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival this year are FTL: Faster Than Light, Hotline Miami, Cart Life, Kentucky Route Zero and Little Inferno.

A full list of finalists can be found on the IGF 2013 site.

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