The Independent Games Festival China has revealed the Main Competition and Student finalists for its 2012 award ceremony, which celebrates the most creative indie games from throughout the Pan-Pacific area, The GDC China co-located event is now in its fourth year, and this time around the finalists include indie games such as the action-platformer Dustforce, the retro-inspired puzzler Cubetractor, the mobile action game Flying Daggers, and more. Drawing from a prize pool totaling 45,000 RMB (roughly $7,150), IGF China's Main Competition will give away five distinguished awards, covering Excellence in Audio, Design, Technology, and Visual Arts, as well as the Best Mobile Game and Best Game awards. In addition to the prestige and prizes, winners will also receive two All-Access Passes for the upcoming GDC 2013 in San Francisco. Alongside IGF China's Main Competition, the ceremony will also host the Student Competition, which honors six of the top regional student games, with teams this year hailing from Mainland China, Singapore, and Taiwan. This part of the competition includes two awards -- for Best Student Game and Excellent Student Winners -- and offers roughly 13,000 RMB (roughly $2,050) in cash prizes. Winners in both competitions will be chosen by a panel of expert jurors including Kevin Li (CEO, TipCat Interactive); Monte Singman (Founder/CEO, Radiance Digital Entertainment); Xubo Yang (Director of Digital Art Lab and Assistant Professor; Shanghai Jiaotong University's School of Software), Haipeng Yu (Producer, Tencent Shanghai), and jury chairman Simon Carless, IGF Chairman Emeritus and EVP of the GDC shows, Gamasutra, and Game Developer magazine. This year's awards ceremony will take place the evening of November 18, and will run alongside the rest of GDC China, which will be held November 17-19 at the Shanghai Convention Center in Shanghai, China. Here are the finalists for this year's IGF China.

Main Competition

Army and Strategy: The Crusades, by Pied Pipers Entertainment, South Korea [Website, Video] Cubetractor, by Ludochip, Singapore [Website, Video] Diggin' Dogs, by Soap Creative, Australia [Website, Video] Dustforce, by Hitbox Team, Australia [Website, Video] Flying Daggers, by Sparklet Studio, China [Website, Video] UNCLE GO!!, by Jianfeng Liang, China [Website] Insecters War, by Peng Fang and Zhilong Chen, China [Website] Jumpmaster, by Steamyrice Entertainment, China [Website]

Student

Blockhead, by DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore, Singapore [Website, Video] Cloud and Boy, by Riqiang Chen, Taiwan Fish, by Yi Wang, China Flip's Adventure, by DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore, Singapore [Website, Video] Magic Beans Campus, by Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, China [Video] Potawatomi, by DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore, Singapore [Website, Video] In addition to the awards ceremony, GDC China will also host its own dedicated Independent Games Summit, which offers a host of lectures covering some of the most pertinent issues in independent development, featuring speakers such as Airtight Games developer (and Portal designer) Kim Swift, Johann Sebastian Joust creator Douglas Wilson, and more. Those interested in attending either the IGF awards ceremony or the Independent Games Summit can do so by registering for a pass on the official GDC China website -- see site for more details on deadlines and restrictions. For more information on GDC China, please visit the event's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS.