Recently at Steel Media we announced The Big Indie Awards in association with indieSky. Set up to celebrate the very best of the last 12 months of the Big Indie Pitch, the competition saw over 150 developers’ games judged, with many a former entrant lined up alongside every single game that came in the top three over the last 12 months.

As such, an incredibly diverse range of games were analysed by our panel of expert judges, with more than one or two tough calls having to be made when creating a shortlist of 10 games.

Thankfully though our judges, which comprised of a range of industry experts, journalists, and developers, many of which have judged an extensive amount our pitches in the last 12 months, were finally able to narrow the shortlist down to 10 games.

One of these games will win the grand prize at our awards ceremony on November 21st in Shenzhen, which we are running in association with one of China’s biggest publishers of mobile games, indieSky.

So without further ado, let me introduce you to the final 10 in alphabetical order.

A Bleaker Predicklement
by Rumpus Animation

Inspired by Victorian novels, Hammer Horror and Monty Python, Bertram Fiddle: A Bleaker Predicklement is the point-and-click mystery game sequel to The Adventures of Betram Fiddle. You'll play as Bertram Fiddle, a self-proclaimed explorator searching for his next big adventure. Described by the developer as a cross between a game and an animated feature film, it’s packed full of puzzles, puns, pigeons, and a lot of Britishness.

BalanCity
by Giant Monkey Robot

Think SimCity crossed with Jenga, and you’ve got BalanCity. In this 2D city builder, players must build the tallest towered city, all whilst making sure that the city has enough energy, jobs and services for the citizens who choose to inhabit it. The game itself has three different game modes, one of which even features scenarios based on real world metropolises like New York, Paris and Shanghai, and even a challenge mode for multiplayer action.

Die Fish
by Wave 7 Games

In Die Fish you control a flock of piranhas across a range of fiendish 2D levels, as you look to complete a range of puzzles and reach the goal. However, there’s a catch. Namely that you’ll have to be willing to both sacrifice and mutate your flock of fearsome fish in order to help as many of you shoal as possible to the goal.

Hidden Folks
by Adriaan de Jongh & Sylvain Tegroeg

In this Where’s Wally inspired title, players have to search for hidden people and objects within beautifully hand drawn interactive environments. From small towns to dense jungles, and even to desert landscapes, players must search for specific figures in world that react to your playful touches. Garage doors open, umbrellas close, trees rustle and drop stuff from their branches, all brought to life with silly sound effects made by the developer himself.

Maruta Escape
by Busan Sanai Games

Maruta Escape is a stealth puzzle game set inside a dystopian human experimentation facility. One in which players must use hacking and time-rewinding gameplay mechanics in order to escape from their captors. The game features 30 levels in the single player campaign, alongside an endless mode filled with procedurally generated levels. Interestingly, Maruta Escape also features a dynamic enemy AI path system in order to keep players on their toes.

Mona Lisa
by Italic Pig

Set in Renaissance Italy, Mona Lisa puts players into the shoes of Florence’s greatest ever art thief. One who steals these great paintings by swapping them out with flimsy forgeries, forgeries that they player themselves must create. It's one of the most unique games to ever enter the Big Indie Pitch.

Ocmo
by Team Ocmo

Ocmo is a Ninja rope platformer where you are a cute yet mildly terrifying monster that uses its tentacles to fly through levels, avoid obstacles, and believe it or not, tear up bunnies. It takes the moody visuals of Limbo and Badland, the hardcore mentality of Super Meat Boy, and gameplay of Mikey Hooks before popping them all into a blender. The result is a game that is both intuitive and enjoyable to play, whilst also having an incredibly distinctive look and feel.

Tacticool
by Panzerdog

Tacticool is a 5v5 battlefield fighter with ragdoll physics, a variety of vehicles and weapons, and an awful lot of destruction. Imagine a modern day team based gladiatorial fight, and you’ve got the idea. The game is also built from the ground up for mobile devices too despite its large scale ideas, and as such incorporates mobile friendly mechanics such as auto running and aiming, and left and right thumb-tap controls.

The Almost Gone
by Happy Volcano

The Almost Gone is a mystery point-and-click adventure, one with a deep and moving story. In this game you take control of a young girl's spirit as she searches for a way-out of the purgatory afterlife she has found herself in. Throughout the story you'll not only help others who have found themselves trapped, but also discover how the young girl found herself where she is. Gameplay is focused around exploring single tiles. Tiles which can then me rotated in order to discover things that weren't previously there.

Where Shadows Slumber
by Game Revenant

This atmospheric puzzler takes place in a mysterious and abandoned world, and has players using light and shadow to change the world around them.

In Where Shadows Slumber you control Obe, an old man at the end of his life, who travels on one last journey through a fallen world engulfed in darkness. Throughout this quest players must utilise the shadows that are cast from Obe's lantern in order to alter the world around them and aid the old man in his last journey. All in all it’s a very distinctive title, one with high production value and a unique style.

So there you have it, the ten games that will battle it out to be crowned the Winner of the Big Indie Awards 2017 in association with indieSky.

We’ll have the top 10 countdown coming your way following the live ceremony in Shenzhen, China on November 21st. At this time we’ll also be counting down those that came in the top 20, alongside interviews with the winners and extensive coverage of the event itself. So keep your eyes peeled to PocketGamer.Biz in the coming weeks for all that too.