The Independent Games Festival flew by in a blur as it seems to every year, but this year one thing stood out to me. The student showcase games were really good.

I don't want to disparage any of the student showcase games of the past. There have been some real gems including games such as the Flow precursor Cloud that appeared last year.

This year was different because there were so many good student games. I don't think I've ever spent so much time playing the student games, and unfortunately I still couldn't drag myself away from a couple of them in order to play them all.

If you missed the show, here are some games from the showcase that you should definitely check out (in a list that I ordered based on my own personal favorites)

1 - The Blob - it won our freeware game of the year last year, lots of Katamari-inspired painting fun as you move around a city modeled after a real city, absorbing colors and then transferring the colors to the buildings around you.

2 - Invalid Tangram - I played this game to death at the conference, it is a freeware shooter with a mix of puzzles and a cool combo weapon effect that reminds me of Gunstar Heros. It is WAY better than the screenshots might suggest, NOT TO BE MISSED!

3 - Rooms - A side-scrolling adventure game where you not only need to figure out what objects to use in what room, you must also slide the room into the correct location to work through the puzzle. Brilliant and very high quality visuals.

4 - And Yet it Moves - Players rotate the entire environment to walk on the ceiling and move large objects out of the way while trying not to fall to far and break into multiple pieces of paper. Great art style and interesting game play.

5 - Euclidean Crisis - A real-time strategy game made specifically for Tablet PCs that uses the stylus to send out your troops (different types of space ships in this case). The game interaction with the stylus was far beyond what the DS can do.

6 - Gelatin Joe - This was an interesting platformer where players pick up different types of Gelatin that gives them different abilities. Superficially the game resembled Gish, but the game play was entirely different with the goal being to use the different gelatin abilities to progress.

7 - Opera Slinger - In this game you need to sing along with an Opera track to earn fame and fortune. Like most gamers I was a little too self-conscious to sing on the expo floor with many people wandering about, but the game is certainly as original as they come.

This year's student showcase games really were a big highlight of the conference for me as I enjoy games that are just a bit different than what you normally find. The fact that they were free just makes them that much easier for everyone to enjoy, and I really think that you'll enjoy them if you give them a go.