Today's collection of independent game links include the announcement of a new Game Maker competition, an awards show for the best free independently-developed games of the year, and a release date for Terry Cavanagh's much-anticipated VVVVVV. (image source)

Tale of Tales: My selection for the IGF
"When I had a look at each of the 301 entries in the festival, I couldn't resist the urge to compare them with our own. I have based my selection on the information available on the IGF website, the game developers' own websites, videos and screenshots."

Oxeye Game Studio: Harvest Holiday Bandwagon
"Harvest: Massive Encounter is currently 75% off on Steam. We've matched our own service with the Steam discount, so you Mac users won't feel left out. The 75% discount will be available until January 3rd." Osmos is also 80% off on Steam ($2 USD, usual price $10).

Game.Dev: Competition 24 - Coherence
"The Game.Dev group is currently running a 'Coherence' competition, requiring entrants to meld different genres into one game."

YoYo Games Glog: Competition 05 Announcement
"After a long wait it’s time to have a new competition. The theme for the first competition of 2010 will be 'Design A HandHeld Game'. We want you to design games using either Game Maker 7 or Game Maker 8 that would be suitable to run on a typical handheld device. First Prize is $1,000, 2nd $500, 3rd $250 to be paid by PayPal."

Devil's Tuning Fork: Visual Design Evolution (video)
"This is the documentation of the visual design evolution of Devil's Tuning Fork, a game created by the DePaul Game Elites team. The documentation was created and narrated by Kyle Sullivan, Visual Design Lead on DTF and a senior Animation major at DePaul."

Bytejacker: 2009 Free Indie of the Year Awards (video)
"We studied televised Video Game awards shows, and we think we've got the formula down. It's time to honor the best free, independently-developed games of the last year."

distractionware: Let’s Go Exploring
"VVVVVV will be available on Sunday the 10th of January, 2010. The game will be sold through its website thelettervsixtim.es for $15. There will be a demo!"

Game Tycoon: David Edery's IGF tips
A judge makes some useful comments for entrants. (source: GameSetWatch)