From the official award website:
This year has seen an outstanding one for indie RPGs. We've seen much new innovation as well as improvements to the standards of production -- attested to by newcomers like Mark Smylie's Artesia RPG or Andrew Kenrick & Merwin Shanmugasundaram's Dead of Night.
Indeed, it is intimidating to see the hordes of new games and new creators flood upon the scene, especially if you take into account all the new free games which appear. The Game Chef contest alone generates hundreds of free game entries. There were many games missed in this year's registration process, unfortunately.