Anyone who released a for-pay, independently produced RPG or supplement in the past two years was eligible to vote on the awards. Voters registered at my site before the voting process began.
All voters were given 2 votes of equal weight for each category. After the voting period ended, the votes were gathered and the top five choices brought into the finals. In cases of a tie, all choices were brought in. During this round, feedback from the designers regarding their choices was asked for. The feedback that was left is presented with the final awards!
The designers of free indie games, as well as the zine designers, were brought in for the final vote. All 60+ voters had one choice for each category. Their vote was weighted depending on how many of the games in the category they had read or played. All voters were contacted before voting ended to ensure they were aware that the final vote was being called. At the end of the voting period, all voting points were totalled, and recounted up to two times. There were no tiebreaker rules in case of a perfect tie: Rather all tied games would win that award.
Everyone who voted on this year's awards will be eligible to vote next year. Feedback will be gathered from everyone to improve the awards for everyone in the future.
Some people donated money to the awards, others donated their own games to the award. Both of these contributions (especially the latter) were appreciated. No money was used to influence the outcome of voting in any way. All money gathered was divided amongst the winners: 80% of the money went to the designers of the Indie RPG of the Year, to serve as a "development advance" for their next project. The rest of he 20% was split 10 ways, once for each of the winners of the sub-awards.
Clash Bowley, designer and producer of the Sweet Chariot RPG, provided three copies of this game, for the winners of the "Best Free Game," "Human of the Year," and "Best Production" sub-awards.
Jared Sorensen, designer of dozens of games from his dark throne at Memento Mori Theatrics, donated one of each of his entire game line (octaNe, InSpectres, Schism, Squeam 3 and Against the Reich!) to the winner of the Indie Game of the Year.
Clinton R Nixon ("The 'R' Stands for 'Quality!'") was gracious enough to provide one copy of his Anvilwerks Press games DONJON, DONJON PAK B, and Paladin to every Award and Sub-Award winner. Thanks!