indie-game-challenge posts

While game developers and industry members vote for the main catagories for both the Independent Games Festival and the Indie Game Challenge, both contests are letting the general public have their say as well. Both have Audience Awards that allow anyone to vote for their favorite indie games.

The IGF Audience Award lets folks vote for any of the games that have already been named as finalists in the main award catagories. The web site, which requires an email address for voting, is now up with votes taken until February 18. The winning game nets its development team $2,500 and will be announced during the IGF ceremony in early March.

The Indie Game Challenge's Gamer's Choice Award allows anyone to vote for any of the announced professional and non-professional finalists. Again voting has started at the award's official web site and will continue until February 10. The winner will be announced at the DICE Summit in mid-February where the winning team will be awarded $10,000.

The second annual Indie Game Challenge has announced its finalist for the 2011 edition of the independent game competition sponsored by The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, GameStop and The Guildhall. Like last year, six finalists each were picked for the non-professional and professional categories. You can check out the finalist after the jump.

All of the nominated teams will be flown to the DICE Summit in Las Vegas where the winning game and team in each category will be announced on February 11. The winning team in both categories will get $100,000. All of the team will also be able to have meeting with top publishers. In addition the Indie Game Challenge will also name the winner of the Kongregate Award for best browser-based game.

The Indie Game Challenge from last year has turned into an annual event. Sponsored by SMU, Gamestop, and AIAS, it is now accepting entries to be judged in the 2011 competition. Much like last year, the competition is split into two parts: professional and non-professional, with grand prize winners from both categories getting a whopping $100,000. If a person or team wins, they get to travel to vegas and pitch their game ideas to a bunch of publishing execs.

Last year's winners include the flying action game Altitude, student puzzle-platforming game Gears, and sliding-puzzle game Cogs. Strangely enough, in all of the categories (2 grand prize, 3 lesser prizes), these were the only three games to win anything. Maybe it was due to a lack of alternative entries? Either way, those seeking to submit their game can do so now. You can read all the rules on the official website.

GameStop's first annual Indie Game Challenge promised to give $100,000 each to games made by pros and amateurs. Last night at the DICE Summit they did just that, giving the $100.000 professional award to Cogs, the impressive puzzle title made by the three man team at Lazy 8 Studio. Cogs also won two smaller $2,500 prizes for Achievement in Art Direction and Achievement in gameplay.

The $100,000 non-professional indie game award was given to Gear, a 2D puzzle platformer created by a team of students at the Digipen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Washington. In addition Altitude, a 2D side scroller from Nimbly Games, won the $10,000 Gamers Choice Award and $2,500 for Technical Achievement.

GameStop has already announced they will sponsor the second annual Indie Game Challenge which will officially launch on May 1.

It's been quite a while since GameStop's Indie Game Challenge was announced, but today the list of 12 finalists (six professional, six non-professional) was announced at long last. Unlike the Independent Games Festival, there is also a public vote on the competition's web site that determines which of the finalists look the best to them (via a video only) and then they vote for which game they think should win the $10,000 Gamer's Choice prize. However the two big grand prizes of $100,000 each (one for the pro selections and one for the amateur selections) are selected by a panel of judges from GameStop, The Guildhall and Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. There are a few other prizes for specific areas of excellence (technical, art, design). You can check out the list of games, vote, and watch game videos on the official website.

The list of games covers many different genres, from puzzle to arcade. Four of the IGF finalists have a spot on the IGC list as well: Cogs, Miegakure, Vessel, and AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! Some other notable games include Gear, which was an honorable mention in the IGF student showcase, and the multiplayer arcade game Altitude, which had a recent launch on Steam.

Last month game retailer GameStop announced their sponsorship of new Indie Game Challenge with $100,000 each going to the professional and non-professional indie game teams for the grand prize. If you and/or your team have been thinking about entering your game in the contest, we have some good news.

Today the organizers of the contest announced that the deadline for entry has been extended from October 1 to October 31. According to the organizers, they decided to extend the deadline to give dev teams more time to get their entries ready. Finalist will still be announced on Jan. 15, 2010 and the winners will be announced during the annual DICE Summit on Feb. 19, 2010.

Massive game retailer GameStop has just put down a lot of money to support the creation of independent games. This week the company announced the launch of the first Indie Game Challenge which will give both professional and amature game development teams a chance to win a whole lot of money for their game.

How much, you may ask? Brace yourself. Both the professional and the non-professional grand prize winning teams will each receive $100,000 for their winning game. Not only that but all contest participants will get a chance to win a $50,000 scholarship to attend the game-oriented development school The Guildhall. 12 team finalists will also get to travel to Las Vagas this coming February for the DICE Summit where they will get to pitch their title to a unnamed game publisher for a possible publishing deal.

Entries for the contest are being taken from now until October 1. The finalists will be announced on January 15 and the two $100,000 grand prize winning teams will be revealed on February 19.