indie-games-challenge posts

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.

Even though we have a few more weeks before 2009 ends, events in 2010 are prepping for their new editions. The DICE Summit, the high-end game development conference, have announced the first speakers for the Las Vegas-based event. The conference will be held from February 17-19, 2010 at the Red Rock Resort.

Among the speakers announced so far is Matias Myllrinne, the president of Remedy Entertainment, and Steve Perlman, the CEO of the streaming gaming company OnLive. In addition to speeches, panels, and the annual Interactive Achievement Awards (hosted for the fifth year in a row by comedian Jay Mohr), the DICE Summit will also announce the winners of the $100,000 Indie Games Challenge.