February 20, 2008

Independent Games Festival Mobile Debuts

Organizers of IGF Mobile have announced the finalists of the inaugural Independent Games Festival Mobile from a field of more than 50 entries, with nominations led by cell-phone game titles, including Punch Entertainment's social networking game Ego and Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab's waste disposal strategy puzzle game Backflow.

A full list of finalists is offered online at http://www.igfmobile.com.
 
Other nominees for the Innovation in Mobile Game Design category and the $10,000 IGF Mobile Best Game award include Capybara Games' food-chain based puzzler Critter Crunch, the technologically remarkable mobile RTS Steam Iron: The Fallen, and Nintendo DS drawing-RPG Drawn to Life.
 
Other notable nominees for 2008 prizes include nominees for the Innovation in Augmented Design Award, presented by Nvidia, which is IGF Mobile’s platinum/founding sponsor. They include: 3D Lawn Darts, which uses the device camera to simulate throwing a dart; Anna's Secret, a GPS driven, location-based learning adventure game based in the city of Weimar, Germany; and PhoneTag Elite, a location-tracking mobile game of "hide-and-seek."
 
Alongside finalists in the 10th annual IGF Main Competition and Student Showcase, the finalists for the IGF Mobile Competition are showing their games at the IGF Pavilion during CMP’s Game Developers Conference (GDC).
 
“We’re genuinely excited to see the wide range of independent games and innovation in the mobile games industry represented in the list of finalists,” says Mathew Kumar, IGF Mobile content director. “We congratulate all of our nominees and hope that their work and these games inspire more and more developers to join the independent mobile game community.”
 
The finalists for the IGF Mobile are:
 
IGF Mobile Best Game:
Ego by Punch Entertainment
Nom 3 by Gamevil
Backflow by Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab
Critter Crunch by Capybara Games
Steam Iron: The Fallen by Mikoishi Pte. Ltd.
 
Innovation in Mobile Game Design:
Ego by Punch Entertainment
Nom 3 by Gamevil
Backflow by Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab
 
Innovation in Augmented Design - Presented by Nvidia:
3D Lawn Darts by Concrete Software, Inc.
Anna's Secret by Jan Ulrich Schmidt
PhoneTag Elite by KnowledgeWhere Inc.
 
Achievement in Art:
Critter Crunch by Capybara Games
Drawn To Life by 5TH Cell Media LLC
Kodo by Jadestone Group AB
 
Technical Achievement:
Kodo by Jadestone Group AB
Hell Striker by Dingoo Games
Steam Iron: The Fallen by Mikoishi Pte. Ltd.
 
Audio Achievement:
Critter Crunch by Capybara Games
Drawn To Life by 5TH Cell Media LLC
Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles by Yuan Works
 
Platinum and Founding Sponsor for the IGF Mobile competition is Nvidia. Nvidia’s GoForce family of multimedia-enabled applications processors for mobile devices is designed to enhance mobile entertainment.