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CMP Announces Winners of Indepedent Mobile Games Festival
Written by Lance Wang on Friday, February 22, 2008
Build it and they will come.
Envisioned as a kind of Sun Dance Film Festival for games, the Independent Mobile Games Festival is a sister event to the IGF at the Games Developers Conference and showcases innovation in handheld (DS and PSP) and cellphone gaming. It works to highlight the talents of new or unknown game developers in advancing the portable gaming space.
Over 50 games were entered into the competition but only 20 were nominated. The results are as follows:
IGF Mobile Best Game:
Critter Crunch
Innovation in Mobile Game Design:
EGO
Innovation in Augmented Design - Presented by NVIDIA:
PhoneTag Elite
Achievement in Art:
Kodo
Technical Achievement:
Steam Iron: The Fallen
Audio Achievement:
Critter Crunch
"When the IGF first opened 10 years ago, few could have seen the impact that the festival would have on the future of gaming," said Mathew Kumar, IGF Mobile Content Director, "Years later, we're seeing the explosion of the downloadable content and online distribution, and with it, IGF-alums-turned-mainstream titles like Fl0w, N+ and Everyday Shooter have become commercial hits. We've now seen that the mobile IGF has further ignited this same drive for innovation, creativity and craftsmanship. We congratulate all the winners, as well as the talented developers behind all the amazing nominees and entries."
The java-based Critter Crunch from Toronto developer, Capybara games, took home the top tier award and is a puzzle game that's one part Space Invaders and one part Bust a Move. Players control a frog like creature that can devour the strange critters that continually inch menacingly towards him (as menacing as a group of smiling balls of fluff can look anyway). Players match up identical critters to form chains and combos.
Steam Iron: The Fallen, from Singapore developer Mikoishi, is an RTS game that looks strikingly similar to Starcraft but maintains an aesthetic closer to the Warhammer 40k universe.
Kodo, from Swedish developer Jadestone, is a unique take on the traditional game of tag that features small dinosaur-like creatures called Kodos who must work to chase and devour one another. The twist is that players can only initiate a command to move forward and must wait for the kodos to rotate into the direction they want in order to change directions. It's a test of patience and timing that's very reminiscent of the bomberman games (except you're the bomb).
Ego, from California developer Punch Entertainment, is an online social networking game that allows you to customize and train your EGO avatar to engage in all sorts of activities with other people. Its art style for the EGOs is of particular note as it closely resembles the Rayman character from that series of games.
Finally, Phonetag Elite from Alberta developer KnowledgeWhere, is new take on the old phone tag tradition that uses the mobile phone as a way to track the location of other players. Brand name shops also provide tools to assist players in locating and capturing each other.
Other nominees included:
Hell Striker
Drawn to Life
Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles
3D Lawn Darts
Anna's Secrets
Backflow
Nom 3
