Inertia and LIMBO Claim Top Spots at 2011 Indie Game Challenge

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Indie Game Challenge  announced that Playdead's LIMBO and Team Hermes' Inertia are the big winners of the second annual Indie Game Challenge. The top teams were named on the closing night of the annual D.I.C.E.™ (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit at the Red Rock Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

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"One look at the winners in both categories and it is immediately evident that the independent space is in a period of remarkable maturation and creativity and we are all the beneficiaries," said industry veteran Adam Sessler, Editor-in-Chief of Game Content for the G4 Network and host of G4's "X-Play."  

Sessler served as host of the 2011 IGC awards ceremony for his second year.  Attendees of the event ranged from an assortment of video game executives from top publishing companies to developers, some of the most influential games media and the 12 finalist teams. Additionally, for those who may have missed this year's event, exclusive online content of the Indie Game Challenge will be posted on G4tv.com/DICE2011.

The list of winners and awards include:

Professional $100,000 Grand Prize and $15,000 EEDAR DesignMetrics® Winner: LIMBO

• LIMBO was submitted by Playdead, an independent game studio based in Copenhagen, Denmark. LIMBO, a 2D sidescroller puzzle-platform video game released on Xbox Live Arcade, is Playdead's first production with Arnt Jensen as Game Director.

Non-professional $100,000 Grand Prize and $15,000 EEDAR DesignMetrics® Winner: Inertia

• Inertia was submitted by Team Hermes, an eight-person team from The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University. Inertia, recently published on Xbox Live Arcade, is a 2D platform arcade game in which an astronaut tries to escape a space station on the verge of collapse, allowing players to manipulate gravity and travel across the galaxy.

Category winners include:

• Kongregate Award: Symon
• Technical Achievement ($2,500): Inertia
• Achievement in Art Direction ($2,500): LIMBO
• Achievement in Gameplay ($2,500): Inertia
• Gamer's Choice Award ($10,000): Inertia

The recipient of the Indie Game Challenge SMU scholarship will be announced later this year. The winner of the Gamer's Choice Award sweepstakes will be selected from all eligible entries and announced at the Indie Game Challenge Awards ceremony on February 11, 2011.

Entries for the second annual Indie Game Challenge were accepted between May 3 and October 1, 2010.  Judging was done by members of AIAS starting December 3, 2010, and 12 finalists -- six professional teams and six non-professional teams -- were announced January 20, 2011.

Coming off of tonight's ceremony, professional and non-professional game developers interested in entering the 2012 Indie Game Challenge will be able to submit their applications via the Indie Game Challenge website starting July 1, 2011, through October 3, 2011. Finalists will then be named this coming winter, and the winners at the 2012 D.I.C.E. Summit. Exact dates will be announced later this year.

For more information on the competition and to learn more about each of the winners, visit: www.IndieGameChallenge.com

About the Indie Game Challenge

The Indie Game Challenge (IGC) is an annual competition for video game developers offering more than $350,000 in prizes for professional and non-professional categories.  Founded by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) and The Guildhall at SMU, the IGC was created to foster game development innovation by independent developers.  Prizes include cash awards, scholarships, national consumer exposure for the top games and an opportunity for the finalists to obtain professional feedback and seek commercial avenues for their games through face-to-face meetings with representatives from the leading video game publishers.  For more information on the IGC visit www.indiegamechallenge.com, www.interactive.org, www.gamestop.com or http://guildhall.smu.edu.

SOURCE Indie Game Challenge