Tenth Annual Independent Games Festival Awards $20,000 Grand Prize to Kloonigames'...

Tenth Annual Independent Games Festival Awards $20,000 Grand Prize to
Kloonigames' Crayon Physics Deluxe

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Crayon Physics Deluxe, Kloonigames'
2D physics puzzle game that allows players to experience what it would be like
to transform drawings into physical objects, was named the winner of the
$20,000 Seumas McNallly Grand Prize at the 10th Annual Independent Games
Festival (IGF) Awards, presented at a ceremony this evening at CMP's 2008 Game
Developers Conference (GDC).
Other major winners at the IGF ceremony included physics-based puzzle
action game, 2D Boy's World of Goo, which won the awards for both Design
Innovation and Technical Excellence, and Audiosurf by Invisible Handlebar
which won the $2,500 Audience Award, after receiving the largest share of more
than 3,500 votes cast online over the past two months at IGF.com.
The IGF awards have been described as the Sundance Festival of the
videogame industry, and offer both global exposure and over $50,000 in cash
prizes to the developers of the winning games.
Other award recipients included One Ton Ghost's comical treasure-seeking
adventure Iron Dukes, which took the award for Best Web Browser Game,
Kokoromi's Fez, which won for Excellence in Visual Art for its presentation of
a 2D character exploring a 3D world, Invisible Handlebar's Audiosurf, a game
that lets players experience their songs in real time, in full color, and in
3D, and which took the prize for Excellence in Audio, and, winner for Best
Student Game, Synaesthete, a music-driven arcade-style shooter developed by
students at the DigiPen Institute of Technology.
Another notable award given at the IGF ceremony was The Gleemax Award for
Strategic Gameplay ("The Gleemie"), presented by IGF Platinum Sponsor,
Gleemax(TM), Wizards of the Coast, Inc.'s community for gamers. Three games
were awarded "The Gleemie" prize package, which consisted of a custom designed
trophy accompanied by a tiered prize package. (1st - $5,000, 2nd - $3,000, 3rd
- $2,000).
"As the video game industry grows bigger by the day, it becomes even more
important to give a voice to the independent developer," said Simon Carless,
chairman, IGF. "This year's Independent Games Festival winners are showcasing
how important independent games are -- both as an artistic movement and as
accessible titles that are really damn fun to play."
The IGF awarded the following games in each category in the main
competition -- each received a cash prize of $2,500 as well as sponsor-related
prizes, and the Grand Prize winner was awarded $20,000.
Seumas McNally Grand Prize:
Crayon Physics Deluxe, by Kloonigames

Best Web Browser Game:
Iron Dukes, by One Ton Ghost

Design Innovation Award:
World Of Goo, by 2D Boy

Excellence in Visual Art:
Fez, by Kokoromi

Excellence in Audio:
Audiosurf, by Invisible Handlebar

Technical Excellence:
World Of Goo, by 2D Boy

Best Student Game:
Synaesthete, by DigiPen Institute of Technology

Audience Award:
Audiosurf, by Invisible Handlebar

Gleemie Awards:
-- First Place: Desktop Power Defense, by Handdrawngames

-- Second Place: Skyrates, by Team Skyrates

-- Third Place: Quadradius, by Quadradius

The IGF was established in 1998 by the CMP Game Group to encourage
innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game
developers, in the way the Sundance Film Festival honors the independent film
community. With a record-breaking 173 entries from all over the world, the
2008 IGF reflects how global the game development community has become. The
IGF jury included journalists from MTV News, Kotaku, Newsweek, Wired, and
Joystiq; the creators of previous IGF winners Aquaria, Braid, Flow, and N; and
veterans from across the game industry.
The 10th annual Independent Games Festival was supported by: platinum
sponsor Wizards of the Coast/Gleemax; Silver Sponsors Sony and Microsoft; and
Student Showcase Platinum Sponsor DigiPen.
For more information about the IGF, the finalists and the winners, please
visit www.igf.com/.
About the Game Developers Conference (http://www.gdconf.com)
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the world's largest
professionals-only game industry event. Presented every spring in San
Francisco, it is the essential forum for learning, inspiration, and networking
for the creators of computer, console, handheld, mobile, and online games.
The GDC attracts over 16,000 attendees, and is the primary forum where
programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business
decision-makers and others involved in the development of interactive games
gather to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry. The GDC is
produced by the CMP Game Group, a division of CMP
About CMP
CMP (http://www.cmp.com/) is a media and marketing solutions company
serving the technology industry. With the leading online, event and print
brands in all technology market categories, and with services and tools that
reach beyond traditional advertising, CMP shapes and influences the technology
industry worldwide. CMP publishes highly respected media brands such as
TechWeb, InformationWeek, ChannelWeb, CRN, EE Times and TechOnline; produces
major industry events such as Interop, Web 2.0 Expo, XChange, Game Developer
Conference and the Embedded Systems Conferences; and provides business
information and marketing services such as the International Customer
Management Institute, Semiconductor Insights and Second Life consulting for
technology marketers. CMP is a subsidiary of United Business Media
(http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/), a global provider of news distribution
and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than
$3 billion. For more CMP news, go to cmp.com/news
SOURCE CMP

Sibel Sunar, sibel@fortyseven.com, or Brian Rubin, brian@fortyseven.com, both
of fortyseven communications, +1-323-658-1200, for CMP; or Hilary McVicker of
CMP Game Group, +1-415-947-6207, hmcvicker@cmp.com