IGF Mobile 2009 Releases List of Finalists
posted January 26th, 2009 7:46 PM EST by Blake Patterson in News
The Independent Games Festival Mobile, which awards innovation in mobile games for a variety of mobile devices, has released its list of finalists for the second annual competition. This year's competition featured more than double the number of entries–over 100–than last year's.
Winners of the 2009 IGF Mobile competition, who will be announced during the Game Developers Conference Mobile on March 24, will get a share of $30,000 in prize money and will be honored during the main Independent Games Festival Awards on March 25.
IGF Mobile Best Game:
- Cubic Republic (IKS Mobile) – Flash Lite
- Smiles (Sykhronics Entertainment) – iPhone/iPod touch
- Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch
- Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch
- Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS
Innovation in Mobile Game Design:
- Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS
- Galcon (Hassey Enterprises) – iPhone/iPod touch
- Eliss (Steph Thirion) – iPhone/iPod touch
Achievement in Art:
- Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch
- Dizzy Bee (Igloo Games) – iPhone/iPod touch
- Ruben & Lullaby (Song New Creative) – iPhone/iPod touch
Technical Achievement:
- Football Tycoon (Dynamo Games) – Java
- Real Racing (Firemint) – iPhone/iPod touch
- Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS
Audio Achievement:
- Radio Flare (Studio Radiolaris) – iPhone/iPod touch
- Zen Bound (Secret Exit) – iPhone/iPod touch
- Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch
Best iPhone Game — Presented by ngmoco:
- Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch
- Dizzy Bee (Igloo Games) – iPhone/iPod touch
- Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch
- Zen Bound (Secret Exit) – iPhone/iPod touch
- Frenzic (The Iconfactory) – iPhone/iPod touch
The IGF Mobile 2009 competition is supported by Platinum and Founding Sponsor NVidia as well as Gold Sponsor and Best iPhone Game prize sponsor ngmoco.
I question the validity of some of these entries…
While I did enjoy edge, I found it far too short. The first 20 levels just seemed like a tutorial without any real puzzle solving. And while the last 6 weren't exactly hard, they at least seemed to require a little thought. Anyway I find it strange this game gets nominated for so many awards while games like Zombie Attack, Space Ninja, Dropship, Rolando, and Chess With Friends don't appear at all.
Well, with ngmoco being a rather "big deal" sponsor this year, Rolando getting a nomination would seem a little odd.
quite a few nods for Zen Bound considering its not out….
@ thenewconfession
On the forums, Frand has stated that they have provided up-to-date builds of the project. I would assume for the music category that the music for Zen Bound (or at least the bulk of it) is already composed and ready to go.
Looking at the list of finalists, it seems quite a number of those games haven't been released. There is a new tower defense game (Tower Madness) that looks pretty good. Then there is Zen Bound…
Since it's a 2009 competition (shouldn't it be '08?), there must be a place for Blue Attack! in several categories…
Guys, a contest is NEVER completely fair.
Try to live with it and be happy, that it's nearly and iPhone only contest, which is good for the device in general.
I as well… question the validity of some of these entries. Something smells a little fishy… like the "judges" only had a limited number of free codes and had an extremely limited selection. I'd like to see the criteria.
Impossible that a "matching game" to get a nod, right?
…
Yeah, we were quite bummed we didn't make it into the finals. We had submitted ZA!, TBD and Summit for the awards. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. Best of luck to all the finalists and congrats!
To be clear, you had to _enter_ these awards to be considered, so if you see games that you think are missing, you might want to check the list of entries on the site. Also, it's specifically slanted towards the indie side of things, so a different set of games to normal may be honored.
Thanks!
Simon@IGF.
……….(me too)