IndieGamesCon is a hit
by Jolex Del Pilar

Friday, November 15, 2002

Three developers received awards at the show.

Three developers and their games received honors at IndieGamesCon in Eugene, OR. The 2002 ShowOFF contest, sponsored by CyPR Media, Thin Air Design and nVIDIA (XFX) featured nearly a dozen games from independent game developers around the world.

First Place winner was the multiplayer game Orbz, developed by 21-6 Productions (www.21-6.com). Dave Myers, Vice President of 21-6 Productions describes the game as, “a new kind of shooter, where your goal is to aim and shoot your Orb at stars to earn the most points by the end of the match.” Gamers appetites for this colorful and wildly creative game were whetted at the IndieGamesCon, but will be satisfied later this year when Orbz is scheduled to launch as the first independent studio title built on the Torque Game Engine to be published by GarageGames (www.garagegames.com).

Second Place went to ThinkTanks from BraveTree Productions (www.bravetree.com), which Joe Maruschak, Creative Director of BraveTree describes as, “a power-up based tank combat game with a simplified play mechanic, designed to appeal to the casual gamer. This game captures the simple fun of retro games like Atari's combat and places it in a 3d environment. Easy to learn but hard to master, ThinkTanks will provide an enjoyable online gaming experience for players of all ages and skill levels.”

The Third Place winner was MarbleBlast, developed by GarageGames in cooperation with Monster Studios (www.monsterstudios.com), MarbleBlast is a single player timed action arcade game with over 30 levels of hazards and adventure.

A prize package including one month of public relations services was awarded to 21-6 Productions for their outstanding effort was donated by CyPR Media in addition to an Identity consultation provided by Thin Air Design and a Geforce4 4400 graphics card donated by XFXForce (www.xfxforce.com) and nVIDIA.

BraveTree received a Geforce4 4200 from XFXForce and nVidia with GarageGames receiving a Creative Labs 4.1 Speaker system, Design services from Thin Air Design and a free PR analysis from CyPR Media.

“The games shown at IndieGamesCon revealed the quality of game that can be constructed when the developer is the one driving design” said James Hills of CyPR Media. “ GarageGames’s Jay Moore adds, “Even the tech demos were impressive with the multi-player games taking the spotlight. It was a close contest there were three other titles within a few votes of our 3rd place win including Chain Reaction a title from Monster Studios being launched with MarbleBlast later this month, Robot Battle and Metal Drift from Ozo Interactive.”

More news and information about the conference can be found at www.garagegames.com and www.indiegamescon.com.

Images of the winners can be found at: http://cyprmedia.com/igcwinners

--- Jolex Del Pilar