FEATURE

GDC: Fieldrunners Tops IGF Mobile

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By Douglass_Perry

March 24, 2009

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While $30,000 worth of prizes were awarded for seven development teams at this year's second annual Independent Games Festival for mobile, the big winner wasn't a game. It was Apple's iPhone.

The two-man team of Subatomic Studios took home two awards for its iPhone game Fieldrunners (Best Mobile Game and Best Art), while Secret Exit grabbed two awards for its iPhone game, Zenbound (Best Audio and Best iPhone game).

Hosted by Robert Tercek, founding chairman of GDC Mobile, the 45-minute presentation illustrated how small, independent teams could create likeable, entertaining games without the need for huge studios and massive tech pipelines.

The full mobile winner list:

Best IGF Award: Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios)
Best Audio Award: Zenbound (Secret Exit)
Best Technology Award: Real Racing (Firemint)
Best Art Award: Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios)
Best Design Award: Galcon (Hassey Enterprises)
Best iPhone Award: Zenbound (Secret Exit)
The Next Best Mobile Game Award: Reflection (Team Reflection)

The Next Best Mobile Game Award was awarded through audience participation. Five teams provided quick introductions and demos of their games and the winner was decided by the volume of the audience's applause.

Teams participating in this award included Depict (iPhone, Villa Vanilla), FastFoot Challenge (J2Me, Urban Team), Picopoke (Photo/Internet-capable Mobile Handsets, Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab), Rhythm of War (PSP, KranX Productions / SME Dynamic Systems), and Reflection (Nintendo DS, Team Reflection of USC).