Symphony and The Bridge grab multiple awards in the D.I.C.E. Summit's annual Indie Game Challenge, with Closure by Eyebrow Interactive taking home the big $100,000 prize, proving that the puzzle-platformer is and will continue to be alive and well in the hearts of young, independent-minded designers.
The full list of winners as well as synopses of their games from the IGC site after the break.
Grand Prize ($100,000): Closure by Eyebrow Interactive
Closure is a unique and stylistic puzzle platformer that takes the concept of light and shadow and twists it up into something never before seen.
You see, in Closure's dark and foreboding universe, the only things that exist are what you can see. An object properly lit up is physically there, yet an object shrouded in darkness ceases to be. Your character can take advantage of this by manipulating lights to effectively change the shape of the world you're in. Wanna jump through a wall? Well you can, as long as it's in darkness.
Technical Achievement ($2,500): Symphony by Empty Clip Studios
Your music is under attack... you must liberate it! Symphony is one of the most music-driven games ever made. It's a vertical shooter where everything is driven by your music. The unique musical content of every one of your songs creates both a unique level, and a unique item you can equip and upgrade. With your music as the inspiration, six difficulty levels, upgradable items and customizability, Symphony offers a long-lasting, unique gameplay experience.
Achievement in Art Direction ($2,500): The Bridge by Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda
The Bridge is a 2-D logic-based puzzle game that forces the player to reevaluate their preconceptions of physics and perspective. It is Isaac Newton meets M. C. Escher—Manipulate gravity to redefine the ceiling as the floor, and venture through impossible architectures. Explore increasingly difficult worlds, each uniquely detailed and guaranteed to leave the player with a pronounced sense of accomplishment, while immersing the player into a captivating story. The Bridge exemplifies games as an art form, with beautifully hand-drawn art in the style of a black-and-white lithograph.
Achievement in Gameplay ($2,500): The Bridge by Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda
GameStop PC Digital Download Award: Symphony by Empty Clip Studios
Gamer's Choice Award – Voted on by the Public ($2,500): Nitronic Rush by Team Nitronic
Nitronic Rush is an experimental survival driving game developed by students at DigiPen Institute of Technology. Use the car's many abilities (including boost, wings, and jump) to avoid obstacles that the city throws at you. Prove your abilities and impress the announcer by performing tricks.
In many ways the game is a tribute to racing games of the 1990's, but with fresh graphics and gameplay. The game includes a primary story mode as well as various other modes, such as an intense gravity-defying hardcore mode and an exploration stunt mode where you can try to get the most points before the clock runs out.
The entire game (including the advanced graphics, physics, and architecture) was developed from the ground up using C++ for the PC (Windows XP/Vista/7) platform. It was not created as a mod or using any pre-made engines such as Unity or Unreal. The graphics technology includes an advanced inferred high dynamic range lighting engine, bloom, motion blur, and particle engine all written from scratch. The physics technology includes Minkowski Portal Refinement, dynamic axis-aligned bounding box spatial partitioning, arbitary mesh collision, and a full car suspension system also coded from the ground up.
[Source: Game Politics]
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