The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, The Guild Hall at Southern Methodist University, and GameStop are combining forces to form Voltron for the Indie Game Challenge, a huge game development contest with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line. To get the low down on this contest, X-Play’s Adam Sessler sat down with AIAS president Joseph Olin (one of TheFeed's favorite people), The Guild Hall founder and executive director Dr. Peter Raad, and GameStop divisional vice president of brand marketing Ashley Sheetz.
Now that you’ve been dazzled by those impressive credentials, be sure to watch this video for more details on the Indie Game Challenge. It’s an awesome contest that will bring together tomorrow’s game-design stars and today’s game-development legends. If Adam’s excellent interview isn’t enough for you, here are some excerpts from the official press release.
"The Challenge is designed to be the preeminent competition for video game developers by offering winners almost $300,000 in prize monies and scholarships, including $100,000 grand prize awards for both the winning professional and non-professional games. In addition, finalists will receive national exposure and be eligible for additional prize money by having their pitch videos posted on GameStop.com and GameStop TV for People’s Choice Award voting. Complete entry and contest details are available at www.indiegamechallenge.com.
Professional and non-professional individuals or teams are asked to submit game betas and game pitch videos between July 14 and Oct. 1, 2009. Judging will be conducted by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Up to 12 finalist teams will be announced on or about Jan. 15, 2010, and up to five members of each finalist team will be flown to an awards reception Feb. 19, 2010, at the Red Rock Casino Resort Spa in Las Vegas following AIAS’s D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit."
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jro59
Go SMU!!! Dr. Raad is very intelligent and if I'd been a Computer Science major I definitely would have continued my education at the Guildhall.
FTLRalph
I'm seriously thinking of joining. I already emailed them with some minor questions (their help email wasn't working all last night, hopefully my email got through this morning).
Is there a 2008 or 2007 competition? I'd like to read up on it.
rockyourazz
Nice...
I like these guys and hope others will take notice and try to ease the future of gaming - as the current future looks likely to be there for the big guys ONLY - and I dont know about you ... but I wouldnt like it if the only game designers were post-middle-aged-millionaires. ...........to be honest Im not really sure why...........it just seems to me that the old "grown-ups" have taken over a media that used to be available to the young generation...............and these days I dont even let myself dream of creating games because of the highly competitive nature this business has got itself into.......................... .
But this is a very good glimpse of compassion and nurturing from the old generation towards the young generation - and I wish there is a whole lot more of that to come........................
captain_3OH3
How can I keep track of the Indie Games Challenge while it is going on?
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