Everyone is a Winner at Dream-Build-Play Contest....Literally
Today, the winners of the Dream-Build-Play contest were finally announced at the launch of Gamefest 2007 (a Microsoft-run development conference focused on XNA). After whittling the field down to 20 finalists the panel of judges have finally selected the winner. Actually, I should really say winners because the top 4 contestants are all being offered publishing deals with Microsoft to bring their games to XBLA. So who won and what are the games like? Read More.
In a first place tie was Blazing Birds (a 2D take on Badminton with crazy powerups and "blazing" speed) and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai (Remix) (a gorefest of samurai slashing and raining blood...literally). Tied in second place are Gravitron Ultra (a space-based game about protection and sabotage) and Yo Ho Kablammo! (pirates, cannons, treasure, need I say more?). All four of these titles will now have the option of polishing their games for release on XBLA. On top of all that third place was awarded to 16 different games (aka the entire rest of the field of finalists). There you have it -- everyone's a winner.
And I guess that means I nearly got my wish of having all the finalists brought to XBLA. All in all, I'm a very happy camper. Let the XNA goodness rain down upon us.
As much info and media as I could find all linked below:
Blazing Birds: Website, Video (direct download .WMV file), Screenshots
The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai (Remix): Website, Video, Screenshots
Gravitron Ultra: Website, Video, Screenshots
Yo Ho Kablammo!: Website, Screenshots, Concept Art
[via GamerscoreBlog and DreamBuildPlay.com]
Comments
ImmortalWeapon7
10938
Hopefully we can expect some of these games to hit the XBLA. I'd much rather have some of these original titles over another repackaging of some of the 'classics' that are coming to the Arcade.
Hippocrate's Dilemma, HurricaneX, Little Gamers, and Sprockets of Strife are some of the 3rd placers that really caught my eye. Blazing Birds isn't really convincing me of its 1st place position, though. I've seen flash games like it before (albeit without power-ups and 'blazing' speeds)
Either way, congrats to all, and hopefully we'll be seeing tons more on the Arcade front from these guys.
Mike Kelehan
62362
Tawse and Turn
11849
All of them are intersting, but have to play the trial first to really get an impression.
Any word on when they are expected? Before year end? 2008?