Indie Game Challenge

Twelve finalists were chosen yesterday for this year’s Indie Game Challenge, six belonging to the non-professional category and six to the professional category. The competition, held every year and supported by Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME), and The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, gives amateur game-developers a chance to rake in more than $350,000 in prize money and scholarships. Winners are to be announced February 19th at the D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit in Las Vegas. Adam Sessler, host of G4’s X-Play, will host the event.

The twelve finalists are as follows:

Non-Professional Category

Climb to the Top of the Castle – TwO Bros. Games
Dreamside Maroon – Terraced
Galactic Arms Race – Galactic Arms Race
Gear – Team 3
Waker – Poof Productions
zeit2 – brightside games

Professional Category

Aaaa! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity – Dejobaan Games, LLC
Altitude – Nimbly Games
Cogs – Lazy 8 Studios
Fieldrunners – Subatomic Studios
Miegakure – Marc ten Bosch
Vessel – Strange Loop Games

Contestants will also receive

[a]n audition session with a professional game publisher (like Capcom, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, NAMCO/Bandai, Nintendo, Sony, THQ, and Ubisoft) of no more than 30 minutes in which Finalist will have opportunity to showcase game for possible publishing contract, which would be offered only at sole and unfettered discretion of participating professional game publisher.