Independent Developers Underpin a New Golden Age for Gaming

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 2012-- The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME), and The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University are proud to announce that Closure was awarded the top prize at the third annual Indie Game Challenge. The winning team was named on the closing night of the annual D.I.C.E. ™ (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit at the Red Rock Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

“A common theme at D.I.C.E. 2012 is that gaming is entering a new Golden Era,” said Adam Sessler, host of G4’s X-Play. “Independent development has played a critical role as a source of creativity and original IP for the game industry. With the continued growth of downloadable titles on Xbox, PlayStation, PC, cloud, social and mobile platforms these indie developers are in the vanguard. They are the lifeblood of the industry. Checking out this year's finalists, I could not have expected a crop of higher quality games.”

Sessler served as host of the 2012 IGC awards ceremony for his third year. Attendees of the event ranged from an assortment of video game executives from top publishing companies to developers, some of the most influential games media and the ten finalist teams.

This year’s IGC was launched in June, 2011 and the entrants were culled down to ten in mid-January, 2012. All ten teams have had their games showcased during the D.I.C.E. Summit, offering a chance to interact with some of the biggest names in the industry as they demonstrated their titles and their new concepts and designs for a panel of industry judges.

The full list of winners and awards include:

$100,000 Grand Prize Winner

• Closure was submitted by San Diego-based Eyebrow Interactive and the three-person team consisting of: Tyler Glaiel, team leader; Jon Schubbe, art/animation; and Chris Rhyne, sound/music. Closure is a unique and stylistic puzzle platformer that focuses on the concepts of light and shadow. Players are challenged to manipulate lights to effectively change the shape of the world they're in and bring gameplay objects in and out of existence.

Category winners include:

• Technical Achievement ($2,500): Symphony
• Achievement in Art Direction ($2,500): The Bridge
• Achievement in Gameplay ($2,500): The Bridge
• Gamer’s Choice Award ($2,500): Nitronic Rush

In addition, for the first time, GameStop gave special recognition to finalist game Symphony by offering a promotional exposure prize on their GameStop PC Download service worth up to $50,000 normally reserved for major game releases.

The recipient of the Indie Game Challenge $50,000 SMU scholarship will be announced later this year. In addition to monetary awards and industry recognition, all ten finalists have the unique opportunity to pursue potential commercial avenues for their games while at D.I.C.E. Members of each team will be rewarded with the opportunity to pitch their games face-to-face with a variety of publishers and leading industry developers.

For more information on the competition and to learn more about each of the winners, visit: www.IndieGameChallenge.com.

About the Indie Game Challenge

The Indie Game Challenge (IGC) is an annual competition for video game developers offering more than $250,000 in prizes for professional and non-professional categories. Founded by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, The Guildhall at SMU and GameStop, the IGC was created to foster game development innovation by independent developers. Prizes include cash awards, scholarships, national consumer exposure for the top games and an opportunity for the finalists to obtain professional feedback and seek commercial avenues for their games through face-to-face meetings with representatives from the leading video game publishers. For more information on the IGC visit www.IndieGameChallenge.com, www.interactive.org, http://guildhall.smu.edu or www.GameStop.com.

*To get images and assets, please contact Wendy Dominguez and she can provide FTP site details.

Source: GameStop Corp.

Ron Jenkins
The Guildhall at SMU
972-473-3546
www.guildhall.smu.edu
or
Debby Chen
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
debby@interactive.org
818-876-0826 ext. 206
or
Wendy Dominguez
GameStop Corp.
817-722-7747
WendyDominguez@gamestop.com