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Wednesday, July 02, 2008

YoYo Games Developer Competition Closes


YoYoGames.com has announced the results of its second Independent Developers’ Casual Gaming Competition. Developers were asked to produce games with an Ancient Civilisation theme, the only other restrictions being that the developers were given less than two months to come up with the goods, and all games had to be written using the popular Game Maker development toolkit (available to download, for free, from YoYoGames.com).

The winning game - the last game standing after fending off the 250 other entrants - was the snappily titled Ancient Ants Adventure. Produced by Russian development troupe RedSystem, AAA is an isometric 3rd person shooter that sees you controlling a shamanic ant and his obliging followers on a crusade against the forces of phylum Arthropoda. Combining a highly polished finish with witty gameplay and the need for tactical foresight, YoYo Game’s latest winner pushes the boundaries of casual gaming one step further. (As well as securing the developers a much appreciated $1000).

Running close behind to collect the $500 second prize was the world’s greatest (and probably first) caveman simulator. Caveman Craig is man-management in a world better suited to dinosaurs. Build up your camp to withstand the ravages of Velociraptors and prey you don’t see T-Rex.

Collecting the final cash prize Tut’s Test represents classic casual gaming at its best: move the blocks, become infuriated by the impossibility of the level design, suddenly succeed, then repeat, frantically trying to beat your own score.

Games this individual couldn’t have come from any of the major publishing houses, they represent the true value of independent development and further proof of concept for YoYoGames.com – now the world’s largest user-generated games portal with over 19,000 games, and fastest growing, averaging a thousand new games every 3 weeks.

About YoYoGames.com

YoYo Games Ltd is a UK Based Game Start up founded by Game industry veterans, Sandy Duncan and Michel Cassius. YoYo Games launched its beta site in May 2007 and has grown to be the world’s largest user generated game site hosting over 19,000 games. Employing a web 2.0 community model YoYo Games encourages users to “Play, Make, and Share games” for free.

You can visit YYG at www.YoYoGames.com

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