GameTap Indie Award Winners Announced At 9th Annual Independent Games Festival
Everyday Shooter awarded $10,000 distribution deal for achievement in development
ATLANTA - March 8, 2007 - GameTap, the first-of-its-kind broadband entertainment network from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.), announced the winners of the GameTap Indie Awards during a ceremony at the Game Developers Conference's 9th Annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) in San Francisco. Queasy Games' "Everyday Shooter", took home the $10,000 distribution deal, with runner-up distribution deals of $5,000 awarded to both "Roboblitz," an action game by Naked Sky Entertainment and Cryptic Sea's "Blast Miner" puzzle game. Together, the three award winners will kick off GameTap's online distribution program for independent games.
"The GameTap Indie Award winners represent creativity and passion for gameplay that in many ways is unique to games produced outside traditional publishing systems and will be exciting additions for subscribers of the GameTap network," said Ricardo Sanchez, vice president of content, GameTap. "We chose the winners of the first GameTap Indie Award after a careful evaluation of over a hundred independently developed games and now welcome them to the GameTap family."
Grand prize winner, Everyday Shooter, is an album of games exploring the expressive power of abstract shooters. Dissolute sounds of destruction are replaced with guitar riffs harmonizing over an all-guitar soundtrack, while modulating shapes celebrate the flowing beauty of geometry. As the grand prize winner, Queasy Games will receive a $10,000 advance after signing a five year distribution deal for Everyday Shooter to be a part of the new GameTap Indies label.
Roboblitz and Blast Miner were both runners up for the GameTap Indies Award and will each receive a $5,000 advance after signing the same five year distribution deal to be part of the new GameTap Indies label. Roboblitz is a physics-based action game full of inventive gizmos, weapons, characters, and environments. Players take on the role of Blitz, a multi-talented robot who must activate an aging Space Cannon to save his world from a band of maladjusted space pirates. Blast Miner is a physics-based puzzle game where you use explosives to blast though the earth in search of gold. Taking the role of a crazed miner, the player must use TNT, gas cans and stones to set off chain reactions that rip through the ground exposing and collecting chunks of gold.
The GameTap Indies program will take effect immediately, serving as an added distribution channel for creative developers. By enlisting in the program, GameTap assumes responsibility for the digital distribution of each selected game. In addition to being promoted alongside popular GameTap Original titles, such as "Sam & Max: Season 1" and "Myst Online: Uru Live", GameTap Indies will be showcased in a special Independent Games content area within the service.
In addition to GameTap Indies, GameTap provides subscribers with unlimited access to more than 800 games, along with over 600 original TV shows and videos that cater to fans of the video game lifestyle.
To register for GameTap, visit www.gametap.com and your first month of service is only 99¢.
About GameTap
GameTap is the leader in digital game distribution and broadband entertainment. Launched by Turner Broadcasting in 2005, it now delivers more than 800 authentic versions of the greatest console, computer and arcade games on demand, including original and exclusive episodic properties. In addition to games for every age and interest, GameTap offers more than 600 original entertainment programs, popular video streams and thriving virtual communities to broadband-connected PCs. Continually updated with new games, programs and features, GameTap is a downloadable application that supports navigation and game play using keyboard and mouse, as well as most USB peripherals.
About Turner
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.), a Time Warner company, is a major producer of news and entertainment products around the world and the leading provider of programming for the basic cable industry.
CONTACT:
Lee Mokri
Access Communications for GameTap
415-844-6203
lmokri@accesspr.com
Wendy Rutherford
TBS Inc.
404-827-5097
wendy.rutherford@turner.com