Winners of inaugural Indie Game Challenge announced

The winners of the inaugural Indie Game Challenge have been revealed at an awards ceremony held during the DICE summit in Las Vegas.

Two game development teams - one professional and one non-professional - were chosen as overall winners, with both receiving a $100,000 prize.

The winning entry from the non-professional team was a 2D puzzle platformer called Gear created by a five-person team consisted of students of the Digipen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Washington.

A sliding tiles puzzle game called Cogs was the game that won San-Francisco-based studio Lazy 8 the professional team prize, and Cogs was also chosen as the winner of the Achievement in Art Direction and Achievement in Gameplay categories.

The winner of the remaining categories, Technical Achievement and the Gamer's Choice award went to professional team Nimbly Games for their creation Altitude.

"On behalf of the three sponsors, we couldn't be happier with the quality and quantity of entries into the first-ever Indie Game Challenge," said Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences president Joseph Olin. "No doubt, the partnership between AIAS, GameStop and SMU helped drive wide-spread awareness for the Challenge as evidenced by the more than 250 entries we received.

"The Challenge went a long way toward unlocking, cultivating and supporting the potential of independent game developers, which are essential for the future success of our industry."

The recipient of the Indie Game Challenge SMU scholarship will be announced this spring, while the winner of the Gamer's Choice Award sweepstakes will be selected from eligible entries and announced on March 19.

Details on the winning teams can be found on the competition's website.