Monday, September 7, 2009
By: Matthew Doucette

Dream Build Play 2009 Challenge winners annouced.

The Dream Build Play 2009 winners have been annouced:

1. Dean Dodrill of the United States earned the grand prize of $40,000 for “Dust: An Elysian Tail” a side-scrolling, action role-playing game in which the player controls Dust, a man searching for himself. Set in the beautiful yet mysterious world of Falana, this game chronicles Dust’s journey to liberate an oppressed village and rediscover his past. Meticulously hand-animated and painted, “Dust: An Elysian Tail” welcomes exploration, action, and above all else, mastery of a fighting system that rewards skilled gamers.
   http://www.noogy.com/

2. Panya Inversin and his team from the United States took home second place and $20,000 for their stunning 3-D, four-player brawler/space-shooter, “Max Blastronaut”.
   http://maxblastronaut.com/

3. Nivel21 Entertainment, led by Mauricio Garcia from Spain, received third place and $10,000 for the challenging puzzle game “Rotor’scope – The Secret of the Endless Energy”.
   http://www.nivel21.net/

4. China’s Hu Ling and his team came in fourth place and received $5,000 for the stylish martial arts action game “HurricaneX2 Evolution”.
   (website unknown)

Source: Dream.Build.Play 2009 Winners Announced! (XNA Creators Club Online)

More information will be up on the Dream Build Play website soon.  The Dream Build Play Challenge is Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Contest for independent (non-signed, non-published) developers, of teams smaller than or equal to seven people, producing Xbox 360 video game titles.  Our game, Duality ZF, placed second in Canada and seventh in the world.  More details to come later.

Congratulations to all the winners: the top 20, the final 6, the final 4, and especially to Dean Dodrill who basically came out of nowhere and dominated this competition!

Also See:

• Duality ZF (official developer site)
• Dream Build Play 2009 Top 20 (Video Trailers)
• Interviews (Xona Games, Duality ZF)
• Duality ZF Promo Materials

External Links:

• Duality ZF (official game site)
• Duality ZF Forums (hosted on xbox.com)
• Xona Games (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo)
• Dream Build Play (Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Contest)
• Xbox LIVE Indie Games* (xbox.com, Xbox Forums)
• Imphenzia Music (creator of the Duality ZF soundtrack)

*Xbox LIVE Indie Games formerly known as Xbox LIVE Community Games.

About the Author: I am Matthew Doucette of Xona Games, an award-winning indie game studio that I founded with my twin brother. We make intensified arcade-style retro games. Our business, our games, our technology, and we as competitive gamers have won prestigious awards and received worldwide press. Our business has won $190,000 in contests. Our games have ranked from #1 in Canada to #1 in Japan, have become #1 best sellers in multiple countries, have won game contests, and have held 3 of the top 5 rated spots in Japan of all Xbox LIVE indie games. Our game engines have been awarded for technical excellence. And we, the developers, have placed #1 in competitive gaming competitions -- relating to the games we make. Read about our story, our awards, our games, and view our blog.