Pong World wins Pong Indie Developer Challenge
Atari has chosen the winners of its Pong Indie Developer Challenge, and – surprise – the top honor goes to Pong! Well, okay, it's not just Pong. zGames' Pong World features multiple paddle "creatures" in various worlds with powerups and environmental hazards, and it earned $50,000 and a publishing deal with Atari.
Second place goes to MadRuse's 3D Pong Tournament, and third place goes to Eppy Games' Fong, a cartoony Pong in a circular arena. These two also get cash awards and publishing deals; Atari will announce specifics of those publishing deals (as in, when they will result in games you can play) soon.
Check out trailers for all the finalists at Atari's site.
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Atari Pong Indie Developer Challenge winners announced
Added 23 hours ago by Richard Mitchell | Due 08/02/2012 01:31PM
Winners Revealed for Atari's Pong® Indie Developer Challenge
zGames, MadRuse Games and Eppy Games Take top Honors and Prizes, Will see Commercial Release on App Store
LOS ANGELES - Aug. 2, 2012 - Atari, one of the world's most recognized publishers and developers of interactive entertainment, today revealed the winners of the Pong® Indie Developer Challenge. The winning developers, who competed against other independent game developers for the chance to remake Atari's iconic Pong, were chosen by a judging panel in conjunction with community voting. Final ranking is as follows:
1st place ($50,000): zGames
2nd place ($37,500): MadRuse Games
3rd place ($15,000): Eppy Games
The three winners also win a three-year revenue-sharing agreement, which includes having their qualifying game published on the App Store by Atari with marketing and promotional support. Further details regarding the qualifying commercial release of the winning submissions will be announced at a later date. To view information about the participating developers and their games, along with video trailers, please visit: www.atari.com/pongdeveloperchallenge/finalists.
"The Pong Indie Developer Challenge presented an opportunity to introduce the talented work of independent developers to the Atari community, and their creativity was met with great enthusiasm," said Giancarlo Mori, EVP of Product Development at Atari. "This enthusiasm, along with the success of our recent mobile releases like Centipede®: Origins, is a further testament to the ability of our widely-recognized brands to engage both hardcore and mainstream audiences. We'll continue this momentum with the forthcoming releases of qualifying winning Pong titles from this challenge."
In the first phase of the contest, Atari received nearly 90 submissions from independent developers looking to remake Pong. After a comprehensive review, seven finalists were chosen for consideration by a celebrity judging panel made up of Nolan Bushnell, one of the original founders of Atari, Dave Castelnuovo of Bolt Creative (Pocket God), David Whatley of Critical Thought Games (geoDefense), and Mike Schramm of TUAW. In addition, the Atari community weighed in on the final ranking, with over 200,000 total votes logged for the various finalists. Ultimately, the winners announced today represent the top choices from Atari, the Atari community and the judging panel.
For full details regarding Pong Indie Developer Challenge, please visit: www.atari.com/pongdeveloperchallenge.
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