[02-16-2010]
The Winners of the 6th International Mobile Gaming Awards
The 8 'must have' games for your smartphone
BARCELONA, 15 February. Labyrinth 2 of the Swedish studio Illusion Labs was awarded the Grand Prix at this year’s IMGA, the largest mobile games competition in the world.
Ulrike and Eamon Compliant of Blast Theory from the United Kingdom was named Best Real World Game, Studio FungFung from United Kingdom received the Excellence in Gameplay Award with Minisquadron, Sniper vs Sniper on line of Com2uS from South Korea won the Excellence in Connectivity Award, James Brown from New Zealand walked away with the Excellence in Design Award for his title Ancient Frog Jr.
Wire Way, developed by NowProduction and published by Konami Digital Entertainment was awarded Best Casual Game.
The People’s Choice Award, chosen via on-line voting at www.imgawards.com, went to
Indiagames from India and Digital Legends from Spain with the title Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior and a panel of Mobile Operators, representing Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile, selected Krazy Kart Racing of Konami Digital Entertainment who therefore received the Operators’ Choice Award.
The IMGA Jury commented: “The 6th IMGA challenged the jury with many excellent games: outstanding graphics, great technology and exceptional game design. This year, the Real World Game category showed some very inspiring and innovative concepts. We expect this category to grow in the years to come.”
'This is the second year in a row that NAVTEQ Network for Developers™ has been involved in the judging of IMGA and has the honour to hand out one of the awards. This year’s Awards entries have shown how the mobile gaming experience can blend virtual worlds with real-world locations in new and interesting ways,’ said Marc Naddell, Vice President, Partner & Developer Programs, NAVTEQ. ‘The games in the “Best Real World Game” category encompassed everything from combining mapping with phone-centric and social interactivity features to powering the location-based game-play with impressive 3D graphics and creative animations.’
Guy Teissier Chairman of Marseille Euroméditerranée said: 'Thanks to the concentration of international leaders in chip manufacturing, world-class R&D centres and fast-growing and innovative technology and content companies, Marseille is rapidly becoming the 'European Mobile Valley'. No wonder it's home to the world's number one competition for mobile games! The IMGA has become the world showcase for the talent and innovation which are such an integral part of the mobile games industry.'
“I am proud to say that the contributions from North America have doubled since last year, which makes IMGA a truly international competition with as many entries from Asia, as from Europe and the USA. We have seen an impressive growth of new platforms and the end of J2ME as the predominant platform..” commented Maarten Noyons, founder of the IMGA.
ABOUT THE IMGA
The International Mobile Gaming Awards was launched in 2004 by Maarten Noyons of NCCPartners to recognize and award the most talented mobile game developers in the world.
In 5 years the IMGA has reviewed over 1,400 games originating from over 52 countries Including the USA, Ukraine, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, China, the CzechRepublic, Brazil and Belgium. Participants include PhD students, researchers, artists, individual developers and the top 10 leading mobile games publishers and developers in the world. As well as offering a highly respected award for mobile games, the IMGA is also a worldwide talent scout in mobile games development through a network of developers, publishers, operators, handset manufacturers and technology providers.
Euromediterranée is the largest urban and economic development operation in Southern Europe.
This 7 billion euros investments operation aims to boost Marseille as the leading business place in Mediterranean area.
Euroméditerranée attracted more than 700 companies in the newly developed la Joliette business district and Belle de Mai media park.
Euromediterranée, heart of Marseille Provence Mobile Valley, hosts world class equipments, networks and events in IT such as:
- N°1 national incubator focused in New Media: Belle de Mai incubator
- N°1 testing center and phone library in Europe for mobile applications: Paca Mobile Center
- N°1 competition worldwide for mobile games: International Mobile Gaming Awards
- N°1
[10-28-2009]
GSMA Introduces App Planet, a New Mobile World Congress Event
Targeting the Mobile Application Developer Community
The GSMA today launched App Planet, a major new “event within an event” that will be held at the 2010 Mobile World Congress. Solely focused on the rapidly growing application developer community, App Planet will bring together the many critical elements of the broad mobile application ecosystem together in one location. The inaugural App Planet event will feature:
· Application developer conferences focused specifically on the most influential mobile platforms in the market;
· An interactive exhibition where attendees can preview the newest and most innovative application technologies;
· The “App Lounge”, where networking and business development will help to further define the future of this exciting mobile segment;
· A dedicated, day-long track of thought-provoking presentations and panel sessions on industry trends in mobile applications; and
· The “Apps Garage”, which will showcase cutting-edge GSMA initiatives in the mobile applications space.
Initial App Planet partners include Research In Motion (RIM), Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP) and the International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA), as well as more than 40 exhibiting companies who will be showcasing their technologies and solutions.
“Mobile application development is perhaps the most exciting and rapidly changing segment in the mobile communications industry today,” continued O’Hara. “The creation of App Planet, which provides dedicated exhibition and networking facilities, as well as focused content, squarely addresses the demand we see in the market for greater resources, information and business development opportunities for the mobile application developer community.”
For additional information on App Planet at the Mobile World Congress, visit
www.mobileworldcongress.com.
For additional information on the 2010 Mobile World Congress, please visit www.mobileworldcongress.com
For information on the 2010 Global Mobile Awards, please visit www.globalmobileawards.com
[10-15-2009]
The Largest Mobile Games Competition is Now Open for Entries
The International Mobile Gaming Awards (www.imgawards.com) is opening its sixth edition.
In six years the competition has become the Mobile Entertainment Industry’s leading showcase for groundbreaking innovations, exceptional quality and new trends in mobile entertainment, whether made for Symbian, iPhone, Flash, Android, Microsoft, Java, Linux, BREW, or any other platform.
Developers can submit their games on line NOW at www.imgawards.com and compete in an international arena with top studios and individual developers from all over the world. Awards will be given out in the following categories:
• The International Mobile Gaming Excellence in Design
• The International Mobile Gaming Excellence in Connectivity Award
• The International Mobile Gaming Excellence in Game Play Award
• The International Mobile Gaming Best Real World Game
• The International Mobile Gaming Best Casual Game Award
The following awards will also be presented:
• The International Mobile Gaming Grand Prix
• The International Mobile Gaming Operators’ Choice Award
• The International Mobile Gaming People’s Choice Award
Deadline for entries is 18 January 2010. The IMGA recognises the newest, the most exciting and the most innovative games so only those games published after 1 September 2009 are eligible. Concepts and demos for games are also eligible if the entrants can provide a playable demo or a finished game before February 8 2010 in time for the second judging round.
The awards will be handed out at the Mobile World Congress and will be an important part of the newly launched App Planet, a new event at the Congress.
“App Planet will create a great environment for our Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, 17 February and it demonstrates both GSMA’s and the Mobile Eco System’s growing interest in developers. We are proud to have been asked by the GSMA to help them make App Planet a huge success” says Maarten Noyons, Founder of the IMGA.
For the second year, the IMGA is looking for games using localisation technologies, such as GPS. “Last year’s launch of the new category Real World Games was clearly a success and will be continued. We think that these games have a great future. We expect many innovators to enter amazing games and demos in this category. Our collaboration with NAVTEQ and their Global LBS Challenge® will help us increase the number of entrants in this category.”
NAVTEQ will return as a judge to the 6th IMGA as well as handing out the "Best Real World Game" award at the IMGA awards ceremony during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2010. As part of the collaboration with NAVTEQ, IMGA would like to encourage game developers to participate with their location-enabled games in both the IMGA and the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge 2010.
In the last six years the IMGA has reviewed over 1,200 games originating from over 52 countries including the USA, Ukraine, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, China, the Czech Republic, Brazil and Belgium. Participants include PhD students, researchers, artists, individual developers and the top 10 leading mobile games publishers and developers in the world. The IMGA is now considered to be one of the most important competitions in the Mobile Entertainment Industry. The IMGA’s mission is to reward and recognize the best innovators and the most creative developers of mobile games in the world.
The IMGA is expected to announce their sponsors and other partners for this year before the end of the year.
[08-19-2009]
Pervasive games festival
Last year, the IMGA launched the category Real World Games. This will be continued next year. Moreover, IMGA is working on a large scale festival for mobile games using localisation technologies. The festival will be called PLAYGROUND and will take place in Marseille, France, in September 2010. More about this and our other activities soon!
[08-19-2009]
Trends in mobile games: time for an update
Pocketgamer has recently launched a great initiative: The Pocket gamer Mobile Games Trends Report. The report contains interviews with industry leaders, charts and the numbers and figures you are looking for if you want to understand what is going on with the App Stores, Nokia, Android, etc..
Click on the link below and get a 15% discount on the purchase price.
Enjoy! Maarten Noyons