Independent Propeller Awards Finalists Announced

Online independent gaming community indiePub, sponsored by video game publisher  Zoo Entertainment, Inc., and South by Southwest (SXSW) today announced the finalists of the first ever video game development competition, the Independent Propeller Awards, to be held during SXSW ScreenBurn, the gaming portion of the SXSW Interactive Festival.

Seven finalists were chosen among 150 submissions, representing a diverse lineup of games that range from the puzzle, strategy and adventure genres. Hosted by Adam "Atomic" Saltsman, of indie hit Canabalt, and Meredith Molinari, host of PlayStation Network’s The Tester, the Independent Propeller Awards will offer $150,000 in total cash prizes, awards recognizing innovation and development from the Intel AppUpSM developer program and Unity Technologies, and the chance for titles to be published by indiePub through its sponsor, Zoo Publishing. Below are the skilled finalists that have been selected to show off their games at SXSW:

Finalists of Independent Propeller Awards Including Their Submissions:

• The Uncanny Fish Hunt (Uncanny Games) - An adventure game where players take on the role of Siméon, to fight an unleashed ocean.

• Skinny (Thomas Brush) - An exploration and adventure game where players help Skinny, a skinny freak, save the apocalyptic world from their minds.

• Chewy (Happy Candy Co.) - A 2D platformer in which players control Chewy, a sticky piece of gum.

• CREO (Peter Angstadt) - A physics puzzle game in which players must create and experiment to succeed by helping Creo and his friends home from school each day.

• Deep Sea (Robin Arnott) - An audio-only game, where players lose their vision and hearing and are plunged into a world of blackness occupied only by the sound of their own breathing and the rumbles made by unseen terrors.

•  Tiny and Big: Grandpa’s Leftovers (Black Pants Game Studio) - A story of a thief who had stolen our hero’s most valued possession - a pair of underpants.

• GLiD (Glid) - A single player ambient exploration game where a small robot is tasked with exploring and restoring an abandoned world.

Submissions for the Independent Propeller Awards were open from December 2010 through mid-February 2011. Finalists will be provided with flights and accommodations to attend SXSW in Austin, TX to demo their games during the show. The grand-prize winner will be revealed during the Independent Propeller Awards ceremony on March 13, 2011 from 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. CST at the Day Stage in the Austin Convention Center during SXSW ScreenBurn at SXSW Interactive. Anyone with a SXSW Interactive, Gold or Platinum badge is welcome to attend the awards.