14 DAY TRIAL // Gaming site Kotaku is reporting that Apple's iPhone and iPod touch are dominating this year's list of Independent Games Festival Mobile finalists. Of the 14 titles competing in the IGF Mobile finalists, 11 are iPhone and iPod Touch games, with just one Nintendo DS entry appearing, the report notes.
The source reveals that winners of the IGF Mobile will be announced at the Game Developers Conference Mobile conference on March 24. The winners will be "additionally honored" during the main Independent Games Festival Awards the following day, on March 25. A full list of potential winners is posted as follows.
IGF Mobile Best Game
Cubic Republic (IKS Mobile) – Flash Lite Smiles (Sykhronics Entertainment) – iPhone/iPod touch Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS
Innovation In Mobile Game Design
Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS Galcon (Hassey Enterprises) – iPhone/iPod touch Eliss (Steph Thirion) – iPhone/iPod touch
Achievement In Art
Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch Dizzy Bee (Igloo Games) – iPhone/iPod touch Ruben & Lullaby (Song New Creative) – iPhone/iPod touch
Technical Achievement
Football Tycoon (Dynamo Games) – Java Real Racing (Firemint) – iPhone/iPod touch Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS
Audio Achievement
Radio Flare (Studio Radiolaris) – iPhone/iPod touch Zen Bound (Secret Exit) – iPhone/iPod touch Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch
Best iPhone Game – Presented by ngmoco Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch Dizzy Bee (Igloo Games) – iPhone/iPod touch Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch Zen Bound (Secret Exit) – iPhone/iPod touch Frenzic (The Iconfactory) – iPhone/iPod touch.
iPhone and iPod touch fans / owners may remember that Apple itself recently said iPhone might well be the future of gaming. In an interview with EDGE (former next-gen.biz), Apple's Greg Joswiak said that the App Store had done very well for Apple.
“In 100 days, we’ve had over 6,000 apps on the Store: mind-boggling,” he stated. “In the same period we’ve had over 200 million customer downloads. It’s just amazing. And it’s games that turn out to be the biggest category of all, with over 1,500 different games already available. To put that in context, that’s more games than the Nintendo DS and the PSP put together, and this is 100 days in,” Apple's guy explained. “There are already so many games and as we look at it, to us it really seems this is the future of gameplay,” Joswiak concluded.