iGame Radio

The folks at Sandlot Games are prepping for their new game Cake Mania: Lights, Camera, Action! But they are in a bind. Jake and Jill Evans need a name for their baby, but Sandlot doesn’t have any ideas. Do you?

Sandlot’s upcoming game will feature a new addition, so the developer has started a Name the Baby contest. Just submit your entry via their Facebook page, and your entry could be the winning name used in the game.

Entry into the contest requires that you be 13 years of age or older, but you get to enter both boys and girls names. All entries will be judged based on creativity and originality and adherence to the Cake Mania brand of games and the Sandlot Games brand. Two winners will be chosen, and they will also get a free copy of the game, and a $50 gift certificate to Sandlot Games.

The contest ends on May 28th, and the winners will be announced after June 20th.

On another note, one should always read the terms of service of anything one signs. For example, I didn’t know that $103.87 is less than $69.99.

Haypi Kingdom is a new MMOG for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. To promote the game, the developers, Haypi, Inc, are running a contest. Winners of the contest can get an iPad and other prizes every 15 days. However, the press release that I received from the company was pretty confusing. For one, nowhere in the press release did they actually detail what the contest actually entailed. They only called it an “…upcoming PVP server competition where an iPad and other prizes will be awarded every 15 days.” Haypi also talked about how the “victory requires preparation and extensive knowledge of game tricks and strategies it does not scare off award-contenders.” It seemed pretty clear that the contest involved playing the game in some fashion.

So I was pretty surprised when I went to the forum, and the only contest that I found mentioned involved writing reviews. Read more

PopCap Games is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Bejeweled, one of the most popular match-three games of all time, in style. The Show Your Bejeweled Love contest encourages you to submit a YouTube video illustrating or describing in some way your love for this simple, yet well-loved, video game in two minutes or less. All types of submissions are welcome, from weird to fanatical, and anywhere in between.

The top ten winners have access to $5000 US in prizes, including a limited edition notebook PC and two iPads, each with custom-designed, “Bejeweled 10th Anniversary” engravings. The contest ends May 26th 2010 and is open to residents of the US, Canada (except Quebec) and the UK.

Judging will be performed by members of PopCap’s art and game design teams throughout the contest period, and will be based on three criteria: enthusiasm, presentation and knowledge of Bejeweled. All top entries, as well as complete contest rules and the official submission form, will be posted on the site during the contest.

Someone got a head start.

The tenth annual ELANS Video Game Awards Ceremony has launched a contest to spread the word, and the one who spreads the word the most can win a paid trip to the ELANS itself in sunny San Diego.

To enter, you simply sign up for the ELANS Video Game Industry List and then encourage all of your industry friends and co-workers to do likewise. During the sign-up process, they fill in your name as their referrer under Contestant’s First & Last name. They can even go on to compete themselves by then having all of their friends enter, and so on. Only video game professionals or those associated with the video game industry can sign up for the list.

The first place winning package is quite extravagant:

• Flights for two from anywhere in the world
• Three days accommodations for two at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego
• Two Gold Tickets to the 2010 ELAN Awards
• Two tickets to all surrounding parties (including a Pool Party, a Street Party, a Champagne Gala Reception, a 4-course 5-star Awards Dinner, the Awards Ceremony itself and an After-Party)

Second Prize is two tickets to the Awards Night which includes the Champagne Reception, the Awards Dinner and Ceremony and the After-Party; Third Prize is two tickets to the surrounding parties which includes the Pool Party, the Street Party and the After-Party; and Fourth Prize is two tickets to the Street Party, “Nomination Celebration-in-the-Streets”.

The ELANS will take place in San Diego, California, from Saturday, July 17th through Monday, July 19th. The competition closes on Friday, April 30th and the winners will be announced at the Nominee Press Conference on or around June 17th.

You can also still submit for an award. The deadline is Friday, April 16, 2010. Submission Forms and Rules & Procedures Manual, as well as ticket and general information about the event, can be found at the ELANS website.

Freeverse has started a cool contest to promote their upcoming iPhone game, Warp Gate, a 3D space trading and conquest game. Winning the contest will allow you to name and describe a planet in the game. All you have to do is follow Freeverse on twitter, then tweet your submission with your entry, @freeverse or the word #warpgate somewhere in the tweet. The winning entry will be announced September 7th, 2009 Freeverse’s twitter feed, and will be seen in-game upon release along with a special in-game item named after the lucky planet creator!

I’ve extended the deadline for the Logo Contest, plus included information about some of the prizes available. Launched in February, the logo contest seeks everyone with an itch to draw, paint, or move those pixels to create the right design for a new logo for the podcast. The deadline has been extended to May 22, 2009. The prize package has been building as well, and includes prizes from MusicSkins and PopCap Games. As more prizes are added to the package, they will be included on the website.

All information about the contest, including rules for format and submission, are located at the iGame Radio Logo Contest page, http://www.igameradio.com/igame-radio-logo-contest/. The contest will run until May 22nd, after which the logo will be chosen through a public vote over a week span. The prize package valued at over $500 will be offered to the grand prize winner, but all entrants will gain a free t-shirt of their choice from the iGame Radio Café Press store.

So make sure to enter the contest!

The uDevGames Contest is a Mac indie game contest run off and on throughout the years by the folks at iDevGames. It is an excellent opportunity for Mac Indie game developers to put a game together in a short time, using their skills and trying out all kinds of interesting ideas that might not necessarily fly well in the commercial game industry, especially among the big giants who are quite content with sequelitis.

uDevGames 2008 kicked off last year in early December, and voting just finished a few days ago. iDevGames just announced the winners on Monday.

And now, iDevGames is proud to announce the winners of uDevGames 2008:

Best overall Game
Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious – Justin Ficarrotta
Constellation – Matthew Woods
uDeadGame – William Griffin

Gameplay
Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious – Justin Ficarrotta
Constellation – Matthew Woods
Maneuv’It – DGuy

Graphics
Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious – Justin Ficarrotta
Surrounded By Death – Matt Hergaarden
ChasmBowling – Ben Mildren

Audio
Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious – Justin Ficarrotta
Maneuv’It – DGuy
ChasmBowling – Ben Mildren & Simoebic Dysentery – Joe Flores

Story
Boston: Mouse in the Sewer – Lincoln Green
Gw0rp – Stephen Johnson
Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious – Justin Ficarrotta

Presentation
Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious – Justin Ficarrotta
Constellation – Matthew Woods
Maneuv’It – DGuy

Originality
Simoebic Dysentery – Joe Flores
ChasmBowling – Ben Mildren
Gw0rp – Stephen Johnson

Congratulations to everyone who worked hard on this. You can check out their games and indeed all 20 of the games that entered the contest here. Also, I’ll be posting an interview with two of the developers (one of them a winner) later today. Hopefully, I’ll have some more interviews a little later on.

Oh, PopCap Games, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…

• Peggle Nights for the Mac…released last week!
• Peggle Nights for the iPhone…release date set for later this month!
• Free Bonus Level Pack!

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, think of Peggle Nights as a combo of pinball and pachinko with wealth of indescribable zaniness to round it all out. You try to hit 25 orange pegs with 10 metal balls while partaking in the Peggle Masters’ dreams and secret ambitions on a visit to the Peggle Institute. Your goal is to complete the entire night’s worth of dreams and usher in a new day.

And PopCap has also announced the Peggle Art Contest. Top submissions will be immortalized in a future Peggle version. The contest, which opens March 3 and runs through June 3, 2009, is available to folks in the US and the United Kingdom, and will award more than $8,000 in prizes, including trips for the top submitters to visit PopCap’s Seattle headquarters, spending sprees at Best Buy, limited edition Peggle merchandise, and iPhones and Xbox 360s with Peggle pre-installed.

Okay, gotta stop now…I’m breathing too hard…

Entries can involve any aspect of the game’s artistic elements, from background scenes to drawn or written descriptions of new Peggle Masters and power-ups, to level designs (peg layouts). Full details of the contest, including entry forms and rules, can be found at the Peggle Art Contest webpage. Entries can be submitted electronically or by mail.

Wait a sec, I live in Seattle…why should I care about the trip? Can I get a swap for a trip to the Caribbean??

I haven’t been keeping up with this as I should…naughty me! uDevGames contest, the wonderful Mac games contest put on irregularly by Carlos Camacho and the forum members at iDevGames.com, is nearing the end of its run, and voting has begun.

There are 19 game demos available to look at and vote on, from arcade to puzzle to rpg. So, check them out, vote, and I may be able to provide some voices from the contest in the next few days or weeks for you as well.

Do you read Fark just so you can Photoshop the images? Do you long to enter image contests, because you get to use your Wacom tablet? Do you love your art design job so much that you take your work home with you? Here is your chance to challenge your skills in the Official iGame Radio Logo Contest!

Launched today, the logo contest seeks everyone with an itch to draw, paint, or move those pixels to create the right design for a new logo for the iGame Radio Podcast. But you better get started, because the deadline is April 10, 2009. After I announce the winner, I’ll be relaunching the site with a new design based on the logo design.

All information about the contest, including rules for format and submission, are located at the the Official iGame Radio Logo Contest page. I’ve also included resource material in case you’re new to design work, or just want a refresher course. The contest will run for two months, after which the logo will be chosen by public acclaim. A prize package valued at over $500 will be offered…more details will be available as the contest proceeds.

So get yer Photoshop skills on!