GCG's Game Design Challenge: iPhone Game Winners

Author: by Staff

The iPhone has been hailed in many circles as a new and promising platform for games, but how can game design address its users, who may not necessarily be traditional "gamers"? Gamasutra sister site Game Career Guide recently collected submissions from aspiring game designers for broadly-focused iPhone games while our own features editor, Christian Nutt, helped judge. Many submissions aimed to maximize the iPhone's unique capabilities, like its touch screen, keypad, internet connectivity, music player or accelerometer. Others approached the function of the game design itself from new angles, such as games that could double as ad campaigns. The top three winners, from Game Career Guide: Best Entries Luca Breda, enTrée (see page 2) Luca Breda’s enTrée is part Tamagotchi, part social networking device, and part business tracking and networking device. This game idea really honed in on the concept of making a game for a massive audience, especially people who might own iPhones. We loved it. Nikola Shekerev, student of computer science at Sofia University, Bulgaria, Artie (see page 3) If we weren’t sold on the idea for called Artie based on the description (which we were), Nikola Shekerev gave us the most charming images to go along with the entry. This is a game we want to play, and we can imagine our friends, siblings, and co-workers wanting to try it, too. Sina Jafarzadeh, media and computer science student at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, Magnetic Touch (see page 4) Though this game idea didn’t sell as hard to the iPhone crowd as the other two, it does seem like it would make a great playable game. Jafarzadeh has a clear handle on to do with that touch screen, too! Honorable Mention Chris Appelgren (general manager and marketing, Noise Pop Industries, Make-A-Face (see page 5) Chris Appelgren delivered an idea that is fun, whimsical, and that comes with a fairly clean UI. This game would work equally well -- if not better -- on the Nintendo DS. For full details about the imaginative submissions and in-depth coverage of the winners, please see the full feature at Game Career Guide.