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  • Grubby Games Named To Finalist List For IGF Awards

10th January 2009

Grubby Games Named To Finalist List For IGF Awards

Grubby GamesVancouverGrubby Games, an independent Vancouver game development studio co-founded by Ryan Clark and Matt Parry in 2004, has been named to the final nominees list for the upcoming Independent Games Festival Awards. Their new 2D physics-based Incredibots game is in the running for an award in the Technical Excellence category.

Grubby Games co-founder Ryan Clark says that he came up with the idea for Incredibots afterIncredibots playing a physics game which allows the player to control a small tracked vehicle. “I really enjoyed playing with that little tank! I decided that if such a simple little application was so much fun, a full-featured robot editor would be far more fun!”

Ryan and Matt, who met at UBC while working on their degrees in the late 1990’s, both shared a desire to develop games, and in 2005 the microbiologist (Ryan) and the medical doctor (Matt) introduced the gaming community to Professor Fizzwizzle. Fizzwizzle’s debut came in a Professor Fizzwizzle“self-titled” puzzle game where players take control of the genius Professor Fizzwizzle, helping him use brainpower and gadgets to solve each level’s challenges. Since the first Fizzwizzle game, the developers have added 3 more titles to the Fizzwizzle franchise as well as another game called My Tribe, a sims-styled game which involved a shipwrecked tribe of survivors who much build and survive on a remote island.

The success of the first Professor Fizzwizzle game allowed Ryan and Matt to becomeIncredibots Start Screen full-time game developers, and with the addition of programmer Oliver Trujillo, the studio began working in earnest on more titles.

Incredibots is based on the Box2D Physics Engine, and allows players to create their own robots which can then be taken through challenges and levels where upgrades can be achieved. Players are also given the ability to “film” their robots and show off their achievements as Replays and machinima movies. Incredibots has spawned a very active and supportive user-base communityIncredibots Tank Levelcomplete with teams, contests and challenges.

With Incredibots being such an immersive and creative game, there is almost no limit to the number and types of robots and challenges which can be created by the players themselves. Incredibots spans the best of both game-play worlds – it is both fun to play and educational. Gamers can also choose to either play the free, ad-supported version of the game or become an Incredibot Supporter with either a cash donation or promotional efforts.

Village Gamer extends their congratulations to the Incredibots team on their nomination, and wishes them the best of luck on IGF Awards night.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Awards, Educational, Everyone, Game Dev. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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