Guildhall team's game in the finals of the Indie Game Challenge

A team from The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University is among the 12 finalist in this year’s Indie Game Challenge (IGC), making them eligible for awards and prizes worth more than $130,000.

DALLAS (SMU) — A team from The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University is among the 12 finalist in this year’s Indie Game Challenge (IGC), making them eligible for awards and prizes worth more than $130,000.

TEAM HERMES

  Screen shot of Inertia by Guildhall team
John Bevis of the Guildhall at SMU
John Bevis		  Waylon Fong of the Guildhall at SMU
Waylon Fong
Michelle Hayden of the Guildhall at SMU
Michelle Hayden		 Evan Skarin of the Guildhall at SMU
Evan Skarin
 William Swannack of the Guildhall at SMU
William Swannack		  Brandon Stephens of the Guildhall at SMU
Brandon Stephens
Christopher McCrimmons of the Guildhall at SMU
Christopher McCrimmons		 Erasmo Simo of the Guildhall at SMU
Erasmo Simo
Winners will be announced February 11 at the Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain (D.I.C.E.) Summit at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, Nev.

SMU's eight-member team, who call themselves "Team Hermes," include

  • Evan Skarin - Team Lead, Level Design, and Art
  • John Bevis - Level Design and Music
  • Waylon Fong - Level Design and Programming
  • Michelle Hayden - Art Lead
  • William Swannack - Programming Lead
  • Brandon Stephens - Executive Producer and Level Designer
  • Christopher McCrimmons - Producer and Level Designer
  • Erasmo Simo - Level Design and Programming

They graduated in December 2010 from Guildhall, SMU’s nationally recognized, graduate level educational video game development program.

Team Hermes' entry, named Inertia, was also recently published and is available for purchase on Xbox Live Arcade.  Inertia is an arcade game in which an astronaut tries to escape a space station on the verge of collapse. It was named Best of the Indies 2010.

IGC is an annual competition for video game developers offering more than $350,000 in prizes for professional and non-professional categories.  Prizes include cash awards, scholarships, national consumer exposure for the top games and an opportunity for the finalists to obtain professional feedback and seek commercial avenues for their games through face-to-face meetings with representatives from the leading video game publishers.

Founded by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, GameStop Corp. and The Guildhall at SMU, the IGC was created to foster game development innovation by independent developers.

The IGC finalists , which includes six non-professional and six professional teams, are eligible for more than $350,000 in prize monies and scholarships.  The 12 finalists include:

Non-Professional Category (Team/game)

  • Team Hermes - Inertia
  • Hazard - Hazard: The Journey of Life
  • One Man Down  - Solace
  • Team Height Advantage - Subsonic
  •  Toxic Games - Q.U.B.E.
  • ZZZ Games - Symon

Professional Category (Team/game)

  • Bad Pilcrow - Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix And Her Nightmare
  • Nemesys Games - Fortix 2
  • Playdead - LIMBO
  • Pocketwatch Games - Monaco
  • Spaces of Play - Spirits
  • SpikySnail Games - Confetti Carnival

Hosting the IGC awards ceremony is Adam Sessler, Editor-in-Chief of Game Content for the G4 Network and Host of G4’s “X-Play”; additionally, this year exclusive online content of the Indie Game Challenge will be hosted on G4tv.com/DICE.

“Hosting the IGC awards in 2010 was nothing short of an honor,” said Adam Sessler, Editor-in-Chief of Game Content for the G4 Network and Host of G4’s “X-Play.”  “And having seen the finalists for 2011 I must say it is equally humbling to celebrate the imagination, innovation and dedication of this year’s young developers.”

About the Indie Game Challenge

The Indie Game Challenge (IGC) is an annual competition for video game developers offering more than $350,000 in prizes for professional and non-professional categories.  Founded by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, GameStop Corp. and The Guildhall at SMU, the IGC was created to foster game development innovation by independent developers.  Prizes include cash awards, scholarships, national consumer exposure for the top games and an opportunity for the finalists to obtain professional feedback and seek commercial avenues for their games through face-to-face meetings with representatives from the leading video game publishers. 

For more information on the IGC visit www.indiegamechallenge.com, www.interactive.org, www.gamestop.com or http://guildhall.smu.edu.

About The Guildhall at SMU

The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University is the premier graduate video game education program in the US. Many of the school’s founders are industry icons, and classes are run by industry veterans. Since 2005, the program has graduated over 385 students and alumni are working at more than 120 video game studios around the world. Our program offers a Master’s degree in Interactive Technology and a graduate Professional Certificate.

For more information, visit The Guildhall website or download the informational brochure (.pdf)

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