As part of the Independent Games Festival (IGF), ten finalists will be selected to compete to win the top honor to develop a Cartoon Network Power Play downloadable game to be featured on CartoonNetwork.com. One of the ten finalists will be selected by Cartoon Network to be the winner of 'Project Goldmaster.'
"We know there is a great deal of talent and creativity in the independent gaming community, and 'Project Goldmaster' will be a significant opportunity for an up-and-coming developer," said Paul Condolora, VP/General Manager for Cartoon Network New Media. "Cartoon Network has always been focused on attracting new talent, first for our animated series and now to develop interactive games based on our successful series. We know our audience loves games as much as we do -- last year CartoonNetwork.com had 1.6 billion game plays -- so we're looking for a company that is as passionate about gaming as our audience is. We had a great experience developing a game with Flashbang Studios last year for AdultSwim.com and look forward to working with this year's winner on creating a new and exciting game for CartoonNetwork.com."
Formed two years ago, Flashbang Studios released their first game, Beesly's Buzzwords, in November 2003. The game earned the young studio a nomination as a finalist in the 2004 Independent Games Festival. As winner of the 2004 Project Goldmaster competition, Flashbang Studios developed a Cartoon Network Power Play game featuring the Adult Swim series Sealab 2021. The game, Sealab 2021: Sweet Mayhem, launched on AdultSwim.com in November 2004. Flashbang Studios currently has three original titles in development. The first of these, Glorm, will launch in mid-March, followed by two other games planned for release by Summer 2005.
In its seventh year, the Independent Games Festival received more than 78 original entries representing 11 countries in two different categories. A panel of 36 narrowed down the field to 20 of the most innovative independent game developers worldwide. Finalist games can be viewed at www.igf.com. The winner will be announced during the Game Developers Conference, the most important professional development event for the game industry, held March 7-11 in San Francisco.