Winner of “Most Elegant MeeGo* App” and $50,000 “Ancient Pond” by Ancient Workshop
Take a deep breath and relax with “Ancient Pond” by Ancient Workshop, a tranquil koi pond for MeeGo*. Create small ripples or giant splashes in the pond and watch the fish react. Let them nibble on your fingers or cause them to dart out of their school form. This multi-touch app was created by James Brown.
James is a future-forward developer who designs apps on an agnostic platform with a core engine and “wrapper” that enables platform variations. His goal is to react to technology that has yet to be created.
Winner of “Best App for Multiple Devices” and $50,000 “Local Recon” by Earthcomber LLC
Don’t fool around with your day’s agenda. With location-based “Local recon,” simply select a category (shopping, cuisine, night out, personal day, kids, etc.) and instantly see a spread of finely-matched locations suiting your desires. Not only does the app show you how far away you are from the location, it also provides ratings, hours, phone numbers and accepted forms of payments. This free Windows* and MeeGo* app will open your eyes to new activities and locations catered to your interests.
Developers Jim Brady and Romulo Santos develop for their audience’s desires. Together, the duo blazes trails in the mobile industry and delivers original concepts on early technology releases.
Winner of “Best App for Tablets” and $25,000 “Mong” by Thomas Perl
Bring pong to the next level with “Mong” by Thomas Perl. This multi-touch app showcases attention-to-detail graphics and accurate reaction to touch. “Mong” is an excellent app to play against yourself or break out with friends for a MeeGo* pong tournament.
Thomas is a student at the University of Technology in Vienna, Australia. He discovered MeeGo through the Maemo.org* community, where he works on Python-based projects like “gPodder” and Qt*-based games like “That Rabbit Game,” “qw The Game” and “Gaberln.” The MeeGo pong (“Mong”) project was started as a community project in collaboration with Cornelius Hald and Tim Samoff during MeeGo Conference 2011.
Winner of “Best App for Netbooks” and $25,000 “LEGO* Star Wars Space Runner” by The Game Agency
Build the spacecraft of your dreams with “LEGO Star Wars Space Runner.” This creative game allows the user to build their own spacecraft in preparation for battle against asteroids in space. Successful completion of each level allows the user to win more virtual LEGO* pieces to improve the design of their spacecraft.
Jason Polansky designed the app to be an intuitive game so users could quickly pick it up and play. Managing Partner Joseph McDonald seeks out emerging distribution platforms that enable more players to connect with The Game Agency*’s clients.
Winner of “Most Valuable Developer” and $10,000 Blue Innovations (formerly 5dollarapps)
We applaud George Christopher and Suresh Kumar of Blue Innovations, formerly 5dollarapps, for their consistent quality participation and contribution to the Intel AppUpSM developer challenge. Not only does this dynamic duo produce well-designed apps catered to the Intel AppUpSM center consumer, but they actively participate in conversations with fellow program developers by providing advice and support.
We congratulate the Intel AppUp developer challenge grand prize recipients and look forward to seeing new, innovative applications from them. Our hats go off to each contest winner. We applaud all developers who participated: thank you for your contributions and dedication.
Winner of $20,000 for “Best Custom App for France” category: “Lugdulo’V” by Corentin Chary
Find a bike rental location in your city and abroad using Lugdulo’V by Corentin Chary! Named after the first city in France to offer a bike rental service, Lyon (named Lugdunum during the Gallo-Roman era), Corentin’s bike rental app is a one-stop shop for tracking down available bikes. The app shows the user where bike rental shops are located, how many bikes are available at each location, provides a store-front image, and even shows how many bike return slots are open. The app also provides a list of locations by name and allows the user to create their own list of favorite locations for easy access.
Lugdulo’V appeals to users from both French cultural and world-wide perspectives. Our French judges find biking an essential travel method in France and are excited to have this app enable easy discovery of rental locations. French consumers can also use the app to find their preferred method of transportation while traveling outside of France: the app supports over 18 countries and 120 cities worldwide! For consumers who aren’t accustomed to bike renting, the app offers an excellent economical and environmentally-friendly transportation option.
Corentin is a French Software Engineer. He is a strong believer in FLOSS ideals and has contributed to multiple open source projects like Linux*, Qt and MeeGo*. During his free time, he writes free-speech mobile applications. Corentin is particularly excited about Lugdulo’V because he hopes it will contribute to the development of bicycle usage in urban environments. Corentin brought his work to Intel AppUp(SM) center as a way to contribute to the MeeGo* ecosystem.
Congratulations Corentin! We look forward to seeing new versions and additional apps from you!
Winner of $20,000 for “Best App for Play” category: “LEGO* Star Wars Space Runner” by The Game Agency
Blast off into space with LEGO* Star Wars Space Runner! Whether you’re a fan of Star Wars or simply enjoy a good game, this app is sure to thrill you. From its familiar Star Wars audio theme to its outer space appearance, LEGO Star Wars Space Runner will make you feel as though you’ve been transported out-of-this world!
In typical LEGO style, first build your spacecraft using traditional LEGO pieces. Select one of three base spacecrafts and then add additional pieces to individualize your craft for the level’s mission. Next, prepare for battle as you enter the dangers of space! Fire at and dodge asteroids and classic Star Wars enemies in order to stay alive and collect more LEGO blocks. At the end of each level, use your earned LEGO pieces to further build your spacecraft and prepare for the next level of combat in outer space! This game is easy to learn, full of challenges and a fun app for gamers of any level.
Joseph McDonald, a Managing Partner at The Game Agency*, oversees strategic planning and business partnerships. He brings 14 years of business development expertise with specific experience of leveraging new channels to distribute content and generate new revenue streams. Prior to founding The Game Agency*, Joseph held business development and licensing posts at Atari*, EMI Music* and Disney*. Joseph was particularly excited about bringing LEGO* Star Wars* Space Runner to the AppUp™ platform, saying “As technology continues to expand the consumer’s access to content, The Game Agency* is always looking for emerging distribution platforms that can connect our clients with players. Intel and the AppUp(SM) team have done an outstanding job creating a strong content platform to serve the Netbook consumer.”
Jason is a designer at The Game Agency*, where he is responsible for bringing games from concept to interactive experiences. He has designed promotional games to support marketing campaigns at A&E Networks*, Atari*, Electronic Arts*, LEGO*, Lucas Arts*, SEGA* and the U.S. Army*. Prior to joining The Game Agency*, Jason worked in the video game retail business for eight years. Jason holds a BA in Marketing from University of Buffalo. When not designing or playing video games, Jason plays on two hockey teams. Polansky said, “Space Runner was always intended to be a quick game for players to easily jump into and tailored for folks constantly on the move. The AppUp store was the perfect fit for the title as it communicates directly to the mobile gamer who doesn’t have the time to invest in a more traditional PC gaming affair.”
Congratulations Joseph and Jason! The Intel AppUp developer program wishes you continued success and can’t wait to see what you develop next!
Winner of $20,000 for “Best App to Stay in Sync” category: “Tasksbox – Manage Tasks on the Go” by 5dollarapps
Managing tasks over multiple machines in an easy, customizable application is now possible thanks to “Tasksbox – Manage Tasks on the Go,” an application by 5dollarapps. Tasksbox is a unique application that stores tasks in cloud services, allowing the user to access and edit tasks on multiple machines. During the user’s initial use, they set up a free account with Dropbox Cloud Service*. After doing this, the user can easily sync lists, through the app, on any machine by clicking the “sync” button. Future cloud service support includes Amazon Web Services*, SugarSync* and Tasksbox*. The apps attractive UI allows the user to customize the application’s appearance from 15 background settings. Category options for tasks include work, personal, shopping, occasion, finance and meeting. The user can easily access past completed tasks, as well as “favourite” tasks.
This is the second AppUp challenge win for 5dollarapps. The team consistently uses the Challenge categories as inspiration to push their apps to the next level. They usually take an application that they have in production and expand the functionality to fit the Challenge category, producing a well conceptualized, visually appealing and fully functional application that the end user will enjoy. We were impressed with Tasksbox’s use of a cloud service to sync tasks as their interpretation of the “Best App to Stay in Sync” category.
The developers, Suresh Kumar and George Christopher, are childhood buddies and cricket team mates, who share a vision to create apps that can make lives easier and processes simpler. They believe that time, money, information and relationships are the most important things in anybody’s life and hence write apps to simplify the management of those things. They design and develop apps which do not function as mere tools, but rather become an experience for the user to change the way they work, live or have fun. George and Suresh strongly believe that the support and encouragement provided by their families help them scale new heights in reaching their vision.
Having extensive experience with Adobe AIR*, they have developed many custom components which help them deliver apps quickly. The Tasksbox* app is the third winning app for 5dollarapps* in Intel AppUp developer program. 5dollarapps* consistently produces new, innovative features and functionalities into their apps and we are excited to see what they produce next!
Winner of $20,000 for “Best App to Stay Informed” category: “Blue Birds – a Magical Twitter Client” by 5dollarapps*
Tweeting on the go just became even more personal! With Blue Birds* –A Magical Twitter Client, by 5dollarapps*, the user can take advantage of classic Twitter* functions while expanding their usage with a new capability: Small World. Small World is an innovative creation that combines the power of Tweets and RSS feeds to give the user one landing page to stay informed.
The application brings the user to a main, personalized dashboard. From the dashboard, the user can select one of 16 categories: news, travel, food, sports, quotes, stocks, entertainment, etc. Once selecting a category, the user can then choose a source. News, for example, displays 16 sources including CNN*, CBS*, New York Times*, ABC News*, Associated Press*, and more. If the user wishes to bypass Small World features, they can utilize all basic Twitter functions, such as tweeting, mentions, timeline, messages, favourites and main profile. The application is available for Netbook running Microsoft Windows*.
The developers, Suresh Kumar and George Christopher, are childhood buddies and cricket team mates, who share a vision to create apps that can make lives easier and processes simpler. They believe that time, money, information and relationships are the most important things in anybody’s life and hence write apps to simplify the management of those things. They design and develop apps which do not function as mere tools, but rather become an experience for the user to change the way they work, live or have fun. George and Suresh strongly believe that the support and encouragement provided by their families help them scale new heights in reaching their vision.
Having extensive experience with Adobe Air*, they have developed many custom components which help them deliver apps quickly. The Blue Bird* app is the second winning app for 5dollarapps* in Intel AppUp developer program. We are excited to see what new, innovative features and functionality they implement into their next app!
Winner of $20,000 for “Best Communication Application” category: “Local Recon” by Earthcomber LLC
Deciding what to do and where to go just became a whole lot easier! From dining and shopping to parks, landmarks, local businesses and children’s attractions, Local Recon, the winning application from Earthcomber LLC*, not only shows you what’s available in your area, but also breaks down distance to every nearby destination.
This intuitive application provides the user with a different view for each potential need. If the user indicates they are in work mode, the application shows nearby hotels and express mailing locations. If the user is in search of nearby attractions to entertain their kids, the application displays eateries, child-friendly activity locations and curiosity hotspots. Local Recon takes personalizing the area around you one step further by allowing you to toss out results and refine your interests. Whether you’re new to an area or a native seeking to discover new locations, Local Recon will cater the results to your preferences.
The development duo for Local Recon* likes to be on the spearhead of ever expanding mobile technology. Jim Brady, President and Innovation Chief at Earthcomber LLC*, uses an entrepreneurial approach of advocating for the desires of the audience, as he did when he was the Executive Producer for Oprah.com*. Earthcomber’s Chief of Technology, Romulo Vitor Mastrangelo Amardo dos Santos (you can call him “Homey”), has been blazing trails in mobile technology since he graduated from Sao Brazil’s prestigious UniSEB COC – Centro Universitário.
Together, they have worked closely with Intel and other technology powerhouses to deliver original concepts on early technology releases. They did just that within their Local Recon application, which brings to life the concept of a handy simple-to-use local search tool, tunable to explicit needs and interests. Eathcomber* also designed Earthcomber USA*, a split-screen navigation application, and is working on a few more concepts for apps for Intel AppUp. Earthcomber’s office is in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, USA.
Winner of $60,000 USD for Most Innovative Application Category: “Comics Creator” by P R Rajenderan.
Creating a comic story, a cartoon strip or a photo journal can never get this simpler and easier. Comics Creator allows you to do them all and much more- even if you are not an artist! With this easy-to-use application, you can create your own comics/photo journals, and share them with the world. If you are an artist, you can upload your sketches, doodles, etc., right away. ‘Comics Creator’ has a large library of backgrounds, characters in various emotive states and in different styles of illustrations, dialog bubbles, etc. So, you will never have the compulsion to use the same thing twice, unless you choose to. The app allows you to save the comics on your PC in an image format which allows you to share them with your friends, and upload in social networking sites, blogs, etc. Whether you want to express yourself creatively, let your business presentation stand out, or create a memorable photo journal, the possibilities with this app are many.
The developer, Mr. P R Rajendran, started his career in an advertising agency as a copy writer where after a few years moved on to editing and directing corporate videos. Over time, Mr. Rajendran became a 3D animator and software programmer and became fascinated with the digital media space. In 1995, he founded Nextwave Multimedia*, multimedia production house. Nextwave Multimedia* has produced over 500 episodes of television programming for national and regional television channels. About 1000 web and mobile games and over 1000 corporate videos, multimedia presentations and internet projects.
Winner of $60,000 USD for People’s Choice Award: “Alchemy Classic” by Artyom Sherstobitov, Ilya Grachev, and Nickolay Cholakov
This award was based on the highest number of application downloads and high ratings on the Intel AppUp center among the challenge entry submissions.
Alchemy Classic* is a simple interesting and absorbing brain teaser game. The aim of this game is to create all 188 elements, by mixing the ones you already have. You start off with Air, Water, Fire and Earth and mix them to get new elements. For example, combining air and fire makes lightening; water and earth make swamp; and lightening and swamp make amino acids.
By discovering new elements, you will pass along the path of evolution from bacteria to mammals. The concept is based on an interesting idea of combining elements to obtain new elements.The process of new element discovery is highly addictive.
The developers – a team of three entrepreneurs who have known each other for more than ten years. Artyom Sherstobitov is a design engineer who specializes in creating online stores and other web-solutions of various difficulty. Ilya Grachev is a design engineer who works for an English-Russian company that provides development and implementation of solutions for comprehensive automation. And Nickolay develops apps for mobile platforms and conducted the research around the sphere of simulation for Alchemy Classic*. They like to spend their spare time being active playing football, skiing, ice skating, and swimming. And just recently, they tested their adventurous side and jumped with a parachute. They would like to thank all users for the positive comments and huge number of downloads that helped their game become a prize winner!
Winner of $15,000 USD for Home Innovation Project: A Custom App for Dixons Category: “Dixons Delight – Home of Happiness” by George Christopher and Suresh Kumar of 5$Apps.
The “Home Innovation Project ” – Custom App for Dixons challenge was a new category to the worldwide Intel AppUp developer challenge competition designed to develop the best application for netbooks that encourages users to creatively interact with the DSG Retail Limited(Dixons) product catalog in an interior design or home décor context.
Dixons Delight – Home of Happiness is an app that creates a unique shopping experience right at your netbook & desktop. In a home like environment, you can not only view the details of all the products available on Dixons website, but you can also choose to buy the product, view more details, add to favorites, check if the product is available, and see alternate images and product videos. The developer team the balanced feature-set and delivery constraints perfectly during this competition, indicating they are really on top of their development planning.
The developers, Suresh Kumar and George Christopher, are childhood buddies and cricket team mates, who share a vision to create apps that can make lives easier and processes simpler. They believe that time, money, information and relationships are the most important things in anybody’s life and hence write apps to simplify the management of those things. They design and develop apps which do not function as mere tools, but rather become an experience for the user to change the way they work, live or have fun.
Suresh currently lives in Delhi, India with his wife Archana and daughter Sarwina. George lives in Chennai, India with his wife Sarah. Both of them strongly believe that the support and encouragement provided by their families help them scale new heights in reaching their vision.
Winners of $8,000 USD – Runners up of the Home Innovation Project: A Custom App for Dixons Category:
David Bello is a Colombian software engineer who currently works for the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota. He has several years of experience in software design and development of desktop, web and mobile applications using .NET, Objective-C, Javascript/JQuery and C/C++.
Dmitry Ryzhkov was born in Uzbekistan and when growing up always asked the question, “How does it work?”. He took apart old irons, TV sets and alarm clocks in search of an answer to his question. When he first came across a computer, the same question arose again. He continued to satisfy his curiosity by taking apart computers to learn how they work from the inside out. Starting with the simple Basic, Dmitry went on to study Assembler, Foxpro, Pascal, Java, CC++. Through tremendous aspiration and persistence, Dmitry’s hobby became his profession. Today Dmitry works as a leading software engineer in a telecommunications company and writes software for the needs of the company and its clients. In his leisure time, he enjoys spending time with his children and writing programs.
Mahendra started his career writing books on game technology when he was an engineering student a decade ago. He decided to setup his own company to work on each and every aspect of games development. He worked on local and outsourced PC/console gaming projects, and developed an advanced 3d game engine. Last year his team started developing independent games; where all their six games became finalists in Intel LevelUp 2010 competition. Award winning games from this team includes “Journey To The Poles” and “Balloon Alien”.
Chris attended the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, AZ, USA for a B.S. in Software Engineering majoring in Artificial Life Programming and has been active in his field since 2007. He’s currently kept very busy at a national hospice pharmacy provider as an ASP.NET/C# Developer and SQL Server* Reporting Analyst. He’s also actively working on independent projects involving the medical and educational sectors.
Juan Pablo Montoya and Sebastian Echeverry, from Medellin, Colombia, are experts in software engineering and work mainly with 3D applications. Jaime Andres Basadilla Zegpi from Bulnes City, Chile is the CEO of Modulo Soporte*, which is dedicated to provide comprehensive computer support to small and medium industries, simulations and multimedia creation.
Winner of $15,000 USD for “Best Media Magnate” category: “Cogs GO” by Rob Jagnow
Puzzle fans aren’t getting their fair share. In the world of modern computer hardware, even the most basic netbook has surprisingly powerful 3D graphic capabilities. But for the most part, puzzle fans are mostly stuck with flat, cartoony match-three games that have hardly changed in a decade. Puzzlers deserve better.
This award-winning puzzle game brings players three-dimensional realism, attention to detail and quality puzzles that raise the bar for the entire genre. There are more than 50 puzzles with an astonishing variety. There are flying contraptions, music machines, roving tanks, jack-in-the-boxes and more than enough other imaginative inventions that gameplay never feels repetitive.
Cogs GO* is a real treat for active minds — a game that’s as beautiful as it is challenging. And now is available on your netbook!
The developer, Rob Jagnow, is the founder of Lazy 8 Studios* and the sole programmer and puzzle designer for Cogs. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT and draws from his previous work experiences at Pixar* and Demiurge Studios*. He works out of his home office in San Francisco, CA. The other Cogs team members are Brendan Mauro, who did all of the artwork, and Luke Gilbert, who put together all of the audio effects and composed original music for the game.
Winner of $15,000 USD for “Best App to Replace Pen and Paper” category: “Leah’s Farm Paint and Play” by Fraser Hay
Save paper and ink with this electronic coloring book! Leah’s Farm Paint and Play is an application that gives your child free reign to color 23 farm pictures. Each farm animal or object such as a cow, donkey, horse, and tractor is read aloud. Your child also will hear the name of each of the eleven colors such as red, blue, green, yellow whenever it is chosen. Coloring pages are automatically saved to My Pictures creating a gallery of your child’s masterpieces.
The app also features ten farm jigsaw puzzles to solve. There are six piece and twelve piece puzzles. When the puzzle is complete, the farm animal or object is read aloud and your child will hear the noise it makes too! Leah’s Farm Play* uses professional voice over to speak the names of the farm pictures and colors to reinforce learning.
The developer, Fraser Hay, works fulltime as an elearning developer and in his spare time develops fun apps for children. With his experience in elearning, he has gained skills with Adobe Director* and Flash*. He uses both programs to develop apps for the Intel AppUp Center, thanks to the BaKno AppAble wrapper!
Fraser was inspired to begin developing children’s software by his then three year old daughter Leah. His first game was the Leah’s Farm Coloring Book* for the PC. He wanted to develop an improved version of this program so he began working on Leah’s Farm Paint and Play*. Leah is now six and his son Thomas is three. They love to play with Fraser’s apps and give him lots of feedback and ideas. Fraser shared that his daughter is delighted to star in an award winning app!
Winner of $15,000 USD for “Best Life Improvement App” prize category: “Unit Converter” by Sachin Palewar
Whether you need a conversion for length, weight, area, pressure, temperature, energy, bytes, time, volume speed, angle or power – this simple application allows conversion at your finger tips! Unit Converter supports a total of 142 units across 12 categories and is presented in a unique elliptical user interface that simplifies selection. This application is truly helpful and useful for both everyday activities and specific occasions.
The developer, Sachin, is founder of Palewar Techno Solutions* (PTS), based out of Nagpur, India. He started his career in 1999 as an attendant at a Cyber Cafe. He did not receive a salary – his motivation – free access to the Internet (which was very expensive back then). He later joined a local company as a Web-Site Admin for a City Web Portal. After leaving this position he continued freelancing and in 2004 founded Palewar Techno Solutions with close friends focusing on mobile software solutions.
Sachin’s favorite saying is – “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” by Leonardo Da Vinci and believes that Software can only succeed, if it appears simple and focuses on end-user ease of use. Sachin is supported by a motivated team which includes Neera, Kavita, Aditi and Karthik.
Winner of $15,000 USD for best “Make Me Smarter App” prize category: “Math Magic” by Senthil Pandurangan
Your child can get a big jump on learning arithmetic while loving every second of that education.. Math Magic* uses vibrant colors, simple interfaces and a fun reward system to teach kids between the ages of 3 and 8. It’s easy to use. Simple objective-type questions make the interface intuitive.. Audio responses motivate and encourage right answers. Five successful answers results in a colored star as a reward.
Math Magic* lets you adjust the levels to customize them for your child. Set the maximum numbers to 5, 10 or 20. You can also set the timer to see how many problems can be solved within a specific time frame. Kids love the Math Magic app because it’s fun. Parents love it because it helps their child get a good start in math and provides constructive use of time during car trips or waiting for food or an appointment.
The developer, Senthil has been developing cool educational apps for kids as a hobby and during weekends while in his day job, he is a software engineer/architect. He loves spending time with his 6 year old daughter and gets inspirations and ideas from her for the applications. His educational apps are very popular in the education category in iTunes and is now available in the Intel AppUp Center!
Phase 2: Grand Prize Winners & People’s Choice Award
The phase 2 results of the Intel AppUp(SM) Developer Challenge are now official. Two grand prize winners were chosen from 224 entries from 18 countries.
The winner of the “Most Innovative Application” is “Goals”, by Rick Vanner of The Game Creators.
The winner of the “Most Elegant Application” is “Ancient Frog” by James Brown of Ancient Workshop.
The People’s Choice Award goes to “My Little Artist” by Dmitry Ryzhkov.
Winner of $50,000 USD for “Most Elegant Application” category: “Ancient Frog” by James Brown
Ancient Frog* is a tranquil puzzle game played across a range of lusciously rendered habitats. Guide your frogs through a series of increasingly fiendish puzzles in a quest for tasty flies.
Ancient Frog is as much about soothing the spirit as it is about exercising the brain. There is no time limit. You can spend as long as you like stretching, pulling and guiding your frog – the sounds of the rainforest and the gentle dance of light and shadow will be your companions.
The developer, James, started writing computer games at the age of 10, and notched up ten years in the games industry including stints at Criterion Games*, Lionhead* and Microsoft*. He’s written games for digital watches, mobile phones, consoles and PCs, as well as standalone digital interactives for museums and public spaces. He set up Ancient Workshop* in 2008 after moving to New Zealand, on the grounds that if you’re going to be making living selling virtual goods to a global audience you might just as well do it somewhere beautiful.
Ancient Frog* is the first game released by Ancient Workshop*.
Winner of a $50,000 for “Most Innovative Application” category & $10,000 USD for “Best of Games” category: “Goals” by Rick Vanner of The Game Creators
Even though the 2010 World Cup* has come to an end, you can continue to play out your football fantasies with this action soccer game on your netbook! With a combination of fast game play, scrolling screen action and wicked curving shots on goal, this is the app for all soccer loving fans.
Goals is a great way to spend some time and enjoy the beautiful game. Featuring a tournament mode, team editing, five difficulty levels and speed settings it has something for every soccer fan. It is well designed for a Netbook, with simple, very reactive controls and provides options for keyboard or trackpad inputs.
Richard Vanner is associated with The Game Creators*, an organization that provides easy to use game making tools for hobbyist and Indie developers. Flagship titles include Dark Basic Professional*, Dark GDK, First Person Shooter Creator* and The 3D Game Maker*. Two of these technologies are ideal tools for rapidly developing AppUp games – the free version of DarkGDK* and the free version of Dark Basic Professional* – both great ways to make the game making process as painless as possible. Thousands of users have developed games with The Game Creators’ tools and take advantage of their thriving online community that is willing to help and advise all newcomers.
Winner of a $20,000 for “People’s Choice Award” category & $10,000 USD for “Best of Home & Lifestyle” category: “My Little Artist” by Dmitry Ryzhkov
“My Little Artist” is a free drawing program for kids. It combines an easy-to-use interface (optimized for netbooks) and amazing drawing tools to help a child to be creative.
The developer of “My Little Artist”, Dmitry Ryzhkov, was born in Uzbekistan in 1976. He was a very curious child – always asking the question, “How does it work?”. He took apart old irons, TV sets and alarm clocks in search of an answer to his question. When he first came across a computer, the same question arose again. He continued to satisfy his curiosity by taking apart computers to learn how they work from the inside out. Starting with the simple Basic, Dmitry went on to study Assembler, Foxpro, Pascal, Java, CC++. Through tremendous aspiration and persistence, Dmitry’s hobby became his profession. Today Dmitry works as a leading software engineer in a telecommunications company and writes software for the needs of the company and its clients. In his leisure time, he enjoys spending time with his children and writing programs.
Winner of $10,000 USD for “Best of Entertainment” category: “Snapact Photo Manager” by Tecagora Solutions Inc.
Are you looking for a simple solution that ties social networking and photo sharing? Viewing, organizing, & sharing your digital photos with friends and family couldn’t be any easier with Snapact Photo Manager.
Snapact* is a free application that allows you to easily view, edit, organize & share your digital photos within a social networking environment. Snapact’s photo referencing technology lets you to add a single photo to multiple Snapact albums, without having to copy and paste the photo into each album and use more hard drive space. This makes it a compelling application for a netbook. Snapact Photo Manager is a perfect tool for mobile photo enthusiasts!
The developer of “Snapact Photo Manager” is Tecagora Solutions Inc.*, a software development company located on the west coast of Canada in Victoria, British Columbia. Established in 2006, Tecagora was created to develop, market, and deliver leading edge technologies with the vision of revolutionizing the world of photo sharing and social networking. Tecagora’s mission is to understand the needs of its photo sharing and social networking customers, currently from 140 counties around the world, and to offer innovative software solutions to meet those needs. The founders of Tecagora have extensive knowledge and experience in the areas of digital imaging, PC security, optimization, and utility software development, and continue to strive to design and create the “next best software application” for today’s ever-changing digital marketplace.
Winner of $10,000 USD for “Best of Education & Reference application” category: “Country Connect!” by Jordan Magnuson
Ever wanted to travel to Egypt or Turkey, France or Ireland, Korea or Nepal? You will after playing this game. And you’ll be able to find your way there too!
Country Connect! is an exciting world travel game that is both fun and highly educational. Players swap cards to make connecting journeys across the globe utilizing various models of transportation, including planes, ships, and cars. As they play, players gain an accurate awareness of individual country (and State) attributes (such as shape, size, location, borders), and the spacial and geographic relationships between countries.
Different play modes let players engage in frantic trip creation, or well-planned journeys. Combined with multiple difficulty levels and a full high score system, replay value is nearly unlimited. After some time playing Country Connect! players will be able to instantly recognize the shapes and locations of countless countries, and be able to point them out on a map in a split-second. This application is an addictive puzzler that makes learning Geography fun and interactive for kids and adults.
The developer, Jordan Magnuson is a wandering independent game creator and critic, who believes strongly in the potential of the interactive medium to change and influence people. He is the founder and editor in chief of NecessaryGames.com, and the original founder of TIGSource.com. Currently he lives in South Korea with his gorgeous wife where he makes, plays, and writes about computer games and notgames. When he isn’t doing one of the above he enjoys reading a good book, exploring the outdoors, philosophizing about life, and, you guessed it – traveling to another country!
Phase 1: Grand Prize Winners
The phase 1 results of the Intel® AppUp(SM) Developer Challenge are now official. Two grand prize winners were chosen from 179 entries from 15 countries. The winner of the “Most Innovative Application” is an entertainment app called GURU by Angus Hewlett. One is able to slice, dice, remix and create with GURU, your all-knowing drum machine. The winner of “Most Elegant Application Design” is a game app called Smiles by Michael Kasprzak. Smiles is two great games in one (DROP and ZEN) created for players of all skill levels. Both of these applications are available for download on the Intel AppUpSMCenter. These two developers won an all-expense-paid, VIP treatment trip to the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California. Read on to find out more about these winning entries and the legendary developers behind them.
Congratulations as well to the tricked-out netbook winners for being one of the first 100 apps submitted and validated.
Winner of “Most Innovative Application”: GURU by Angus Hewlett, FXPansion* Audio UK, Ltd.
When he was a kid, Angus wanted to be one of two things – an inventor, or a composer. So it’s perhaps not surprising that he ended up starting a music software company. In 1999, he founded FXpansion, and in a little over a decade it’s grown from a one-man shareware operation to a 20-person company with headquarters at London Bridge and offices on three continents.
FXpansion developed GURU in conjunction with French software developer Devine Machine and music producer / engineer Steve Duda. A cult hit on the audio software scene since 2005, it has evolved in to an essential tool for a growing number of pro producers, DJs & hobbyists, and spawned a raft of imitators.
When he’s not writing code or helping to run the company, Angus enjoys road cycling, noodling around with modular synthesizers, and spending time with his family.
Winner of “Most Elegant Application Design”: Smiles by Michael Kasprzak, Sykhronics Entertainment
Michael Kasprzak is a game industry veteran with more than a decade of experience. He’s worked on numerous titles for a number of platforms including Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation, Mobile, and iPhone. Mike was also a contributing author to the book “iPhone Games Projects”, and used to write for independent games website Game Tunnel.
Since 2005, Mike has owned and operated Sykhronics Entertainment , a small independent game studio in London, Ontario, Canada. Games by Sykhronics Entertainment have been highly regarded by the press, and have been finalists in the Slamdance Games Festival and the Independent Games Festival.
Mike is part of the team that runs Ludum Dare, a tri-annual accelerated game prototyping event and community. Given a theme, developers from around the world create a game in 48 hours. In 2009 alone, members of Ludum Dare community created more than 400 games.
Source Intel AppUp Developer Program
