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By Sam, September 6, 2009 12:44 am

The XNA Team has announced the winners of this year’s Dream Build PLay competition.

Dean Dodrill of the United States earned the grand prize of $40,000 for “Dust: An Elysian Tail” a side-scrolling, action role-playing game in which the player controls Dust, a man searching for himself. Set in the beautiful yet mysterious world of Falana, this game chronicles Dust’s journey to liberate an oppressed village and rediscover his past. Meticulously hand-animated and painted, “Dust: An Elysian Tail” welcomes exploration, action, and above all else, mastery of a fighting system that rewards skilled gamers.

Panya Inversin and his team from the United States took home second place and $20,000 for their stunning 3-D, four-player brawler/space-shooter, “Max Blastronaut”.

Nivel21 Entertainment, led by Mauricio Garcia from Spain, received third place and $10,000 for the challenging puzzle game “Rotor’scope – The Secret of the Endless Energy”.

China’s Hu Ling and his team came in fourth place and received $5,000 for the stylish martial arts action game “HurricaneX2 Evolution”.

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By Sam, September 4, 2009 7:44 am

The XNA team recently announced the finalists for this year’s Dream Build Play contest.

They are:

Dust: An Elysian Tail

Hurricane 2X Evolution

Kaleidoscope – Developer Interview

Max Blastronaut

Rotorscope: The Secret of the Endless Energy

Sol Survivor – More Info

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By Sam, August 11, 2009 12:47 pm

JForce: UNSTOPPABLE – Shooter – More Info

Yes it’s another twin stick shooter but this one looks rather good and a lot more than just another Geometry Wars clone.

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By Sam, August 10, 2009 9:28 am

Tribes of Mexica – Puzzle

This circular match three puzzle game looks quite fun.

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By Sam, August 10, 2009 4:07 am

Earlier today I posted the debut trailer for Hollandia, a 2D action adventure game that has been entered in this years Dream Build Play competition.

Now I have been fortunate enough to interview the character designer for the game, Marth Jonkers, and find out more about the game, it’s art and it’s influences. Continue reading 'Developer Interview: Marthe Jonkers (Hollandia)'»

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By Sam, August 10, 2009 12:11 am

Hollandia – Action & Adventure

Brilliant 2D art and animation. Let’s hope the gameplay can match the fantastic visual style.

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By Sam, August 9, 2009 3:34 am

I’ll be covering a ton of Dream Build Play 2009 entries over the next few days, if I haven’t yet featured your entry and you’d like me to, please contact me.

Kickers – Sports

Tihis football game takes some inspiration from Mario Strikers. It also allows you to play as your avatar. With 3 vs. 3 online play promised this could be a great game.

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By Sam, August 9, 2009 2:10 am

I’ll be covering a ton of Dream Build Play 2009 entries over the next few days, if I haven’t yet featured your entry and you’d like me to, please contact me.

Battle Beat – Strategy-Rhythm Hybrid – More Info

This Strategy-Rhythm hybrid game comes from the developer of Tank Strike (which recently was reduced to 80 points). I really like the artstyle and the gameplay looks interesting.

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By Sam, August 8, 2009 8:01 am

Magnetic Mind – Platformer – More Info

This stunning looking platformer seems to be inspired by LittleBigPlanet. The physics are also really impressive. This has a real chance of winning this year’s Dream Build Play and going to XBLA.

Edit: For those coming from N4G this is an Indie Game coming from a small development team. Microsoft has nothing to do with it.

Edit 2: You can now read an interview I did with Oliver Schulze, the project lead on Magnetic Mind here.

Description from the official site:

What is it?

Magnetic Mind is a game created with Microsofts’ XNA Game Studio.

The Story:

In Magnetic Mind you play a little guy, that finds itself in a real world, where everything is huge. The guy (player) doesn´t  know what  happened, because he lost his whole memory of the last days. The player controls the guy through this world and has to find out, what has happened to him.

Game Mechanic:

The guy is controlled by the player and can be moved 3-Dimensional in all directions (left, right, back, front). He can also Jump and Climb up walls. There are also chains/ropes, where the guy can swing. The guy has also a ring on its finger, with that he can control large Objects. It is an anti-gravitation ring that helps to lift up larger objects and to carry them evrywhere. There is also a possibility to control vehicles, like a skateboard. With all of this possibilities the guy has to find his way through the levels, that consists of many physically traps.

The Levels:

At the moment we are working on two levels: The Garden and The Kitchen. There are many other levels in plan: The Bath, The Basement, The Living Room, ….
The aim is, to make them visually as photo-realistic as possible…. and at the moment, it looks really good!

Release:

We plan to release this game as a XBox-Live Community Game. The release date is still unknown, some day in 2010…  But we try to get some levels finished for the Dream Build Play Competition in August, 2009

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By Sam, August 7, 2009 10:53 pm

I’ll be covering a ton of Dream Build Play 2009 entries over the next few days, if I haven’t yet featured your entry and you’d like me to, please contact me.

Cloudberry Kingdom – Hardcore 2D Platformer

This 2D platformer is obviously inspired by those crazy, almost impossible Japanese Mario levels. In looks great and brings some new ideas as well.