Let It Grow scoops Mobile Game Pitching Day prize
Tom Dowding wins EA Mobile / Channel 4's competition
Congratulations to 25-year-old Bristolian Tom Dowding, who won a mobile game pitching competition organised by EA Mobile and Channel 4 with his Let It Grow game idea.
He wins £2,500 and a work placement at EA Mobile, and although the prize didn't include any promise that his title will actually be published, we think it's innovative enough to deserve a chance.
The game makes use of your phone's camera, offering "nurturing, creativity and self expression", according to the press release. "Starting from a humble basic plant, you must guide and evolve your flower throughout its lifetime and turn it into a thing of beauty to share with your friends." Aww.
Here's hoping it turns into a commercial game.
Equally interesting were the beaten finalists, many of whom focused on using the camera, connectivity and location-based aspects of mobile.
For example, Monstars lets you fill a virtual world with monsters with your and your friends' faces by using the camera. Who's Turf claimed to be 'street-gaming meets turf wars meets social networking', while Colour Hunter challenges two players to meet and take photos of specific colours and objects.
Property Millionaire, meanwhile, has players buying and selling virtual properties in their real-world location, using GPS. Kung Fone is a first-person-view beat-'em-up with multiplayer Bluetooth battles, and Photo Gallery Tycoon enables you to create a virtual gallery of your camphone snaps, and earn virtual currency from fellow players.
We want to play all of these games right now, which is a testament to the creativity shown by entrants to the competition.
EA Mobile's European marketing director, Tim Harrison, agrees: "We were impressed by the high quality of all the ideas, the professionalism of the pitches and the commitment of the budding designers."
Unaccountably, there was no place in the final for our original suggestion of Sexy GPS Camera Bonobo Bowling Online, but don't let that stop you making us an offer, publishers.
