Critter Crunch storms IGF mobile game awards

The IGF Awards have just been given out at GDC Mobile, spotlighting the work of independent mobile game developers. More than $20,000 in prize money is given away across six categories. Read on for all the details.

The overall Best Game award was worth a whopping $10,000, and saw all the individual category winners go head to head. The winner: Critter Crunch, developed by Capybara Games (it was published by Disney Mobile here in Europe).

We've been big fans of the game ever since we reviewed it, so it's great to see it getting gongs as well as critical acclaim. It also picked up the Audio Achievement award.

The Technical Achievement award went to Steam Iron: The Fallen by Mikoishi, a game that we've had our eye on ever since it was announced last year. Hopefully the award will spur some publisher to take a punt on releasing it in Europe.

The Achievement in Art award went to Kodo by Jadestone, which the company's Tommy Palm said was a reaction to the complexity of some mobile games.

The Innovation in Augmented Design award was given for the first time at the IGF Awards this year, and aims to recognise developers working with the unique aspects of mobile phones – GPS, motion-sensing, that kind of thing.

Anyway, the winner was PhoneTag Elite by Knowledgewhere, which was described as a "location-tagging community sport", and claims to let you "play tag with your friends all over the world". We've not heard of it before, but it sounds truly intriguing, so we're going to chase up more information.

The Innovation in Mobile Game Design award went to Punch Entertainment's EGO, which we've written about fairly recently alongside our glowing review of the same company's Mobile Battles: Reign of Swords. They're going to spend the cash on a new office pool table, apparently. Respect.

Congratulations to all the winners!