The finalists from XNA’s Dream-Build-Play contest are featuring their games at PAX this weekend. Dream-Build-Play is a competition for independent game developers to create games for the Xbox 360 using the XNA Game Studio software. This year there were 350 entries from more than 100 countries. First place wins $40,000 while second place gets $20,000. Third and fourth place receive $10,000 and $5,000, respectively. All finalists have the opportunity to distribute their games on the Xbox LIVE indie games channel.

I got to view a few of the finalists’ games at PAX, including a few that were not in the Top 6.  The Top 6 that I saw were Max Blastronaut, Dust: An Elysian Tail, and Rotorscope. Max Blastronaut is a top-down space shooter game, while Dust is a 2D fantasy themed sidescroller. Rotorscope is a puzzle game, which is interesting in that you can submit your scores and solutions to Facebook. One fun-looking indie game in particular is Bomberman-inspired Hot Potato, which developer Thiery Adam described as “dodgeball with grenades”. Adam explained that all proceeds from Hot Potato go toward the charity Child’s Play.

To find more information about the Dream-Build-Play competition or XNA, check out their website.

2 Responses to “PAX 2009: Dream-Build-Play Contest Finalists”

1. Matthew Doucette says:

   September 6, 2009 at 9:42 pm

   2nd place gets $20,000…
2. Toni Schwartz says:

   September 7, 2009 at 4:27 pm

   Sorry about that. It’s been fixed.