Game-Within-Game Competition Winners Announced

Online world/game Second Life yesterday announced winners of an in-game game development contest where players spent three months developing and deploying a novel game-within-a-game. Game designer Harvey Smith, formerly of Ion Storm (Deus Ex: Invisible War project lead), judged the entries. The first place team’s game was described as follows: “Deus Via: An original futuristic/Roman puzzle game where one or more players travel a colorful game board that they create as they collect symbols, cast spells, and avoid elemental monsters.” Other winning games included a demolition derby and board game package. Winners received cash prizes and virtual land deeds for one year. The online game Second Life tends to attract budding game developers because of the tools supplied to players, which enables them to implement their creativity through various outlets, including development of in-world games.