Goliath Wuvs David: Activision's Indie Compo

If there's one name you don't entirely expect to associate with indie games, it's Activision. But the giganto-publisher did indeed elect to set up an indie developer competition earlier this year, the first winners for which were announced a couple of days ago. They've earned themselves a big pile of cash for their efforts, not to mention the approval of gaming's biggest fish. You can see both winners below.

Walking home with the $175,000 first prize is Dstroyd, a sort of real-time take on Scorched Earth. Looks a lot more elaborate however, involving as it does stuff like terrain capture.

That's from Peter Angstadt, who plans a PC and XBLA release later this year. More about it can be found right here.

Bagging the still surely life-changing amount of $75,000 is Engient's Rigonauts: Broadside, which throws in spots of World of Goo, Meccano and the Impossible Machine with a rather more war-like agenda:

More on that here.

As for the competition itself, and Activision's involvement - they're not hoovering up ownership of the games or their IPs, but they do want first refusal of publishing rights. Hard to imagine Activision publishing small, left-field games like these, but it is something I'd welcome 'em trying their hands at. They'll be announcing a second stage of the compo soon.

Oh, and there are some interviews with the winners, conducted by Activision's blogger One of Swords, here and here.