Microsoft's Dream-Build-Play contest fulfills a few indie devs' dreams
by James Ransom-Wiley 
on Aug 13th 2007 3:38PM
A pair of budding developers, one from Ontario and another from New York, has tied for top honors in Microsoft's Dream-Build-Play contest, an effort to encourage indie game makers to get on board the XNA platform. Canadian John "Ain't No Fluke" Flook and American James Silva each pocketed $10,000 and were offered Xbox Live Arcade publishing contracts for their respective entries:
Blazing Birds, a robotic game of badminton origins, and
The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, a morbid tale of "mayhem and revenge" (pictured above).
In a remarkable display of generosity, Microsoft extended XBLA contracts to two additional contestants, Steve Olofsson of Sweden, for
Gravitron Ultra, and Daniel McGuire of the UK, for
Yo Ho Kablammo!, along with $5,000 (to each) and some swag. Sixteen additional finalists have been honored (in mention) over on the
official contest page and could potentially be called to service if the XBLA pipeline runs dry. In all, 4,500
creations were creators entered into the competition, submitting roughly 200 projects.
