MUMBAI: The International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA), an annual awards programme and competition for innovative and creative mobile games in the world, is inviting entires for the IMGA 2007.

IMGA – an industry led initiative, headquartered in Marseille France, invites entries from mobile gaming studios, individual developers, group of individuals, students, researchers and companies involved in Development of Mobile Games. IMGA is platform independent and entries are open for Un-Published Mobile Games on Flash, Java, Brew, I-Mode etc. Indiagames will be the promotional partner in Asia for IMGA.

Established in 2004, this would be the fourth edition of this competition with a total prize money of US $40,000 at stake. All game developers wishing to participate have to submit their entries to the international jury before 24 September, 2007. The winners will receive cash prizes, software licenses from Adobe, phones from Nokia and a guaranteed contract with an operator and a publisher to market the title.

In the 2006 edition, 400 developers from 42 countries participated in the competition, which makes the IMGA one of the most prestegious competitions in the Mobile Entertainment Industry.

Indiagames CEO Vishal Gondal, the promotional partner for IMGA in India said, “The IMGA Awards provide the right platform for mobile games developers and publishers to exhibit their creative work to an international audience and leading companies in the Mobile-Multimedia arena. We are proud of our continuing association with IMGA. This is truly a wonderful programme to encourage original thinking in mobile gaming. We expect a sizeable number of entries to come from India itself.”

The developers can submit their game online at www.imgawards.com. From the initial entries, a short list of 25 will be announced by the end of October. Those short listed will then have until 28 January, 2008, to produce a demo version of their concept for judging. The winners will be announced in Barcelona on 11 February, 2008.

A total of $40,000 in prizes will be awarded in the following categories:

Excellence in Connectivity (Multi-platform, social networking)
Excellence in 3D
Excellence in Game Play
Best-licensed IP-based game
Best Casual Game (Flash, Java, etc.)