News

Feelingtouch and HandyGames win big at Samsung Smart App Challenge 2012

Running through the roll of honour

Feelingtouch and HandyGames win big at Samsung Smart App Challenge 2012
Android developer Feelingtouch Inc has been named the grand prize winner in the games category of Samsung's Smart App Challenge 2012.

The Asian studio has been awarded $200,000 in prize money for Gun & Blood, its on-rails terrorist-shooting bonanza.

The Samsung Smart App Challenge is designed to reward the developers of "innovative apps" for the Samsung's Galaxy Note and Tab devices.

Dozens of medallists

To enter, developers had to sign up to distribute their applications through the Samsung Apps marketplace.

30 winning games and 30 winning apps were chosen on the basis of downloads alone, while a further 20 titles were chosen by a judging panel for their use of the Samsung Galaxy Note's S Pen accessory.

Feelingtouch took the grand prize in the gaming category, securing more downloads than any other game entered to the competition.

Four other developers each took a 'first place' prize of $100,000 each – including German casual outfit HandyGames.

Seven games won their creators a 'second place' prize of $50,000 each, and 18 games were awarded a 'third place' prize of $30,000 a piece.

Samsung's judging panel also awarded a game the grand prize in the S Pen category – handing Italian developer SpinVector $200,000 for its title, From Cheese.

Big money

"The Smart App Challenge allowed Samsung Electronics and application developers to work together as partners to grow and strengthen the ecosystem for Samsung smart mobile devices," explained the EVP of Samsung's media solution centre, WonPyo Hong.

"We will continue to actively support app developers from a variety of angles and we expect the new and unique apps will enrich the user experience for Samsung smart mobile devices."

In all, Samsung handed out more than $4 million over the course of its Smart App Challenge, and the company notes that Chinese developers walked away with more prizes than any other nation.

[source: Samsung]
Staff Writer

PocketGamer.biz's news editor 2012-2013