(UPDATE) Filipino wins in int'l Adobe tilt

By Relly Carpio INQUIRER.net UPDATE: Editor's note: Reposted to correct errors and add information. "WE weren't expecting it, really," said Carlos Nazareno, recounting what he felt when informed that the game UFO Capture: Barnyard Abduction" was chosen as the winner for the Asia Pacific Region's User Group contest. He didn't even know that there was a second round of judging. "I thought, when we placed sixteenth in the first contest, that was it, wala na, we gave up. Then I was contacted and well, surprise!" The game was created by Nazareno and his friends Jojo Cunanan, who handled the art, and John Tiangco who did the concepts and playtesting. Incidentally, the same people were members of Team Fuchikoma in the recently concluded Pinoy Indie Games competition. Their game was chosen as one of the top 20 from the 356 submitted by the members of Playyoo.com from all over the world. The contest was sponsored by Adobe, the owner of Flash and Flash Lite. The first judging was based on algorithms, with the number of views and downloads as the arbiter. The second was from votes by members of the User Group. There were also categories for the Americas and Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). They bested the main contest's top winner Samir, an Indian national, for the User Group prize. UFO Capture: Barnyard Abduction reached its highest position during the contest at tenth and even became pick of the day. UFO Capture: Barnyard Abduction is a hybrid time pressured collection and puzzle game. You are an alien in a ship trying to abduct as many farmers and livestock in the time allotted while crop dusters try and ram you in an effort to stop you. Collisions with the planes deduct from your time, while completing set combinations of farmers and/or livestock add to your time limit and score. So what did they win? "We won $5,000 worth of prizes," Nazareno said. Flash Lite is a relatively new technology it was highly successful in Japan and is now being pushed elsewhere. It is pre-bundled in newer Series 40 and Series N Nokia Phones. You can check the full list of winners here.