Now through the power of the internet, on Amazon, iTunes, Rhapsody, and many other online retailers, you can enjoy the youthful stylings of flOw composer Austin Wintory!

“Spirit of the Cosmos” is a collection of Hollywood-style scores Austin composed between the ages of 15-17. Conducted by Austin and performed by the Utah Symphony, these tracks are all in the style of some of his favorite childhood film scores.

Our friends and former colleagues at USC published a Postmortem on their Independent Games Festival Student Showcase 2008 entrant, “The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom.” Mentions of Jenova and thatgamecompany aside, it certainly rings true with out experience on student games, and I thought it might be helpful for those of you out there looking to start your own.

Read the article here.

Call for submissions IndieCade: International Festivals of Independent Games @ Open Satellite, July 10-13, 2008

Game artists and designers from around the world are invited to submit their work. IndieCade welcomes independent interactive media of all types, from art to commercial to academic, from ARG to abstract, from serious to shooter. Entrants will also be considered for year-round international showcase exhibitions.

Submissions Close Midnight April 11, 2008 PST. For more information and eligibility details, and to enter, visit www.IndieCade.com

Okay, I promise I will eventually stop putting up posts that are solely about congratulating ourselves, but seriously there is so much good news already in 2008 I'm actually holding back on some of it!

Austin Wintory, the composer of “flOw”, also recently composed music for the Jordanian film, “Captain Abu Raed.” At Sundance, it got seven screenings, which is fantastic in and of itself, but it also went on to win the Audience Choice Award!

It's also getting really fantastic reviews, and the production team is in negotiations for worldwide distribution, including the U.S. so keep an eye out for it.

Congratulations, Austin!

Here's an interview with the director of the film.

=====UPDATE======

Austin's work on flOw has been nominated for an Audio G.A.N.G. Award as Best Interactive Score. Austin has also been nominated for Rookie of the Year! He was definitely our favorite rookie of 2007. =)

On Saturday night, the Los Angeles Amateur Photography Club held their annual showcase in Downtown LA. Our Art Director extraordinaire, Hao Cui, had two photos in the exhibition, one of which is pictured here with Hao:

Hao Cui with “The Doctor”

It was a really good show, and it was awesome to see Hao getting accolaides for one of his many other talents. That's why we love him – he is really quite good at just about everything you could want an artist to do.

You can see both photos in this slideshow of all the photos exhibited. Hao's are #25 & #26, “skyline” and “The Doctor.”