Amateurs beat the pros at mobile gaming awards

Anders Henrysson won the $10,000 Grand Prix Award and the $2,500 Best Technical Achievement Award for 'AR Tennis'

A Swedish student has beaten the world's top games developers to scoop two prizes at the International Mobile Gaming Awards last night at 3GSM in Barcelona.

Anders Henrysson scored a straight sets victory, beating 170 developers to win the $10,000 Grand Prix Award and the $2,500 Best Technical Achievement Award for his mobile game AR Tennis.

The software is a concept game where two players use cameraphones as virtual tennis rackets to hit a virtual ball across a tennis court map.

"I am thrilled at winning both of these awards," said Henrysson. "I will be able to work with partners to turn my AR Tennis concept into a fully fledged game and help realise the huge potential of this new genre of mobile gaming. The prize money will be used to continue my research into mobile games development. "

There was also good news for the UK when developer Paul Carruthers collected the $2,500 Best Gameplay Award for Monkey Pole Climb.

"I am very pleased to receive this award and would like to thank Neil Pettit who worked with me as an artist on the game. Winning is a great accolade and it will be fantastic to get the game published," said Carruthers.

"I have been working in the games industry for 20 years and it is great to finally be part of something where innovation in mobile game development is encouraged and celebrated."

The awards have also brought new talent to the attention of games publishers. Several finalists who did not pick up an award are already lined up to receive publishing deals.