Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
OGDEN -- An Ogden man is in the running to have his idea for an Xbox 360 game made into a real game. He's one of eight finalists in Microsoft's "Unlock Xbox" contest.
For the contest, gamers were invited to develop an idea for a new Xbox game. Over 1,500 people entered, and Ogden native Justin Carpenter received enough online votes to make it this far.
"It's a contest to design your own Xbox arcade game," Carpenter explained. "You come up with a concept and map out the game -- how it's going to work and how it's going to be."
The idea for "Harm's Way" came to Carpenter while playing Xbox with a friend.
"I have a buddy who loves shooting games," he said. "I love to race, and he never wants to do it. I thought if we did this we could play on a team. We would both want to play."
Once Carpenter made the final eight, thanks to online votes, he was flown to Seattle to visit Microsoft. He had to present his idea to a panel of real game developers.
If Carpenter wins, he'll get thousands of dollars in cash and a 6-month internship with Microsoft working on developing games. That's why he needs a really big favor from you.
Please come and vote every day. Help me live my dreams, guys!" he said.
You can vote once a day online, and on Xbox, until Dec. 31. The top two winners will be made into a real game you can download to play on your Xbox for free! [CLICK HERE to place your vote]
E-mail: abutterfield@ksl.com
