The puzzle game, made by a team of seven young local developers from the Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab, came out tops at a contest organised by tech giant Microsoft.

Along with a cash prize of US$40,000 (S$60,112), it also gets a stab at being launched on the online store for the Xbox game console. The service, which gamers use to download titles directly onto their system, has 14 million members around the world.

If successful, CarnyVale by the Gambit team will be available alongside more than 150 other titles from big-name publishers. It would be a coup for the game lab, which is a collaboration between the Media Development Authority (MDA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.

CarnyVale, inspired by pinball, is set in a circus. Players have to fling a clown through obstacles, such as bricks and rings of fire, while collecting balloons to level up.

Judges for the competition said through an e-mail interview that the game was picked for its fun factor, innovation and high quality of production.

The game also allows players to create their own levels, a feature the judges were particularly impressed with.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.