South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive is stepping up its game with a new independent gaming competition. The Austin-based festival, scheduled for March 11-15, 2011, is adding the First Independent Propeller Awards video game development contest to SXSW ScreenBurn, the game-centric portion of the festival.

The new awards, sponsored by Zoo Publishing, include $150,000 in total prizes and the chance for winners to be published by Zoo's indiePubGames independent online game community.

Finalists selected in the Best Art, Best Audio, Best Design and Technical Excellence categories will be provided with flights and accommodations to attend SXSW in Austin, TX to demo their games during the event and compete to be selected as the Grand Prize Winner. Full contest rules and details are available at http://www.indiepubgames.com/.

Please see website for more information.

Deadline: February 18, 2011.