Kenneth Bugeja, a 28-year-old self-taught hobbyist game developer has won $20,000, the first prize of Microsoft’s annual Dream.Build.Play challenge.

The challenge invites developers to create games for Windows Phone or the Xbox 360 while competing for cash.

Mr Bugeja’s entry was chosen from among more than 300 entries, which were initially narrowed to 40 finalists.

Games were evaluated for the fun factor, innovation and production quality.

Mr Bugeja is an accountant/auditor by profession with no academic game developing background. However, he has always been attracted to game development, and still remembers modding the Qbasic game Nibbles on the 386 to add additional levels.

His winning game is Smirkers.

“I've tried to take a simple idea and include some puzzle elements to keep the players engaged. The most important thing is to increase the number of levels in the current release.

“It's difficult because you need to keep them fresh so that the players do not get bored. After that, I have a couple of ideas for a V2 including explosions (an evergreen), traps, power-ups and maybe some updated graphics,” he said.