Swedish Game Awards

Swedish Game Awards
Non-profit organization
Industry Video game awards
Founded 2002
Headquarters Stockholm, Sweden
Parent Excitera
Website http://www.gameawards.se/

Swedish Game Awards is Sweden's largest video game development competition. It has been held annually since 2002 and is organized by the student-driven, non-profit entrepreneurship association at the Royal Institute of Technology, Excitera. The competition's audience is students at Swedish universities and high schools, particularly those studying game development and software engineering. Funding is handled through partnerships with various software and game development companies, e.g. Digital Illusions CE and Sun Microsystems.

History

Swedish Game Awards started in 2002 as a PC-only game competition under the name KTH Game Awards, and was targeted mainly at students in the Stockholm area. In 2004, KTH Game Awards was merged with another competition organized by Excitera, called the Excitera Mobile Award. This led to the creation of special class for mobile phone games. After its first iteration, the name was changed to Swedish Game Awards to reflect the increase in scope from local to national competition, as well as the fact that the competition had grown to be the largest of its kind in Sweden.[1]

In 2014 the competitions hosts changed from students of Royal Institute of Technology to students of Södertörn University (while still maintaining its cooperation with Excitera).

In 2015 the competition added the category Best Diversity Effort as a result of their cooperataion with Diversi to reflect the games industry's increasing interest in variation of its developers and consumers. The final day of the competition also had its first livestream on YouTube by cooperating with students of Medieinstitutet to make the announcement of the winners available directly to the public. It also broke the previous record of submitted games in 2014 (which was 98) with 104 games.

The competition has gradually gained recognition from Swedish game development companies and universities as a way for students to show their game development capabilities and thus increase their chances of getting employment within the game industry.

Competition Award History

Current Categories

Game of the Year

2015: Adventure on Clover island
2014: Defunct
2013: Epigenesis
2012: Secrets of Grindea
2011: Dead Meets Lead
2010: Dwarfs!?
2009: Bloodline Champions
2008: Magicka
2007: Puzzlegeddon
2006: Dawnspire: Prelude
2005: CrazyBall
2004: Saga of Ina
2003: Xazzon

Best Execution in Art

2015: Adventure on Clover island
2014: Piggy

Best Execution in Audio

2015: Sons of Eye Championship
2014: Beat It

Best Diversity Effort

2015: Iris & Earl

Best Execution in Design

2015: Frog Climbers
2014: Cubetrip

Best Execution in Narrative

2015: Adal's Vikings
2014: Siege of Stockholm

Best Technical Execution

2015: Rymdstenar
2014: Magnetic

Gamers' Choice

2015: Frog Climbers
2014: Gamer's Choice: Flash and crash
2013: Gamer's Choice: Fly or Die
2012: Gamer's Choice: Build 'n' Break
2010: Gamer's Choice: Eggnappers
2009: Gamer's Choice: Conquer the Hood
2008: Gamer's Choice: Boingo

Previous Categories

Best Execution

2013: Little Warlock
2012: ---
2011: ---
2010: Br00t4l Qwest
2009: Imperii
2008: Boingo

Best Mobile Game

2013: Dungeon Heroes
2012: Forlorn
2011: Block Breaker
2010: Phoenix Spirit
2008: Swarm
2007: Magnotix
2006: Quantum
2005: Ice Cakes

Best Innovation

2013: King of the Thrill
2012: Blobbz Online
2011: Zap the Bugs
2010: Block Tower Wars
2009: Carpet Wrestling
2008: Blueberry Garden
2007: Fret Nice
2006: Sumo
2005: Promqueen
2004: War, Siege & Conquest

Miscellaneous Awards

2015: Game of the Year Nominees: The Hungry Maw From Outer Space, Frog Climbers, Rymdresa
2013: Best Scenario: Grief
2011: Jury honour nomination: Unmechanical
2010: Best Web Game: Continuity
2009: Best XNA game: Bloodline Champions
2009: Best Java FX: Imperii
2007: Best XNA game: Gravitron Ultra
2007: Jury honour nomination: Streambolt Desero, Boiler, Raven Tale
2007: Best PC game runner up: Harvest: Massive Encounter
2007: Best mobile game runner up: Heximon
2006: Jury honour nomination: Deadbolt
2005: Sony Ericsson Mobile Java 3D Award: 3D Cube
2004: Jury honour nomination: Hockey

Current Competition

The 2014-2015 competition is organized by a team of Stockholm-based university students in various fields related to game design.
In its 13th year, the Swedish Game Awards continues annually to draw greater numbers of entries from student-development teams across Sweden.

Rules

The parameters to the competition have remained relatively stable over the years, aimed toward providing a launching pad for talented, independent, student game developers to develop new and marketable games.
The official rules are available at http://gameawards.se/competition/rules.

Event Timeline

The process of the Swedish Game Awards spans the majority of each academic year. Beginning in October with the SGA Kickoff, previous winners, current jury members, and corporate sponsors are invited to present their perspectives of the game industry and the Swedish Game Awards in particular to the upcoming year's participants. Also at this time, the various award categories are announced. The competition submissions are developed by independent teams during the year, culminating in a Jury Weekend and Grand Finale party in late May.

In the early months of the competition, the SGA Tour also occurs. During the tour, representatives from the Swedish Game Awards visit universities and technical schools across the country to engage with competition participants.

Partners

Main Partners

King (company), DICE, Arrowhead Game Studios, Sweden Game Arena Autodesk

Gold Partners

MAG Interactive

Silver Partners

Paradox Interactive, Epic Games

Bronze Partners

Rovio Entertainment, Avalanche Studios

Current Categories

Game of the Year
Gamers' Choice
Best Diversity Effort
Best Execution in Art
Best Execution in Audio
Best Execution in Design
Best Execution in Narrative
Best Technical Execution

Previous Competition

Previous Partners

Here is a list of previous partners that have sponsored the Swedish Game Awards in some way in the past.

Previous Main Partners

HP, Intel, ARM, Epic Games, King (company)

Previous Gold Partners

DICE, Arrowhead Game Studios, Rovio Entertainment, Mali DEVELOPER CENTER

Previous Silver Partners

Paradox Interactive, DICE, Wooga, Stardoll, Fondia, Grand Cru Games

Previous Bronze Partners

Autodesk, Easy Studios, Junebud, Gamers Gate, Swedish National Defence College, Avalanche Studios, Bitsquid, Hansoft

Previous Event Partners

EasyTryck.se

Previous Media Partners

The Square (publication)

Previous Awards

Best Execution
Best Innovation
Best Mobile Game
Best Scenario
Best Serious Game

References

  1. ↑ Swedish Game Awards 2011 – History

External links

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