Swedish Game Awards

Swedish Game Awards
Type Non-profit organization
Industry 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, 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.

Contents

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, which has remained during subsequent runs. At the same time, 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]

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. Traditionally, the winners of Swedish Game Awards have gone on to compete in the Independent Games Festival.

Competition award history

Game of the Year

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 Innovation

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

Best Execution

2010: Br00t4l Qwest
2009: Imperii
2008: Boingo

Best Mobile Game

2011 : Block Breaker
2010 : Phoenix Spirit
2008 : Swarm
2007 : Magnotix
2006 : Quantum
2005 : Ice Cakes

Miscellaneous Awards

2011 : Jury honour nomination: Unmechanical
2010 : Gamer's Choice : Eggnappers
2010 : Best Web Game : Continuity
2009 : Best XNA game: Bloodline Champions
2009 : Best Java FX: Imperii
2009 : Gamer's Choice: Conquer the Hood
2008 : Gamer's Choice: Boingo
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 2010-2011 competition is organized by an international team of Stockholm-based university students in various fields related to game design. In its 9th year, the Swedish Game Awards continues annually to draw greater numbers of entries from student-development teams across Sweden.

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

HP Intel ARM

Silver Partners

Paradox Interactive DICE

Partners

Autodesk Easy Studios Junebud Gamers Gate Swedish National Defence College

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.

Awards

Game of the Year
Best Innovation
Best Mobile Game
Best Serious Game

References

External links