11 Indie Prize winners were chosen from over 120 independent finalists. This showcase has been the biggest one so far, with over 200 applications from more than 40 countries.
Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS – February, 6 – Indie Prize at Casual Connect Europe in Amsterdam announced the eleven winners of the Indie Prize Showcase during a special awards ceremony on the third day of the conference.
Indie Prize Winners:
Best Art – Lumino City by State of Play Games
Best Audio – Amphora by Moondrop
Best Narrative – Herald by Wispfire
Best Game Design – LA Cops by Modern Dream
Most Promising Game in Development – Guild of Dungeoneering by Gambrinous
Best PC Game – Guns, Gore and Cannoli by Crazy Monkey Studios
Best Multiplayer Game – Move or Die by Those Awesome Guys
Best Mobile Game – First Strike HD by Blindflug Studios
Director’s Choice Award – Shadow Puppeteer by Sarepta Studio
Best in Show: Critic’s Choice Award – Party Hard by Pinokl Games
Best in Show: Audience Choice Award – Replay: VHS is Not Dead by Neko Entertainment
“We are both overwhelmed and humbled by the talent and effort of participating independent teams. On behalf of Casual Connect and Indie Prize, we wholeheartedly congratulate the winners of Indie Prize Europe and wish them further success and hope to see more awesome games from them”, says Yulia Vakhrusheva, Director of Indie Prize.
The games were judged by critics – Henry Oh from CNN, Zoya Street from Gamesbrief, Dan Oravasaari from PlayStation LifeStyle, Aaron Whitfield from PocketFullOfApps, Rai Sewgobind from Eye For Games, Jurjen Tiersma from Power Unlimited, André Bernhardt from Indie Advisor, and prize judges: Nick Berry from Facebook, Christopher Hamilton from Rovio, Oscar Clark from Unity, Candy Yang from Aarki, Aaron Walz from Walz Music, Jamison Selby from b Spot, George Donovan from Gogii Games, Jason Della Rocca, Execution Labs, Djordje Radulovic, Power Up Digital, Matt Donnelley, Dutch Game Garden, Daniel Boutros, Soul Arcade, Tomo Moriwaki, Hyperkinetic Studios, Dave Padilla, Hyperkinetic Studios, Jan-Michel Saaksmeier, Bigpoint GmbH. Due to the huge number and high level of games submitted, this time Indie Prize required twice as many judges as before.
The winners got prizes worth over 500,000 euro from the sponsors: Unity licenses, 5K in Google Cloud Services, Photon Cloud Services, headsets from Plantronics, various devices from Amazon, free ads on PocketFullOfApps, live game streaming from Indie from Twitch, free highlights from BlogsRelease, and the developer of Best Mobile Game got a full day of consulting with an App Annie expert. “This will take a deep dive into App Annie data and cover global game opportunities by platform, category, and region; IAP and monetization strategies; a presentation covering topics that will be for the devs to keep, and for devs in a remote region consulting will be done via Skype”, explains Kieran Barr, Director of Business Development of App Annie. And the two Best In Show winners got $1000 stipends from Casual Connect that will go towards their trip to Casual Connect Asia in Singapore in May.
About Indie Prize
Indie Prize is a scholarship program for up and coming indie development teams who show promise to be future leaders in the games industry. Indie Prize offers participants an opportunity to learn and network with other indie game developers and showcase their games, skillsets, and ideas to publishers and potential partners, as well as win prizes from sponsors for showcasing the best game in one of 11 categories. More information can be found at http://indieprize.org/ .
About Casual Connect
Launched in 2005, Casual Connect is hosted by the Casual Games Association, bringing together the most talented and knowledgeable experts in the casual gaming field to further the industry with the best learning and networking opportunities for casual games professionals. In addition to Casual Connect Eastern Europe, the CGA will host Casual Connect Europe, Amsterdam on February 4 – 6, 2015, Casual Connect Asia on May 19 – 21, 2015, Casual Connect USA on August 11 – 13, 2015, and Casual Connect Israel in Fall 2015. For more information, visit http://casualconnect.org/ .
About the Casual Games Association
The Casual Games Association is an international trade organization dedicated to promoting casual games and providing educational resources for the game development community. The association hosts annual conferences in USA, Eastern Europe, Europe and Asia; publishes a trade magazine; and issues research reports on the casual games industry. For more information about the association, visit http://www.casualgamesassociation.org.
