November 22, 2007 Sault Ste. Marie The games people play: announcing the winners of Arcademy Games Awards from Future Play 2007
Algoma University College is please to announce the winners for the Arcademy Games Awards held at the Future Play 2007 Conference last week.
New this year, the Arcademy Games Award, sponsored by Festival Arcadia, featured head-to-head contests between games from Canada, Greece, the United Kingdom, and the United States. First place winners received bragging rights and prize packages worth more than $5,000.
In addition to a ‘who’s who’ judging panel of gaming academics and industry professionals, the Abertay Dundee MSc CGT program offered their assistance in the judging, as Algoma U is the only North American campus to offer their prestigious program Master of Science in Computer Games Technology.
Awards were presented in the following three categories: Indie Games (experimenting with new game technology), Serious Games (built for learning purposes and entertainment), and Student Games.
In the Indie Games category, Cultivation, a game about the social interactions within a gardening community, blossomed to take first prize. Second place was awarded to Stick Arena, slaying judges with a “real-time multiplayer frag-fest”.
The Serious Games category highlighted games focused on learning, while entertaining players at the same time. ResponseReady, an ‘expect the unexpected’ emergency preparedness scenario game, readily accepted the top prize. Meet Officer Roberts, offering leadership simulation for police officers to practice interpersonal skills, talked its way into second place.
In the Student Games competition, Booze Cruise, a driving game designed to improve awareness of the effects of drinking on driving performance, swerved into first place. Cleanly Childcare, where players can step into the shoes of a daycare worker for the day, took a time-out and received second place.
Attendees were all able to play the games, meet the developers and vote for the People's Choice Arcademy Game Awards. Sponsor Festival Arcadia first showcased the submitted games at its show in Montreal, Quebec, in front of 22,000 visitors. The People’s Choice award for Montreal went to Game Over!, a universally inaccessible game, developed by Dimitris Grammenos, of Greece.
There was a tie at the Toronto Future Play 2007 Conference event, and the Arcademy Games People’s Choice Award went to both Booze Cruise (which also won the Student Games category) and Drinks, a bartender game with puzzle elements for the Nintendo DS.
At Future Play 2007, in addition to the games competition, Algoma University College teamed up with the University of Ontario Institute of Technology to bring academic and industry leaders in the gaming world together to “Research. Play. Share.” Created by Algoma U in Sault Ste. Marie, Future Play is now in its fifth year. More information can be obtained online at www.futureplay.org.
Kudos to all of the developers and participants, including the first and second place winners listed below:
Indie Games
First Place: Cultivation, USA, developed by Jonathan Blow.
Second Place: Stick Arena, Canada, developed by: Skye Boyes - Team Lead, Client-Side Programming; Jordan Dubuc - Server-Side Programming; Stuart Hart - Character Artist; Robyn Dubuc - Background Artist; Danny Grieg - QA; Level Design - X Gen Studios.
Serious Games
First Place: ResponseReady, Canada, developed by: Kenton White - Designer, Programmer; Shannon Beahen - Writer; Steph Clarke - Artist; John Dallas - Programmer, Designer; Cameron Bennett - Artist; Chris Kruger - Layout; Sound - Distil Interactive.
Second Place: Meet Officer Roberts, USA, developed by: Glenn Albright, William Fraher, Ralph Vacca, Kognito Solutions LLC.
Student Games
First Place: Booze Cruise, Canada, developed by: Lori Shyba, Nooshin Esmaeili, John Heerema, Vishal Kochhar, Phillipa Sessini, Ronan Sicre.
Second Place: Cleanly Childcare, USA, developed by: Aaron Berton, Jason Conley, Joe Fitzgerald, Addam Pushman, Tom Stark, David Sahlin, Eric Vogel, Prof. Brian Magerko, Michigan State University.
People’s Choice
Montreal: Game Over, developed by Dimitris Grammenos, Greece.
Toronto: tie Booze Cruise (see Student Category for developer information) and Drinks, Sweden, developed by: Marcus Ingvarsson - Project leader; Håkan Mattsson - Lead programming; Andreas Svensson - Programmer; Jonas Rogert - Programmer; Jonatan Österberg - 3D graphics and backgrounds; Povel Gulin - Characters design; Erik Öqvist -Interface design; Monica Kreitz -Backgrounds; Johan Skoglund - Sounds and music.
Algoma University Collegewould like to congratulate all of the winners and participants, and thank the judges and sponsors. Prize packages were provided by: the Microsoft Games User Research Group, Garage Games, Bug Tracker, the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and Algoma U.
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Media Contact:
Deborah Loosemore
Director of Advancement and External Relations
Algoma University College
(705) 949-2301 ext 4115