December 12, 2013
For the third edition of our festival we decided to make some changes, mostly improvements based on our experiences in the past couple of years in Berlin and Johannesburg.
Among them, one of the most important is probably the introduction of three new awards, in addition to the classic Most Amazing Game Award. In this post we’d like to tell you more about them.
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— Human Human Machine Award (prize: 1000 EUR)
We love local multiplayer games, but we think the name "local multiplayer" is very unsexy. So to represent games that can be played by two or more players in the same room, we came up with "Human Human Machine". The "machine" part means that the game must include some sort of digital element – fully analog games won't be accepted. So a game like Johann Sebastian Joust would fit into this category (since it's digitally-enabled), but a board game would not.
Why are we introducing this award? Well, this genre is going through a very exciting phase, yet because of the very nature of this type of games, which require a certain number of people and devices/controllers to be in the same room, the market is quite limited: it's difficult for developers to make a living with local multiplayer games.
So we'd like to help a bit with our award, by giving a prize and some exposure to the five nominees in this category, which will be all showcased in our exhibition during the festival, and possibly also at other events we organise around the world, like it happened in the past.
— WTF! Award (prize: 1000 EUR)
Chris Priestman gave a five minute talk about "Punk Games" at A MAZE. / Johannesburg last September, which made us think. Sadly we don't have a video of this talk, but he wrote an extended post about it on Indie Statik which you should definitely read. Here's one passage:
"It is true that indie games get more attention than ever these days, and “indie” also means something to some people now that isn’t just “shitty, pointless game” (not an actual quotation), but there are so many underground, underappreciated, and weird games being produced still. SO MANY."
That's what we want to celebrate with this award. File under: glitch, experimental, non-commercial.
— Audience Award (Honorable Mention)
In addition to the two awards above, in 2014 an Audience Award will also be introduced; the winner will be voted by the festival attendees. No money but lots of glory, which will hopefully convert in new fans and sales!
Last but not least, let’s not forget about:
— The Most Amazing Game Award (prize: 3000 EUR)
This award goes to the best game overall – in terms of game play, art, innovation, music, story and interaction. It's the continuation of the previous A MAZE. award, won by Proteus in 2012 and by Spaceteam in 2013. Create a truly amazing game and you will win, simple as that.
Still got questions? Write an email to award@amaze-berlin.de or contact us via Twitter or Facebook
