SAN FRANCISCO – Game Connection has unveiled the winners of the 2015 Game Connection Development Awards.
Formerly known as “Selected Projects,” the award honors yet unsigned or highly original game projects and is open to console, mobile, social, casual, and online games at any stage of development with no restriction to genre, platform, or distribution method.
Out of over 170 applicants, the jury picked 24 different game projects from 15 countries before narrowing down the winners in each of the 10 categories.
Japanese Active Gaming Media took home two of the ten trophies for Astebreed, making them the biggest winners of the day. The Shoot-Em-Up PC game was named both “Best Hardcore” and “Best Console/PC Hardcore Game.” Two German studios had a reason to celebrate, as industry veteran Bigpoint was awarded “Best Desktop/Downloadable” for the browser-based MOBA
Shards of War. While indie-studio Brainseed Factory won “Best Casual” for their word-based puzzle
Typoman (multi-platform).
The Canadian games industry can also boast two winning studios, as Hitman GO from Square Enix Montréal was named “Best Mobile/Tablet,” and “Best Social” went to Hololabs for their mobile scrap-gaming title Papercade.
US-based LyteShot managed to trump the competition in the main category “Most Original & Creative Project” for their self-titled mobile/live-action platform. Further winners include Czech studio Madfinger Games for mobile model-kit simulator Monzo (“Excellence in Art”), Norwegian Sarepta Studio for PC puzzle-adventure Shadow Puppeteer (“Most promising IP”), and Spanish indie A Crowd of Monsters for their multi-platform episodic noir story Blues & Bullets (“Excellence in Story & Storytelling”).
The 2015 Game Connection Development Awards were given out in partnership with Microsoft Studios, Bandai Namco Games, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, and Michael Meyers Public Relations.