Well, what a night! In case you didn’t guess from the title, I was lucky enough to get to go to the GAME BAFTA Awards 2012 last night. I rubbed shoulders with celebs like Jonathan Ross and people from Hollyoaks (I think), but more importantly some of the industries elite.
It was a night filled with some real surprises as well – good surprises at that. Skyrim and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 being the most notable ‘losers’ of the night, with Portal 2 getting not just the Best Game of the Year, but best story and best design. Talking to Josh Weier from Valve it was clear that they took a huge amount of pride in Portal 2, more so than I have seen from a lot of others! We chatted about the process they went through to produce the puzzles. A lot of user testing! We deserved win in my books (though it wasn’t Batman, boo hiss!)
Another big winner of the night was Battlefield 3, with The Game Public Award, Audio Achievement and Best Online Multiplayer. The big news for them was the GAME Public award, as this is the only category voted for by the games playing public. I had a great chat with the guys from EA and I think we have loads more to look forward to from Battlefield 3 and beyond!
One of the highlights of the night was have a talk with the winners of the Best Browser game, Monstermind. These guys just gave me such hope for the future of video games. You could feel the pride and enthusiasm coming off them in waves. They spoke of user experience over bottom line profit and near real time game updates based on direct feedback from users
I spoke to quite a few other developers last night as well, they ‘boys’ from the Total War: Shogun 2 team were a blast. They really were like kids when they spoke about their games and the future, with spit ball ideas from VS style strategy games (Romans VS Samurai that sort of thing) to Space Ninja Monkeys. Personally I can’t wait to see Total War: Space Ninja Monkeys!
The overall feeling I was left with was one of hope for the future of games, especially in the UK. With all of the rubbish that has been going on of late, it was refreshing to talk to the people who are actually making the games and hearing first hand just how much they love their industry.
So, finally let’s have a quick run down of the winners.
- Story: Portal 2
- Original Music: LA Noire
- Audio Achievement: Battlefield 3
- Design: Portal 2
- Game Innovation: LittleBigPlanet 2
- Strategy: Total War: Shogun 2
- Mobile & Handheld: Peggle HD
- The GAME Public Award: Battlefield 3
- Action: Batman: Arkham City
- One to Watch: Tick Tock Toys
- Browser-Based Game: Monstermind
- Artistic Achievement: Rayman Origins
- BAFTA Special Award: Markus “Notch” Persson
- Sports/Fitness: Kinect Sports Season 2
- Online Multiplayer: Battlefield 3
- Debut Game: Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
- Family Game: LittleBigPlanet 2
- Performer: Mark Hamill (Joker, Batman: Arkham City)
- Game: Portal 2