Keep Driving, a pixelated management RPG about going to a music festival, took home the top prize at the DevGAMM Awards on Friday night.
The Swedish studio behind the game, YCJY Games, received a check for US$20,000 from the competition, which has a total prize fund of US$135,000 and is open to independent developers and small studios. A total of 15 games received awards on the night, including Julian Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena's Despelote (which took home the award for Excellence in Narrative), Kaizen Game Works' Promise Mascot Agency (Epic Games Store Indie Spotlight), and Lichthund's Rockbeasts (Excellent Audio Quality).
FLAT28 Collective's Glasshouse won the Developer's Choice award, while Platypus Entertainment x Ytopia's Misery won the community vote. A total of 63 nominees took part in the show, who were selected from 610 applications.
The awards followed the two-day DevGAMM conference in Lisbon, which was attended by 1,122 people this year. The conference kicked off with Chris Charla, General Manager of Xbox Portfolio and Programs, who listed seven common mistakes developers make when launching a game. Over the course of two days, more than 60 speakers gave talks and workshops, including Raphael Joffres, lead audio specialist at Sandfall Interactive, the developer of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and 80 games were showcased as part of the event's presentation.
The largest proportion of DevGAMM Lisbon participants were from Portugal (44%), 7% from the UK, 5% from Poland and 5% from Spain. About 33% of the participants were women.
This year's DevGAMM in Lisbon was preceded by the inaugural Madeira Games Summit on November 3rd and 4th, a much smaller event aimed at gaming industry leaders. GamesIndustry.biz Features Editor Lewis Packwood hosted fireside chats with Ustwo Games CEO Maria Sajans, Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen and FunPlus COO Chris Petrovich, while the summit also featured talks and workshops from Enrique Olifers (CEO of Bossa Studios), Alex Nichiporchik (CEO of TinyBuild) and Tim Brown (co-founder of Bright Gambit), among others.
Below is the complete list of winners from last week's DevGAMM Awards, in alphabetical order:
- Battle Cars: Nitro PvP Shooter (TinyBytes) – Game Changer reward from Aptoide
- Breath 2 (RedRuins Softworks) – The most anticipated game
- Crowded – crow city planner (Nestwork Games) – The best indie game based on system and strategy from Astra Logical
- Come (The Future Entertainment Company) – TinyBuild's Best Indie Game
- Despelote (Julian Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena) – Excellence in storytelling
- Drop Duchy (Sleepy Mill Studio) – Excellence in Game Design
- Greenhouse (FLAT28 Team) – Developers' Choice
- Hell maiden (AstralShift) – The best game from Portugal
- Keep driving (YCJY Games) – Grand Prize
- Adversity (Platypus Entertainment x Ytopia) – community vote
- Promise Mascot Agency (Kaizen Game Works) – Epic Games Store Independent Company Review
- Rock Beasts (Light Dog) – Audio Excellence
- Stretchmancer (Triangular Wave) – Best Innovation
- Tukoni: Guardians of the Forest (Dream Cinematographer) – Excellence in Visual Arts
- What kind of collision? (Triband) – Best Mobile Game
Disclosure: GamesIndustry.biz's travel and accommodations for the event were paid for by DevGAMM.
