White Nights Helsinki 2016 ended a week ago. The conference summed up the results of the White Nights Game Industry Awards 2015 and the Indie Game Cup Helsinki 2016. Let’s talk about them.
White Nights Game Industry Awards 2015
The Game Industry Awards is an award for professional achievements in the industry for the previous year. It is traditionally awarded at the White Nights winter session to services and platforms that have proven themselves in working with developers and publishers in the best way. The winners are selected by online voting. The winners are determined in five categories: the best advertising/monetization service, the best analytical platform, the best localization service, the best music and sound creation company in games, as well as the best platform.
This time, the award of the best advertising/monetization software service was taken away by Appodeal. The company specializes in mediation. Its technology allows you to choose the best advertising campaign for a particular application in real time.
Google Analytics, a universal solution that we are sure everyone is familiar with, was recognized as the best analytical platform. Unfortunately, our favorite AppMetrica didn’t even make it to the finals.
The leader in localization this time was the previously unknown company Native Prime, which, according to its portfolio, took part in the localization of projects like Guild Wars into the languages of Central and Southern Europe.
The company called to be the best in creating music and sound was the Italian 93 Steps. The guys are engaged not only in sound, but also in the creation of trailers and concerts. For example, they made videos for World of Tanks.
Google was recognized as the platform that works better with developers than others. Within the framework of this nomination, the voters were asked to evaluate the platforms in terms of the promptness of responses to requests from partners and the availability of cooperation results.
Indie Game Cup Helsinki 2016
IGC is a competition-championship of game projects of independent teams. For the first time as part of White Nights, it was held last summer in St. Petersburg. Since then, he has become a regular companion of the conference. The cups are awarded in four categories: “for the best art”, “for the best game design”, “for the best story” and “grand Prix”.
The award for the best art in Helsinki was given to the game from the northern Finnish city of Oulu Crashing Season. It is about hunting and is made in the popular low-poly today.
The main “narrative” prize was awarded to the stylish Steamburg. Although the game resembles role-playing games from the screenshots of the 90s, in fact it is a puzzle in the steampunk universe.
The two most important prizes at the conference — for the best design and the Grand Prix – were an isometric stealth action game about cubic ninjas and a retrowave Mt. Future Ninja from Finnish Huijaus Studios.
Mr Future Ninja // beta teaser from Huijaus Studios on Vimeo.