Ludicious Game Festival has developed into a renowned event in the international Indie games scene with more focus on international games. This year, 263 submissions from 47 countries were received for the competition. A pre-selection jury has announced 18 finalists: 12 in the category Innovation in Game Award and six in the category Emerging Talent Award. Letters by 5am Games is the only Swiss game competiting in the category Emerging Talent Award.
Ludicious is a networking and exchange platform for game developers. For the fourth time, the Ludicious team has organised the Ludicious game festival featuring the Luducious Game Awards. Out of 263 submitted entries from 47 countries, the Ludicious team has nominated 18 finalists who will further compete for the cash prizes.
The nominated games represent two of three Ludicious game categories, that is, 12 in «the Innovation in Game Award» which is explicitly aimed at small studios and developers working with small budgets. New ideas and approaches in game design, visual style or storytelling are among the criteria. The winner will be bestowed with 8000 Euro cash prize. The second represented category is «the Emerging Talent Award» for games that demonstrate a level of creativity and quality. The games selected in this category are developed by students who are enrolled at school or university. The winner will receive 4000 Euro cash prize. Six games have been selected in this group.
From Switzerland, «Letters» (designed at the Zurich University of the Arts) is among the six nominees in the category Emerging Talent. Letters is a heart-warming puzzle adventure game about two long-time pen pals. The player navigates their way by running through the pen pal letters, overcoming physical obstacles by combining drawings with certain words in the letters that block the player’s way. Often, the correct words must first be created by removing letters. Since Letters is a multilinear game, decisions taken by the player also influence the course of the story. The game was developed by the 5am Games with a team comprising of Aleksandra Iakusheva, Martina Hotz and Selina Capol.
Having recently won an award of financial support from the national arts council Pro Helvetia, 5am Games are extending the gameplay into further levels and making plans for the game’s release. The team are completing their studies in game design at the Zürich University of the Arts (ZhdK).
Other nominees in this category are: «Isometric Epilepsy» (TH Köln Cologne Game Lab, Germany), «Seek Etyliv» (Queen Mary's University of London, UK), «Shadow Seeker» (AZAD University South Tehran Branch, Iran), «SHIRO» (School of Art and Design Kassel, Germany), «Tell Me What You See» (IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark).
The 12 games selected for the Innovation in Game Award include;
«Around Mars» (Iran) «Blind Drive» (Israel) «Do Not Feed the Monkeys» (Spain), «Everything is going to be OK» (USA), «Figment» (Dänemark), «Hitchhiker» (Deutschland), «Orwell» (Germany), «Rock of Ages II: Bigger and Boulder» (Chile), «The Almost Gone» (Belgium), «The Sexy Brutale» (UK), «Vignettes» (France) and «Witchball» (USA).
The winners of the Ludicious Awards will be announced on January 19, 2018 as part of the Ludicious & SGDA Awards Night. The SGDA (Swiss Game Developers Association) will also announce the winner of its Award.
(RAN)
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