We’re excited to announce that this year, we’ll be holding the inaugural Freeplay Awards!
There’s been some really amazing things happening in the indie games scene and we want to celebrate that. Not only will be be looking at completed games, but we’ll also have categories for best concept art and best on-paper design, which opens the awards up to those creative people who aren’t currently working on a game project, or those people who are at the prototyping stage.
There are up to eight categories – Best Game, Best Design in a Game, Best On-Paper Design, Best Art in a Game, Best Concept Art, Best Technical Innovation, Best Game Writing and Best Audio.
To apply, read through the submission guidelines and rules, and enter using our online application form. Files and links can be emailed to us, and CDs or DVDs can be posted.
You have until 19th July 2010 to enter, and the winners will be announced at the Freeplay Independent Games Festival on the 15th August.
We’re looking forward to seeing all your entries – good luck!
I’m an indie dev who focuses on the narrative aspect of games. I’m interested in your award for “best game writing,” but am unsure what you’re looking for with that category. A playable game with good writing, or a written design doc, etc? Thanks! I appreciate this contest.
Um, this might mean I’ve just failed what turned out to be the qualifying challenge, but I can’t find the guidelines and rules on your site, and their mention in this post is not hyperlinked. Guh?
http://www.freeplay.net.au/freeplay-awards-2010-submission-guidelines/
It’s in the menu at the top, under Awards
Hi Delaney, games submitted are up for consideration in all the categories, so your game has a chance in all categories, rather than just one.
With Best Writing, we are looking for strong writing in the narrative of the game. Transmedia, cross-media and alternate reality games will also fall under this category, as they’re very narrative driven.
Hope this helps, but if you need any more information, drop us another line, and we’ll be happy to help!
What are the prizes for each category and who are the judges?
Hi Tim, the winner of each category will get a trophy, to be presented at the Freeplay Festival on the Sunday.
We haven’t yet finalised our judging panel, but they will be selected from local indie/ professional game developers, artists and indie-friendly game industry journalists. We’ll announce them when the judging panel is finalised!
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Hi Freeplay team,
To further elaborate on the reply to Delaney’s question – at what state does the game submission have to be in for judging purposes (eg. demo, full game, WIP alpha/beta)?
As an example, let’s say I have a design document but have no (or an insubstantial) working prototype. Would the submission of the document be considered when judging for Best On-Paper Design? The same question could also be asked for art submissions for Best Concept Art, or a tech demo for Best Technical Innovation.
Thanks!
Hello!
A trophy is awesome (and expected), but indies need some solid incentive, like Cash, or new devices to explore new markets.
It’s great to be recognized and all, it gives visibility, boost sales, but I would feel used to participate on some big event, which have sponsors, where we know there’s a lot of money being spent and not a nickel go to the stars of the show.
One more line in the spreadsheet will not make such a difference for you, but will make a huge difference for the winners.
Sorry about the rant, but that’s how I feel.
Roger
Hi Darren,
For a game to be eligible for best game award, it should be at least a playable demo or at beta stage – there has to be a playable game there for us to judge.
If you weren’t at that stage, submitting your design doc, or concept art would get you in the running for those awards (and it wouldn’t matter that you had already built some of the game, as what we’re trying to do is give publicity and encouragement to people with awesome ideas).
Every game is different so we want to give everyone the best chance possible to enter. Happy to talk further if you want to pick my brains about entering (and this goes for anyone else thinking about entering too).
Hi Roger,
I think you might have us mixed up with a different festival.
Freeplay is run by two people, myself and Paul (our bios are in the organisation section at the top). Freeplay is a not for profit organisation, and is able to exist only on the hard work and generosity of people who are passionate enough to get involved (thankfully in Melbourne, there are a heap of hard-working, generous and passionate people!)
We get the venue as in kind support from the library, we get a small amount of funding from the local government to bring a couple of international speakers over, and the cost of program printing, staffing, bookings, badges, equipment hire etc is (hopefully) covered by ticket costs.
It takes an enormous amount of time and resources to organise, all of which is unpaid. We do Freeplay, though, because we believe there’s awesome talent here in Victoria, and want to encourage that any way we can. We can’t give out cash prizes that will help to fund an indie studio, but we can award their work, so that they find funding easier – at the moment it’s not easy to make a living making games in Australia. (Though, if anyone wants to offer cash for prizes, we wouldn’t say no!)
Sorry if this feels like a rant back at you, it’s really not! Hopefully you feel differently about our awards after reading this.
Cheers
Eve
Hi Freeplay.
If the game is developed by a team of members, does every member get a certificate or a small award?
Cheers.
Hi Cindy, we hadn’t thought of offering certificates, but we certainly can. Thanks for the idea!
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Hi Freeplay,
My team wishes to submit for the concept art category as our game is only in its early prototyping stages. Just double checking that applying with a link to our website displaying the concept art as jpegs is fine? Or is some other format required?
Cheers
Hi Matt,
If you could send the jpgs as attachments to awards@freeplay.net.au that would be best!
Eve
how many games will be selected as finalists ?
It’s great to see just 2 guys put in so much passion and create these awards for indie developers. This is the era of digital distribution, and indie developers are emerging everywhere. Any support and exposure is hugely appreciated. Most of us aren’t making games for the cash.
Thanks, Andrew! Comments like yours really make our day. It’s a lot of work (and before now, we’ve questioned our sanity!) but hearing feedback like this really makes us feel we’re doing something worthwhile.
Hi Mehdi, we’ll have up to three finalists for each category. We’re waiting for the last of the judges’ results, and then we’ll post them online!
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