On 1 December, the Swedish Game Awards were held as part of Dreamhack at Elmia in Jönköping. As in many previous years, students from the University of Skövde were nominated in several of the categories. In the Best Diversity Execution category, for example, all four of the nominated games were created by students at Skövde.
The Swedish Game Awards – Sweden's most prestigious computer game awards for students, hobbyists and entrepreneurs – were held on 1 December, as part of Dreamhack in Jönköping. Games created by students at the University of Skövde were nominated in three of the categories, and all three of these categories were won by a game from the University. Monkey Wizard Entertainment – the creators of Faefever – won both categories in which they were nominated: Best Execution in Narrative and Best Diversity Execution.
"It's a great feeling! We never set out with the aim of winning an award – we just wanted a chance to put our game out and reach out to people. We see these awards as an inspirational bonus", announced Monkey Wizard Entertainment.
"We think the reason we won is that the computer game study programmes at the University of Skövde place great emphasis not only on narration but also on issues of diversity and how these affect the gaming industry. Furthermore, the University is also alone in offering game writing as a specialisation, which is of enormous help when creating a narrative-driven game."
Faefever is an atmospheric point and click adventure game. The player takes on the role of Alice Taylor – a journalist who is investigating mysterious disappearances in a small town in Scotland. Faefever has not yet been made available for everyone to play, but the students are currently focusing on the further development of the game so that it can be released next year. Once this has been achieved, the group hopes to continue making games together.
"Encourages us to work even harder"
Yet another game produced by students at the University of Skövde won an award in its nominated category. The students forming I Scream Studios won the prize for Best Technical Execution for their game Enceladus.
"It's a great feeling to win a prize at such a major competition as the Swedish Game Awards. It encourages us to work even harder in the future", says Johan Synnergren, who is project manager at I Scream Studios.
Enceladus is a first-person shooter game. The player is part of a crew living on the Enceladus moon. The objective for the player is to survive when the moon base is invaded by unknown fauna. The player must navigate through randomly generated environments, and protect themselves using whichever weapons are available at that time. They must also act quickly, as the base is continuously being filled with water.
"I think that we won this award because we dared to try something new, but above all because of the dedication and cooperative spirit that has pervaded our group. If just one member of the group had not taken our objective and our vision to heart, then we would not have won this award", says Johan Synnergren.
Other nominated games that were produced by students from Skövde were Secret of the Old Ship and re:Surge, which were nominated together with Enceladus in the Best Diversity Execution category.