BAFTA Scotland Awards Open For Entries – Record Year For Games?

The 2013 BAFTA Scotland awards are now open for entries.  The competition is open to entries from the film, television and games sectors in Scotland and this year’s competition could see the games category overtaking the more established categories for the first time. Research by the Scottish Games Network indicates at least 50 games released in the last twelve months which qualify for entry, demonstrating the explosive growth in independent game studios in the last year.

For the first time, BAFTA Scotland has made entry to the games category FREE for early entries. Games entered before the 17th July 2013 are FREE for the first entry.  A company entering more than one game will pay the normal price (£60) for additional entries. Entries close on July 31st 2013. The rules are very simple, to qualify for entry:

• The development company has a substantive business and production base in Scotland. A base will be taken to be substantive if it is the usual place of employment of senior executives and personnel involved in the production in question.
• At least 50% of the development budget (excluding the cost of on-screen talent, archive material and copyright costs) was spent in Scotland and/or on Scottish production talent.
• At least 50% of the development talent (i.e. not on-screen talent) must have their home or usual place of employment in Scotland. This must cover a minimum of four out of the following nine areas: Director, Producer, Developer, Animator, Writer, Line producer/Production manager, HOD – Art, Sound, Camera, Post Production, Music. (For factual entries, up to two of these roles may be replaced by Editor and/or Assistant Producer.)
• The game must have been released between 1st August 2012 and 31st July 2013.

Which as far as we can tell covers pretty much everyone currently working in Scotland and the 50+ games we mentioned… The competition is open to every game, which is publicly available, whether paid or free-to-play, released through any channel.  Indie developers in Scotland have fared very well in recent years, with smaller studios and original games picking up the trophy:

• 2012 (Bad Hotel, Lucky Frame)
• 2011 (Quarrel, Denki)
• 2009 (Flock!, Proper Games)

The winner gets a BAFTA award and can use the phrase BAFTA WINNER or BAFTA AWARD WINNER everywhere they choose. They also get to attend the star-packed, celebrity-stuffed, glittering and high profile awards ceremony in November. Entries can be made through the BAFTA awards portal, quickly simply and with a minimum of fuss…

The number of potential entries in 2013 is a testament to the developers, game designers and studios in Scotland.  Since 2009 the games award has grown hugely, more than any other category in the awards, to become one of the most prolific and diverse categories in the whole competition. From our research, the games we believe qualify for entry are:

• The 39 Steps (Story Mechanics)
• Battle Dungeon: Risen (Hunted Cow)
• Beano iPrank (Guerilla Tea)
• Bips (Ludometrics)
• Blitzkrieg (Hebridean Productions)
• Bloons TD5 (Ninja Kiwi)
• Booty Quest (Outplay Entertainment)
• Bubble Blaze (Outplay Entertainment)
• Chock-A-Block (Claymore Games)
• Civil War: 1863 (Hunted Cow)
• Coolson’s Artisanal Chocolate Alphabet (Things Made Out Of Other Things)
• Cult Leader (Two Monocle Games)
• Cutant Mutant Invasion (Flipware)
• Danger Derby (Cobra Mobile)
• Daley Thomson’s Decathlon (Black Company)
• Denki Blocks (Denki)
• Denki Word Quest (Denki)
• Dungeon Smash (Haiku Interactive)
• Fly Like A Bird (Gamevial)
• Food Run (Pixels On Toast)
• Gears Of Glory (Domipheus Studios)
• Go Yeti (Nevistech)
• Hotel GB (Tag Games)
• Hotel Las Vegas (Tag Games)
• iBomber Attack (Cobra Mobile)
• Idol Words (Outplay Entertainment)
• Impossible Road (Pixels On Toast)
• Lif (Gamevial)
• Light Hero (Inceptional)
• Little Shocks (Siege Games)
• Match Mee (WeeWorld)
• MonstAR Truck (Outplay Entertainment)
• Mr Shingu’s Paper Zoo (Stormcloud Studios)
• Namaball (Gamevial)
• On The Free Run (Lazy Boys/Guerilla Tea)
• Other (Quartic Llama)
• Outpost Defense (Dynamo Games)
• Pumpkin Bingo (Binary Pumpkin)
• Pyramus (Hunted Cow)
• Road To Fame (Ninja Kiwi)
• Roundabout (Fraser Tee/Noah Ramanan)
• Russia’s Army (Gamevial)
• Save Santi (Inceptional)
• Save The Day (Denki)
• Sky Without Sun (Made With Numbers)
• Staking Claims (Guerilla Tea)
• Storm In A Teacup (Cobra Mobile)
• Tank Battle: North Africa (Hunted Cow)
• Team Tanks (Gamevial)
• Tick Tock Toys (Swallowtail Games)
• Tilt & Sprout (Twiddly)
• Trap Mansion (Too Easy Games)
• Unicorn Space Command (Martin Grant)
• Vikings Training School (Quartic Llama)
• Wave Trip (Lucky Frame)
• Winx Sirenix Power (Tsumanga Studios)
• Word Crasher Blitz (Pixels On Toast)
• Zeds (Chunk Games)

If your game is in this list or, if you’ve released a game in the last year we do NOT know about, please enter.  The more visibility, the more credibility we can give to the games sector in Scotland, the more seriously it will be taken.  Not just by BAFTA or the film and television industries, but by government, the cultural and commercial organisations and the wider global games industry.

This is a pivotal moment for Scotland.  The number of games being created, the variety of games being released is for the first time, eclipsing the more established areas of the media and the arts.  We need to recognise this and celebrate it.  For years now, the games industry has complained about being ignored, side-lined or not taken seriously.  We can now show that games and interactivity are in fact on of the country’s biggest exports.

Please enter.  Full instructions here.  Entry portal here.  Any questions e-mail BAFTA.