Fun & Serious Game Festival closes its 8th edition ratifying itself as a reference within the industry

TITANIUM AWARDS

The Titanium Awards, which recognize the best videogames and leading talents in the industry at the Fun & Serious Game Festival, the biggest videogame festival in Europe, were presented yesterday at a Gala held at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Red Dead Redemption 2, was the big winner of the evening, claiming three awards: Best Videogame Design, Best Videogame of the Year and Best BSO.

In the design section, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the Ubisoft game inspired by Ancient Greece, received a Titanium for Best Art Direction; God of War received the Awards for Best Narrative Design and Best Adventure Game. The Award for Best RPG went to Dragon Quest XI and the Whole Saga Honorary Award went to NBA 2K.

Return of the Obra Dinn won a Titanium for Best Independent Videogame, while The Red Strings Club, the project from Deconstructeam, was presented with the Best National Development Award. For its part, Spiderman, dubbed by the actor Mario García, received the Award for Best Performance in Spanish.

According to genre, the games that were most highly valued by the Festival Jury included: Forza Horizon 4, in the category of Best Sports Game, Far Cry 5, as the Best Action Game, Sea of Thieves, as Best Family/Social Game and Nubla 2 – M, the City at the Center of the World as Best Serious Game.

Likewise, Do not Feed the Monkeys convinced the experts as an FS Play Game and Khion 1 received a prize for the Best University Project. The Award for Best Basque Game this year went to Submersed

The great highlight of the Gala was the presentation of the Honorary Awards. This year, the winners consisted of three veritable legends within the industry: Brenda Romero (Honorary Award), director and designer of titles such as “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Commander”, activist and writer; Jade Raymond (Pioneer Award), founder of Ubisoft Toronto and producer of the acclaimed Assassin’s Creed; and Fumito Ueda (Honorary Award), for his contribution to the industry with great titles such as Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian.

Impact of the 8th edition

The 2018 edition of Fun & Serious Festival grew considerably with its transfer to the BEC (Bizkaia Exhibition Center), which quadrupled its exhibition area (up to 15,000 square meters) and allowed the installation of a much larger Fun Zone (400 gaming stands, the largest Fornite area in Spain to date and an auditorium with 900 seats for the League of Legends Tournament stage).

It also grew in terms of its number of speakers (around fifty) and companies involved in its development, as well as collaborating companies, which now total 1,100 from around the world (15% more than last year).

Having doubled its advance sale of tickets, Fun & Serious achieved a record attendance figure this year with 40,000 visitors to the Festival over the three days of sessions.

VIT Talks

The Fun and Serious Festival can boast of a roster of exceptional experts at its talks and workshops. During this year’s VIT Talks, creative directors, producers, writers … analyzed and dissected the videogame ecosystem with a series of extremely heterogeneous perspectives.

In this respect, Marie Claire Isaaman, Executive Director of Women in Games – a non-profit platform that oversees inequalities in the sector – set out the different scenarios for inclusion, while Melissa MacCoubrey, Narrative Director of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, referred to challenges in character building. Rhianna Pratchett, a multi-awarded screenwriter, delved into the role change of writers and Joe Neate, Executive Producer of Sea of Thieves, offered a series of tips for those who were starting out: “It is crucial to have a clear vision of the game and to engage others right away in order to create a community”.

As for Brenda Romero, winner of the Bizkaia Award, she equated the creative process with surgery, since it “requires an ultra-high degree of precision” and explained that the videogame “is capable of dealing with the most difficult issues.” She illustrated this with examples from her own career (with titles such as Train, which recreated the transportation of Jews to the extermination camps, Mexican Kitchen Workers and That Dragon Cancer). “There are no thematic limits to the possibilities of exploration; even the issues that put us to the test. The videogame helps us understand these issues”.

Jade Raymond, winner of the Pioneer Award, stated that there was no better advice for those starting out in the industry than “being truthful to their own passions”. To the question “What is a videogame?,” he replied “What isn’t it? We tend to act in a rather snobbish manner with regard to phenomena that, nevertheless, fulfill their entertainment mission with diverse target groups. And they have the right to be considered games”.

For his part Fumito Ueda, winner of the Avant-Garde Award, fondly recalled his first endeavor and most personal project, ICO. He made reference to his sources of inspiration, which were very diverse, ranging from abstract art to game trailers. He declared that there was no more rewarding moment in his work than receiving feedback from players and stated that the latest game that had fascinated him (until he managed to finish it) was “Human Fall Flat’”.

Full list of Awards

WINNERS OF HONORARY AWARDS

Fumito Ueda (Honorary Award)

Brenda Romero (Honorary Award)

Jade Raymond (Pioneer Award)

BEST VIDEOGAME OF THE YEAR

Red Dead Redemption 2

BEST ART DIRECTION

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

BEST NARRATIVE DESIGN/SCRIPT

God of War

BEST GAME DESIGN

Red Dead Redemption 2

BEST PERFORMANCE IN SPANISH

Spiderman, played by Mario García

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Red Dead Redemption 2

BEST UNIVERSITY PROJECT

Khion 1

BEST FS PLAY

Do not feed the Monkeys

BEST INDEPENDENT VIDEOGAME

The Return of the Obra Dinn

BEST NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Red Strings Club

BEST SPORTS/DRIVING GAME

Forza Horizon 4

BEST FAMILY/SOCIAL GAME

Sea of Thieves

BEST SERIOUS GAME

Nubla 2  – M, the City at the Center of the World

BEST BASQUE GAME
Submersed

AWARD FOR THE BEST ACTION GAME

Far Cry 5

BEST ADVENTURE/ROLE-PLAYING GAME

God of War

BEST FIGHT GAME

Dragon Ball FighterZ

HONORABLE AWARD TO A WHOLE SAGA

NBA 2K

PRIZE FOR THE BEST RPG

Dragon Quest XI

About Fun & Serious Festival

The Fun & Serious Game Festival, held every December in Bilbao, is the largest video-game festival in Europe and a key meeting-point for the industry as a whole.

The event’s mission is to recognize and promote the work of video-game producers, directors, artists and developers, based on a comprehensive program of conferences, roundtables, networking and activities, aimed at both companies and the general public. As is customary each year, the Festival will conclude with an exclusive Grand Prize-Winning Gala for the best video-games of the year.

The Fun & Serious Game Festival enjoys the support of the Basque Regional Government – SPRI, Bilbao City Hall and the Provincial Council of Biscay. The event’s strategic partners include Microsoft, PlayStation and Ubisoft. The Festival features the collaboration of the Spanish Video-Games Association (AEVI), UTAD, Virtualware and Digipen.