The Dutch Game Awards

I’ve mentioned this before, but every year the Dutch gamedevelopers get together in an abandoned train hall near Amersfoort station. If Utrecht is the place where all the traintracks in our country come together (Utrecht is very much in the middle of Holland) then Amersfoort is the place where all the trains used to cool off when they were done transporting everyone around the country.

It is in a hall where these trains used to be repaired that the Dutch Game Awards will take place. Both Amersfoort and Utrecht play a central role in the development of Holland as a government subsidized gaming country and Amersfoort even hosts Game in the City completely in their city, putting it on the map not only as a gaming-, but also as a very creative city, due to a huge push from the government and other cultural funds. Unlike most of these government projects, these actually seem to work and have a very positive vibe to them.

Xform isn’t a company that is subsidized in any way (yet), most of the companies nominated for the awards aren’t either. The Dutch Game Awards are the awards that unite all Dutch developers and publishers and is more to honour the development, boost the morale and bring all the developers together in one room. This year, the biggest Dutch game publisher (and my former employer) is honoured posthumously with a nomination for their game: Fairytale Fights. A game I have worked on too… The Fairytale hack ‘n Slash fighter has a lot of my (and a lot of my colleagues’) ‘crunchtime’ in it and it would be nice to see the game get one award since the company that released it is officially bankrupt now and will probably not restart any time soon.

One of the organisors mimicking the look of the award: an Owl with sharp edges that could easily poke your eye out!

As I posted before right here; we’re nominated for four categories with three of our games: Burnin’ Rubber 3 (Best Online Game), The Adidas Neighborhood (Best advergame, Best visual design) and ofcourse Flipper (Best Handheld/Mobile game). If you haven’t voted yet for the Control Industry Award, please subscribe yourself to the Control Magazine newsletter (Control Magazine is the official host of the dinner party) and you can still cast your vote for this year’s winner.

Fingers are crossed. We’ll see you there!

-- Erik