With a new format, the 2020 Independent Games Festival & Game Developers Choice Awards (also known as 20th Annual Game Developers Awards) was back on our screens to celebrate the past year in gaming.
Due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, safety measures were taken to prevent the spread of the virus; the GDC conference in San Fransisco (USA) was cancelled but a mirror digital event was set up to run alongside the original dates on the event website. The award ceremony too received a new look; taking viewers away from the stage and into the homes and studios of the developers with pre-recorded acceptance speeches.
Still it was an exciting evening, and with Control nominated across five categories, definitely an event to keep an eye on.
By the end, Remedy and the Control team collected three well-deserved trophies which celebrated the look and feel of the studio's latest game; "Best Technology", "Best Visual Art", and "Best Audio".
The pre-recorded speeches also allowed more developers to step into the limelight to talk about their work:
For Best Technology, we heard from Sean Donnelly (Lead Programmer on Control) who talked about the Northlight team and the tough competition within the category.
Accepting the Best Visual Art award, we had Janne Pulkkinen (Art Director) who spoke about Brutalistic architecture and the art team that helped to bring that to life including Stuart MacDonald (World Design Director), Antti Puomio (Lead Character Artist), Elmeri Raitanen (Lead VFX Artist), Damian Stempniewski (Lead Lighting Artist), Riho Kroll (Lead UX & UR Designer), Miro Vesterinen (Senior Environment Artist), and Leonardo Calamati (Senior Concept Artist). Janne also thanked Sam Lake (Creative Director) and Mikael Kasurinen (Director) individually and the studio as a whole.
And finally, accepting the Best Audio award, we heard from Ville Sorsa (Lead Audio Designer) who stood with the audio team as he thanked the developers, external partners, 505Games, and the players who joined them on their latest adventure.
