The Judges Panel

We did not judge the games ourselves internally, but rather had a talented, diverse group of judges from the Finnish gaming industry to take a look at the games. I've introduced some of them over Facebook (and will introduce the rest as well), but the complete list is as follows:

Petri Ikonen - Tracktwenty, EA
Karoliina Korppoo - Colossal Order
Emmi Hallikainen - Colossal Order
Mikael Haveri - Housemarque
Nikolina Zidar - FullXP
Vesa Raudasoja - IGDA Global
Annakaisa Kultima - Tampere University
Miikka Lyytikäinen - Serious Gaming Cluster
Joni Lappalainen - IGDA Tampere
Tuukka Grönholm - Pelit-magazine

Semi-finalists

You thought I would tell you the list of winners, but to keep the heat, I'm going to list the games that -almost- made the cut. With the serious category, the winners were clear, but out of the almost 800 games (wow!) submitted, the judges had to debate about almost 40 games within the entertainment category to see which games will truly win the GDWC entertainment category.

The list of the games, in no particular order, are...

Code 7 - Goodwolf Studio, Germany
Drop - Maturuturu Studios, Spain
Okhlos - Coffee Powered Machine, Argentina
Skidstorm - Immobile games, Finland
Kim - The Secret Games Company, UK
Ascender - Gamechanger Studio, Argentina
Akuto: Mad World - Hut 90, UK
Pixel Disc Golf 2 - Sapeli Studio, Finland
Ping Ping - Ping a Ling Studios, USA
Plus - Keycode, Russia
Escape from the Universe: Space Beyond - Cat-astrophe games, Poland
Music Inside - RealityReflection, South Korea
Tankblitz - Candyflame Games, UK
Mind the Trap - Dissonance Entertainment, USA
Fabric - Torreng Labs, Turkey
Fortress Destroy - Project: Destruction, Germany
POPixel - CGGAMES, Brazil
Xenorift - Digipen, Singapore
Beholder - Warm Lamp Games, Russia
911 Operator - Jutsu Games, Poland
Dissonance - Team Dissonance, USA
Galactic Hero Agency: Mind Matters - Bind, Finland
The Metronomicon - Puuba, USA
Slime-San - Fabraz, USA
Mayhem in Single Valley - Fluxscopic ltd., Canada
Score Rush Extended - Xona Games, Canada
Arc - c: Games, USA
Wells - Tower Up Studios, Brazil
Tantra Rumble - GameOlic Development Studio, Uruguay
Saving Princess - Brainos, USA
The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human - YCJY, Sweden
POI - Polykid, USA
Annie Amber - Pantumaca Barcelona, Spain
Circolorum - Jirí Novotný, Czech republic
Domiverse - Haunted Tie, Belgium
99 Rockets - Team Itatake, Sweden
Long Gone Days - Bura, Chile
Detention, RedCandleGames, Taiwan

If your game made the list, way to go! And if it didn't, I'm sorry, but hope to see you participate next year as well. I know that there were games I would have wanted to see on the list that didn't make it...

Due to the amount of games that were so good to almost win the competition, however, we will begin the GDWC audience vote for the fan-favourite game. I will send a message with more information on how the vote will work and the prizes tomorrow, so stay tuned.

The GDWC Finalists

And finally, the actual finalists. The choice to choose only three games in each category was very difficult for the judges, but we believe that these six games were truly the best of the best submitted. So without further ado...

GDWC SERIOUS CATEGORY FINALISTS:

#1: Liyla and the shadows of war, no team, Palestinian Territories
Twitter: @Liylawar

#2: 911 Operator, Jutsu Games, Poland
Twitter: @Jutsugames

#3: Kawaida's Journey, Kawaida's Journey Team, Germany
Twitter: @Kawaidasjourney

GDWC ENTERTAINMENT CATEGORY FINALISTS:

#1: Beholder, Warm Lamp Games, Russia
Twitter: @Beholder_game

#2: Poi, Polykid, USA
Twitter: @Polykidgames

#3: Dissonance, Team Dissonance, USA
Twitter:

Once again, congratulations to the winners! I hope to see you in Finland in a month. We will be in contact with the winners directly to organize their prize trip. We will keep the rest of you updated as well on details about the audience voting, about GDWC 2017 and everything else we can inform you on.

Best wishes from Finland

Leevi Rasila
Event Producer
Game Development World Championship