Bored of digital games? Play board games at NG15 instead! For the first time board games will be among the showcased titles and award nominees on Nordic Game Indie Night (NGIN).
Submissions were accepted for unpublished board games from the Nordic region, and the NGIN board game jury was very excited to see how many titles and what kinds of designs would apply. In the end the jury received 20 very diverse board game submissions. There were card games, Euro-style games, games about love, games about war, fantasy games, quiz games and cross platform analogue-digital games. Something for every taste.
Playing board games is a very physical, tactile experience and it was a pleasure to open all the packages and play around with so many different components. It was taxing as well to read so many pages of rules (always a downside to game systems you have to assimilate in your head)
It was both challenging and fun to test the games and find the six nominees. In the jury’s selection of the games, the focus was on:
Originality
Did the game use innovative mechanics or use well-known mechanics in a new context?
Design
Was the game well-designed, did the visual and tactile experience communicate the mechanics, message and story?
Gameplay
How cohesive was the game; how did the individual game mechanics fit into the larger whole? Was the game engaging and engrossing?
On Wednesday 20 May in the Oslo room at Slagthuset in Malmö, you can play the six nominated board games together with the designers who made them, and help decide who should be the winner of the Nordic Board Game Indie Sensation Award 2015. The winner will be announced during the Nordic Game Gala Dinner on 21 May.
The six Nordic Game Indie Night board game showcase and award nominees are:
Automania by Krisitan A. Østby & Kenneth Minde
Automania is a unique Euro-style strategy game, where players each run their own car factory, competing to produce the most popular cars in the world. Automania has a solid, thoroughly tested and balanced design that will keep you hooked until the game’s end.
Bloom by Lauge Lachau
Replace the abandoned city on the board with Nature and let your liberated farm animals move in. The jury choose Bloom as it was both challenging and innovative. There is nothing more satisfactory than creating new Nature in a post-apocalyptic world!
No More Money by Petri Puhro
The year is 1929. It has been a decade of boundless economic growth for America. Trading on the stock market is at an all-time high thanks to generous loans from the big banks. No More Money has a fun auction-and-trading mechanic that will turn you into a ruthless investment banker.
Top row in image above from left: Automania, Bloom, No More Money. Bottom row from left: Hivemind, Slice and Dice and My Words Exactly.
Hivemind by Kasper Lapp
A spaceship AI has broken into separate entities (the players) – these must cooperatively move robots around the ship to stop an invading alien horde. The jury chose Hivemind for the game’s well-balanced co-op mechanic that keeps all the players engaged and engrossed.
Slice and Dice by Erik Svedäng
Increasingly epic battles are fought over the course of five rounds using dice, cards, cunning tricks and a variety of troops like the “Samurai”, the “Sensei” and the mighty “Dragon”. The jury chose Slice and Dice for its unique theme and beautiful graphic design.
My Words Exactly by Freid Dice
My Words Exactly is a hectic and fast-paced word association game that forces players to think in alternative ways. Innovative quiz and guessing games are hard to come by, but My Words Exactly manages to bring something new to the genre.
Play the games, talk to the developers, and vote for your favourite on Wednesday 20 May in the Oslo room at Slagthuset in Malmö. The board game showcase will be open from 10:00 through to the end of Nordic Game Indie Night.
Important! Nordic Game Indie Night is free and open to the public, and will feature inspirational speakers as well as an “all-night” party. More information about Nordic Game Indie Night 2015 will be released very soon – stay tuned!
About the Nordic Game Indie Night board game jury
A team of Nordic curators, led by Thomas Vigild and Astrid Mie Refstrup, played, evaluated and nominated the six board game prototypes to debut at this year’s Nordic Game Indie Night Showcase and to be considered for a Nordic Game Indie Sensation Award. The jury, with expertise in the board game market, operated separately from the digital game curators.
About the Nordic Game Indie Sensation Award
The purpose of this award is to recognise new talent from the Nordic region. The nominated digital games in this category were chosen through an application process led by Copenhagen Game Collective, curators of Nordic Game Indie Night.
Eight digital games are nominated, and they can be play-tested and voted for by the public during Nordic Game Indie Night 2015 on Wednesday 20 May from 18.00 at Slagthuset in Malmö.
About the Nordic Game Awards
The Nordic Game Awards is organised by the Nordic Game Institute in cooperation with Nordic Game Resources and the Nordic Game conference. The Nordic Game Institute consists of the following game producer associations in the region: Dataspelsbranschen (SE), Icelandic Gaming Industry (IS), Neogames (FI), Spillprodusentforeningen (NO) and Producentforeningen (DK).
The organisers appoint the NGA jury, this year with the following members: Bjarki Thor Jónsson (Iceland), Jon Cato Lorentzen (Norway), Kerstin Alex (Sweden), Sonja Ängeslevä (Finland) and Søren Staal Balslev (Denmark).
Expect this and much, much more at Nordic Game 2015. So don’t delay – get your pass now!
Nordic Game 2015 sponsors & partners include:
Apollo Music • Autodesk • Awapatent • BlueStacks • BoostHbg • Casual Connect Europe • City of Malmö (Malmö stad) • Control500 • Copenhagen Game Collective • Creel • Daily Rush • Develop • Edge • European Games Developer Federation (EGDF) • Game Connection • Game Teahouse • GameDuell • GameGrapes • GamesMarkt • InMobi • Intel • King • Massive Entertainment – a Ubisoft studio • MENA Games • Microsoft • NetEase • Paradox Interactive • Perforce • Pixel • Pixel.tv • Plan of Attack • Playa Game Industry Hub • PocketGamer.biz • Quo Vadis 2015 • Reboot Develop 2015 • Renaissance Malmö Hotel • Square Enix Collective • Takeoff Creative • Tarsier Studios • The Game Assembly • The Square • Unity • Unreal Engine 4/Epic Games • Wacom
