Legend of Grimrock 2 from Espoo-based studio Almost Human won “Best Finnish Game of the Year 2014” as the Finnish games industry celebrated its twentieth anniversary with an awards gala in Helsinki on 21 April.
The Finnish Game Awards, organised by the Finnish Game Developer Studios Association and Neogames Finland, also honored several other outstanding Finnish productions at the event, which was attended by studio executives and government officials from across Finland.
“In these twenty years, and especially during the last few, we have seen a huge transformation and growth in the Finnish games industry,” said Neogames Finland director Koopee Hiltunen. “I’m extremely happy to see this enthusiastic attitude and so many new talented players continuously emerging in the market.”
“We feel it is important to award the best developers yearly and bring people together to celebrate the industry,” said Finnish Game Developer Studios Association chairman Elina Arponen. “It was exciting to celebrate together with so many fellow game developers.”
“Finland is a great country to develop games in,” said Colossal Order senior programmer Damien Morello. “Finnish game studios openly share information on their games and help each other as much as they can in all issues related to the games business I’ve never seen anything quite as open as this in any other industry that I’ve worked in before.”
The evening’s winners were:
Best Finnish Game of the Year 2014: Legend of Grimrock 2
Part two continues in the footsteps of part one, as studio Almost Human’s original Legend of Grimrock was selected as “Best Finnish Game of the Year” in 2012.
Check out the Legend of Grimrock 2 pre-order trailer:
Rookie of the Year 2014: Seriously Ltd
Seriously was founded in 2013 and has secured over US$10 million in funding, as well as launched the hit mobile title Best Fiends in 2014. Seriously is a great example of a “second round” studio, further strengthening the Finnish games industry.
Check out the Best Fiends iOS gameplay trailer:
Power Player of the Year 2014: Juho Kuorikoski
Juho Kuorikoski’s book “Finnish Video Games: A History and Catalog” presents the history of the Finnish game industry, featuring over 600 games and their stories.
“Finnish Video Games: A History and Catalog” by Juho Kuorikoski is available on Amazon here.
Best Big Screen Game of the Year 2014: Legend of Grimrock 2
Almost Human’s original Legend of Grimrock was already a notable success and part two follows the same path with remarkable sales and reviews. Old school dungeons and dragons seem to have a lot of appeal!
Best Small Screen Game of the Year 2014: Best Fiends
Best Fiends is Seriously’s first-ever published game and a major success story. An addictive adventure game suitable for everyone, Best Fiends was created with extensive entertainment branding in mind from the beginning.
Sensation of the Year 2014: Finnish Game Jam
The roots of the Finnish games industry are in the early game enthusiast scene and with the people who first developed games as a hobby, and later as a job. Finnish Game Jam has arranged industry meet-ups since 2010, with 2014 a record-breaking year in terms of the number of participants and event venues around Finland.
Espoo-based studio Almost Human wins “Best Finnish Game of the Year 2014” for Legend of Grimrock 2
About Neogames
Neogames Finland is a member-based, non-profit game industry organisation with the mission to accelerate, coordinate and support the development of the Finnish games sector. Neogames’ members represent all parts of the Finnish game industry, from business to education and research. Neogames is an impartial umbrella association, and serves the shared interests of all industry players to provide a solid and growth-oriented environment for the Finnish games industry as a whole.
Download the report “The Game Industry of Finland” from Neogames here.
Finnish Game Developer Studios Association
Suomen pelinkehittäjät ry (Finnish Game Developer Studios Association) is an amalgamation of Finnish game development studios that acts to protect and advance the political and economic interests of Finnish game developers and studios.
