Brains Eden, the UK’s largest international student games festival, has announced three new award categories for this year’s festival in order to ensure that all games development disciplines are celebrated.
The new award categories are Best Game Concept, Best Game Artwork and Jammer of the Year; the winners will be announced at the award ceremony on the Monday following the weekend-long jam, which takes place from Friday, 28 June – Monday, 1 July at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.
Dr Matthew Day, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University, said: “With the festival fast approaching, we are delighted that we have been able to add more award categories to the line up as it means that more of the talented games creators attending Brains Eden will be recognised.
“The weekend is fast paced and full of teams showcasing what they can do in such a short amount of time – I’m looking forward to the awards ceremony where participating students as well as industry supporters and judges will come together and celebrate the next generation of games development talent.”
The new categories join the returning line-up of awards including: Best PC Game, Best Mobile Game, Judges’ Choice Award, Spirit of the Jam Award, Best Storytelling Award by Storylab and The Innovation Award from Frontier Developments. Winners of each category will receive sought after prizes including magazine subscriptions to leading industry titles, bundles of newly released games and hardware from top manufacturers.
Brains Eden is an integral part of the student games calendar, providing a rare opportunity for students to showcase their skills directly to industry, while companies and studios benefit by gaining access to talented individuals soon to be graduating from universities around the world, including Finland, The Netherlands, France, Spain, Belgium and the UK.
The festival combines a 48-hour games jam under a surprise theme, revealed on the first day, with careers clinics and a full line up of industry talks as well mentors, specializing in everything from environment artwork to sound production, to help the student teams along the way.
Day continued: “We are always blown away by the generosity of industry representatives giving up their time across the weekend to give back to future talent. This year, Brains Eden not only has a stellar line up of industry mentors, but a full schedule of speakers from leading studios. These talks are invaluable to the students as it gives them a real insight into their future career paths and how they can get there. Above all, our main priority is that the event remains fun and exciting for those attending while providing the added value of industry input – it’s set to be a great weekend.”