Much more goes into making a game than people realize. Of course, there is the actual “making of,” which consists of creating the concept, designing the game, writing the storyline and defining the characters and world. Then there is the programming of all those pieces, testing everything, and publishing the game.
That’s it! Now you have built a game! And that’s when the hard part starts: Now you have to get the people to find your game. One of the ways to do that is to attend gaming and tech conventions, such as Game Connection America, which was held last week in San Francisco.
Game Connection is an organization that focuses on helping game designers, publishers, investors, distributors, marketers, and others in the industry build business-to-business relationships. This means that their events are not open to the public but are attended by over 2,500 people in the gaming industry. Every year, the 5-day Game Connection event is held in parallel to the Game Development Conference, also in San Francisco, and gets many of the same people attending both.
This year, the Shadow’s Edge team was in full force at Game Connection, trying to make connections with people who can help our game reach more young people who need it. It didn’t hurt that we were up for a big award! Out of 615 games that applied for Game Connection awards, 34 were nominated in categories ranging from Best IP, to best Visual Arts, to our category, Best Social Game.
Because this was a gaming conference and not a health conference, we were up against development studios big and small, most offering games built for pure entertainment. And, despite our mission to help young people with serious health challenges build resilience, we lost out in the category of Best Social Game to one of these games built for fun, a team, multiplayer vehicle race and battle game called Crystal League.
Shadow’s Edge was also a finalist for the Game Connection People’s Choice Award. Voting was simple: Game Connection built a Facebook page listing each game, and the game with the most likes, won. We’re honored to report that Shadow’s Edge earned 626 likes, 104 comments, and 90 shares, putting us in third place, which is pretty darn good! Considering that over 600 games applied, and our audience is just a tiny slice of the overall gaming community, we’re cool with third!
In fact, we were the ONLY serious game that was even nominated for any category, and ended up a finalist for two awards! You know why? It’s because of our community, especially our partners that help us spread the word and the players who make our community special. It’s because of you. As long as you keep playing, we’ll keep going to conferences and working hard to raise awareness through awards and events. Together, we can show the community of gamers and developers that while games can certainly be fun, they can also be so much more — games can make young lives better.