Gaming - BAFTA Games Awards Nominations

God of War lords it over the others as the nominations for the British Academy Game awards got announced yesterday...

God of War, the 8th instalment in the gaming series, gathered a total of ten nominations, including the coveted Best Game category as well as taking up an impressive four of the six nomination slots in the Best Performer category.

Rockstar Games cowboy classic in the making, Red Dead Redemption 2, picked up 6 nominations, alongside the 3903 LLC puzzler Return of the Obra Dinn and the interactive novel Florence from the Australian studio Mountains, with the Canadian developed Celeste getting five. Celeste, by Matt Thorson and Noel Berry is also up for the Game Beyond Entertainment award because the game’s narrative encourages players to overcome struggles, persevere and achieve their goals with compassion, and aims to bring a greater understanding of mental illness. Other nominations in Game Beyond Entertainment are 11-11: Memories Retold, Florence, Life is Strange 2, My Child Lebensborn and Nintendo Labo.

The public can have a say in one of the awards too, as voting opened on Tuesday 12th March for the EE Mobile Game of the Year. The shortlist is Brawl Stars, Clash Royale, Fortnite, Old School Runescape, Pokémon Go and Roblox. Vote now at ee.co.uk/BAFTAgames.

The main excitement for us here at The DreamCage though centres around the two nominations, for art and audio, for Detroit Become Human (read Kraig's review here) and the 3 nods for Overcooked 2, including for best Multiplayer Game (watch the Defective Inspector playing the previous game in in the multiplayer series ON HIS OWN here)

The British Academy Games Awards is BAFTA’s annual celebration of the very best in games of the past 12 months. The nominations announced today highlight an outstanding level of creative excellence from a broad range of UK and international development teams. The Awards take place on Thursday 4th April 2019.

Here's the full list of nominations:

ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT 

DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN Guillaume de Fondaumière, David Cage, John O’Brien – Quantic Dream/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
GRIS Development Team – Nomada Studio/Devolver Digital
GOD OF WAR Development Team – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 Development Team – Rockstar Games/Rockstar Games
RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN Lucas Pope – Lucas Pope/3909


AUDIO ACHIEVEMENT

BATTLEFIELD V Development Team – EA Dice/Electronic Arts
DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN Guillaume de Fondaumière, David Cage, John O’Brien – Quantic Dream/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
GOD OF WAR Mike Niederquell, Todd Piperi, Leilani Ramirez – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN Paul Mudra, Phillip Kovats, Dwight Okahara – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 Development Team – Rockstar Games/Rockstar Games
TETRIS EFFECT Hydelic, Noboru Mutoh, Takako Ishida – Monstars Inc. and Resonair/Enhance, Inc.


BEST GAME 

ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY Development Team – Ubisoft Quebec/Ubisoft
ASTRO BOT: RESCUE MISSION Development Team – SIE Japan Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
CELESTE Development Team – Matt Makes Games Inc./Matt Makes Games Inc.
GOD OF WAR Cory Barlog, Yumi Yang, Shannon Studstill – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 Development Team – Rockstar Games/Rockstar Games
RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN Lucas Pope – Lucas Pope/3909


BRITISH GAME

11-11: MEMORIES RETOLD Dan Efergan, Bram Ttwheam, George Rowe - Digixart, Aardman & Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe/Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe
FORZA HORIZON 4 Development Team – Playground Games/Microsoft Studios
RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 Development Team – Rockstar Games/Rockstar Games
THE ROOM: OLD SINS Development Team – Fireproof Games/ Fireproof Games
OVERCOOKED 2 Development Team – Ghost Town Games & Team 17/ Team 17
TWO POINT HOSPITAL Development Team – Two Point Studios/SEGA


DEBUT GAME

BEAT SABER Development Team – Beat Games/Beat Games
CULTIST SIMULATOR Alexis Kennedy, Lottie Bevan – Weather Factory/Humble Bundle
DONUT COUNTY Ben Esposito – Ben Espositio/Annapurna Interactive
FLORENCE Development Team – Mountains/Annapurna Interactive
GRIS Development Team – Nomada Studio/Devolver Digital
YOKU’S ISLAND EXPRESS Development Team – Villa Gorilla/Team 17

EVOLVING GAME

DESTINY 2: FORSAKEN Development Team – Bungie/Activision
ELITE DANGEROUS: BEYOND Development Team – Frontier/Frontier
FORTNITE Development Team – Epic Games/Epic Games
OVERWATCH Development Team – Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment
SEA OF THIEVES Development Team – Rare Ltd/Microsoft Studios
TOM CLANCY’S RAINBOW SIX SIEGE Development Team – Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft


FAMILY

LEGO DISNEY PIXAR’S THE INCREDIBLES Pete Gomer, Dan Crossley, Nicholas Ricks – TT Games/WB Games
NINTENDO LABO Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
OVERCOOKED 2 Development Team – Ghost Town Games & Team17/Team17
POKÉMON: LET’S GO, PIKACHU! AND LET’S GO, EEVEE! Development Team – Game Freak/The Pokémon Company and Nintendo
SUPER MARIO PARTY Development Team – NDCube/Nintendo
YOKU’S ISLAND EXPRESS Development Team – Villa Gorilla/Team 17


GAME BEYOND ENTERTAINMENT

11-11: MEMORIES RETOLD Yoan Fanise, Dan Efergan, Lionel Lovisa - Digixart, Aardman & Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe/Bandai Namco Entertainment
CELESTE Development Team – Matt Makes Games Inc./Matt Makes Games Inc.
FLORENCE Development Team – Mountains/Annapurna Interactive
LIFE IS STRANGE 2 Michel Koch, Raoul Barbet - DONTNOD Entertainment/Square Enix
MY CHILD LEBENSBORN Development Team - Sarepta Studio AS/Teknopilot AS, Sarepta Studio AS
NINTENDO LABO Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo


GAME DESIGN

ASTRO BOT: RESCUE MISSION Development Team – SIE Japan Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
CELESTE Development Team – Matt Makes Games Inc./Matt Makes Games Inc.
GOD OF WAR Development Team - Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
INTO THE BREACH Justin Ma, Matthew Davis – Subset Games/Subset Games
MINIT Development Team - JW, Kitty, Jukio, and Dom/Devolver Digital
RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN Lucas Pope – Lucas Pope/3909


GAME INNOVATION

ASTRO BOT: RESCUE MISSION Development Team – SIE Japan Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
CELESTE Development Team – Matt Makes Games Inc./Matt Makes Games Inc.
CULTIST SIMULATOR Alexis Kennedy, Lottie Bevan – Weather Factory/Humble Bundle
MOSS Development Team – Polyarc/Polyarc
NINTENDO LABO Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN Lucas Pope – Lucas Pope/3909

MOBILE GAME

ALTO’S ODYSSEY Development Team – Team Alto/Snowman
BRAWL STARS Development Team – Supercell/Supercell
DONUT COUNTY Ben Esposito – Ben Esposito/Annapurna Interactive
FLORENCE Development Team – Mountains/Annapurna Interactive
REIGNS: GAME OF THRONES François Alliot, Tamara Alliot, Arnaud De Bock – Nerial/Devolver Digital
THE ROOM: OLD SINS Development Team – Fireproof Games/Fireproof Games

MULTIPLAYER

A WAY OUT Development Team – Hazelight/EA Originals
BATTLEFIELD V Development Team – EA DICE/Electronic Arts
OVERCOOKED 2 Development Team – Ghost Town Games & Team 17/Team 17
SEA OF THIEVES Development Team – Rare Ltd/Microsoft Studios
SUPER MARIO PARTY Development Team – NDCube/Nintendo
SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE Development Team – Nintendo, Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd/Nintendo


MUSIC

CELESTE Lena Raine – Matt Makes Games Inc./Matt Makes Games Inc.
FAR CRY 5 Development Team – Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft
FLORENCE Development Team – Mountains/Annapurna Interactive
GOD OF WAR Bear McCreary, Keith Leary, Peter Scaturro - Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
GRIS Development Team – Nomada Studios/Devolver Digitial
TETRIS EFFECT Hydelic, Noboru Mutoh, Takako Ishida – Monstars Inc. and Resonair/Enhance, Inc.


NARRATIVE

FLORENCE Writing Team – Mountains/Annapurna Interactive
FROSTPUNK Writing Team – 11 Bit Studios/11 Bit Studios
GOD OF WAR Cory Barlog, Matt Sophos, Richard Zangrande Gaubert – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN Writing Team - Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 Dan Houser, Rupert Humphries, Michael Unsworth - Rockstar Games/Rockstar Games
RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN Lucas Pope – Lucas Pope/3909


ORIGINAL PROPERTY

DEAD CELLS Development Team – Motion Twin/Motion Twin
FLORENCE Development Team – Mountains/Annapurna Interactive
INTO THE BREACH Development Team – Subset Games/Subset Games
MOSS Development Team – Polyarc/Polyarc
RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN Lucas Pope – Lucas Pope/3909
SUBNAUTICA Development Team – Unknown Worlds Entertainment/Unknown Worlds Entertainment


PERFORMER

CHRISTOPHER JUDGE as Kratos in God of War
DANIELLE BISUTTI as Freya in God of War
JEREMY DAVIES as The Stranger in God of War
MELISSANTHI MAHUT as Kassandra of Sparta in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
ROGER CLARK as Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2
SUNNY SULJIC as Atreus in God of War


EE MOBILE GAME OF THE YEAR (voted for by the public)

BRAWL STARS – Supercell/Supercell
CLASH ROYALE – Supercell/Supercell
FORTNITE - Epic Games/Epic Games
OLD SCHOOL RUNESCAPE – Jagex/Jagex
POKÉMON GO – The Pokémon Company, Niantic/Nintendo
ROBLOX – Roblox Corporation/Roblox Corporation

Images - BAFTA