It’s an important night for the video games industry.
Some of the world’s largest studios are in the running for the coveted Bafta Games award tonight.
The annual celebration of the best video games is one of the most prestigious events in the industry.
It will only be online and broadcasted live for the second year in a row due to the coronavirus pandemic.
‘It’s Like Going To The Oscars’
“It’s like going to the Oscars,” said Siobhan Reddy – one of the few winners yet to be announced.
She will be honored with a Bafta Fellowship for his work with sports company Media Molecule.
The accolade comes in recognition of her “pioneering work on advocacy for diversity, inclusion and creative and collaborative working culture”.
“I have to be honest, I felt like vomiting!” laughs Siobhan as she recalls the moment she found out she’d won the prestigious award.
I’m So Happy
“It’s incredibly humble. I’ve been through a lot of emotions, I’ve come out on the other side feeling incredibly grateful, incredibly touched, and incredibly motivated. I’m so happy.”
Siobhan is the studio director at Media Molecule, an after-game group such as LittleBigPlanet and Dreams, a game-building software designed for PlayStation.
She says she is particularly proud of the studio’s commitment to improving gender equality and encouraging more girls in schools to “follow their interests” and improve program and program activities.
“Everyone and their mum knows what a Bafta is,” she says.
“So when you have that moment as a games maker, to be able to get an award that everyone knows is cool… it’s just a special moment.”
Fall Guys
Media Molecule itself has yet to learn whether or not the development team itself will also secure a golden mask.
It’s title Dreams is up for five nominations, including Artistic Achievement, British Game, Family Game, Game Beyond Entertainment, and Technical Achievement.
In some of those categories, however, the game is up against another colourful, family-favourite experience: Mediatonic’s obstacle course game, Fall Guys.
Joe Walsh, who works on the bombastic title as lead level designer.
“I can’t code, I can’t draw, I’m not very technical – the best thing I can do is just poke and prod at other people’s work and let them excel,” he laughs.
Joe says that securing an esteemed Bafta nomination feels “surreal”.
“It’s gutting that we can’t all dress to the nines and go to a cool award ceremony,” says Joe – especially as the team hasn’t even been together in the same room since Fall Guys launched last summer.
“To see the nominations come in and see the calibre of games that we were up against, it’s quite surreal,” he adds.
“The Baftas is something that we all watch as a studio each year, and we’ll talk about and discuss, and nominate our own favourites and things like that.”
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