Last week half of the Balancing Monkey Team (Bre, Sam, Anna, Laura and Sarah) met up in Wellington for the annual NZ Games Festival’s Play by Play conference and Pav awards. And what an eventful few days it was!
Over two days we attended loads of amazing talks, caught up with game dev friends, and met new folks working in the Aotearoa games industry, while both Anna and Laura gave their own talks too! We also attended the New Zealand Game Awards - known as The Pavs - in which we were nominated for two categories (and won! But more on that soon).
In her talk, ‘Yes I Can (Learn), Anna reflected on the path that has taken her from career beginnings to NZGDA Chair, including the importance of being open to unexpected opportunities and learning on the job. Her presentation was super inspiring and we got to see a lovely image of Sam and Anna on their wedding day, in which MJ said “Sam looks like a Vampire”
Laura’s talk was titled ‘Craft with Care,’ where she shared some of the top lessons she’s learned in her narrative design career so far. Her talk covered a range of lessons, from respecting players and embracing your weaknesses and strengths to understanding what ‘cosy’ means to people.
And now for the awards!
We were nominated for "The Perfect Recipe - Excellence in Design" and "The Accessible Ambrosia - Excellence in accessibility". We won both!
There we were, sitting down watching the nominees appear on screen, thinking that these are some awesome nominees and that we were up against some amazing titles! Hearing Beyond These Stars being announced as the winner for both was such an awesome experience (there may have been some tears shed) and we are so SO incredibly grateful to have won these awards!
Sam went up on stage and gave his speeches which were very moving and heartfelt, and he definitely DID NOT trip on the way up to the stage when we won the second award…
We also want to shout out Atawhai Interactive, our Indie Dev neighbours who won the award for “Diverse Delight: Excellence in Representation” for their game Toroa: Skycall. We share an office with these lovely people and are so proud of them for the win! Might I say… Dunedin Represent?!
Despite the weather in Wellington being very wet and windy, I think it’s safe to say it was all worth it! We had such an amazing time and we are so grateful to our amazing community for the continued support while we develop Beyond These Stars, and we are sooo excited to be able to bring you the full release this year!
That’s all from me for now, keep your eyes peeled because we will have a new Dev Blog coming soon on Peep Mourning.
Bye for now!
