Indie Prize Winners at Casual Connect Europe Announced!

Indie Prize Winners at Casual Connect Europe Announced!

With Casual Connect Europe in Amsterdam, Netherlands all wrapped up and the Indie Prize winners selected, it\'s time to officially announce who won. Out of the 200 Indie Prize applicants, only 120 were admitted to the conference and only a mere 11 walked away with an award. The competition was fierce and there was some debating amongst the judges, however, it all worked out fantastically. In total, the prizes for winners are worth over $500,000 and included the following: Unity licenses, 5K in Google Cloud Services, Photon Cloud services, headsets from Plantronics, various devices from Amazon, free advertisements from us, free highlights from BlogsRelease, and plenty more. Lastly, the two Best In Show winners also receive $1,000 stipends from Casual Connect which can be used towards the trip to Casual Connect Asia in Singapore in May. But without any further to do, here\'s the list of winners along with their respective category.

• Best Art - Lumino City by State of Play Games


• Best Audio - Amphora by Moondrop


• Best Narrative - Herald by Wispfire


• Best Game Design - LA Cops by Modern Dream


• Most Promising Game in Development - Guild of Dungeoneering by Gambrinous


• Best PC Game - Guns, Gore and Cannoli by Crazy Monkey Studios


• Best Multiplayer Game - Move or Die by Those Awesome Guys


• Best Mobile Game - First Strike HD by Blindflug Studios


• Director\'s Choice Award - Shadow Puppeteer by Sarepta Studio


• Best in Show: Critic\'s Choice Award - Party Hard by Pinokl Games


• Best in Show: Audience Choice Award - Replay: VHS is Not Dead by Neko Entertainment

The games were judged by critics -- Henry Oh from CNN, Zoya Street from Gamesbrief, Dan Oravasaari from PlayStation LifeStyle, Aaron Whitfield from PocketFullOfApps, Rai Sewgobind from Eye For Games, Jurjen Tiersma from Power Unlimited, André Bernhardt from Indie Advisor. On the other hand, the prize judges included Nick Berry from Facebook, Christopher Hamilton from Rovio, Oscar Clark from Unity, Candy Yang from Aarki, Aaron Walz from Walz Music, Jamison Selby from b Spot, and over a dozen more people or organizations.

Casual Connect Amsterdam: Day 3

Casual Connect Amsterdam: Day 3

After battling it out with jet lag and some minor air line hiccups, here is everything from day 3 of Casual Connect in Amsterdam. Additionally the most exciting part of the event, the Indie Prize Awards, has also taken place with an announcement following shortly from now. Overall the event was a lot of fun, entertaining, and both rewarding for many of the indie developers. It was also nice to see some friends and previous developers from Casual Connect Eastern Europe in Belgrade, Serbia representing their game at the Amsterdam conference. All in all there were over 2,000 attendees and more than 120 indie developers representing their game at the Beurs Van Berlage. As of now that\'s all we got, however, we\'ll have more announcements and Casual Connect-related articles coming soon.

Record Number of Indie Games Participating in Indie Prize Showcase At Casual Connect Amsterdam

Record Number of Indie Games Participating in Indie Prize Showcase At Casual Connect Amsterdam

With Causal Connect kicking off tomorrow, we\'ve recently gotten some really exciting news. According to our sources within the event, a record number of 120 indie games from over 40 countries will be participating in the Indie Prize Showcase at Casual Connect Europe in Amsterdam. This is pretty stellar -- the competition was fierce with over 200 game submissions. Out of the 120 developer teams, they will compete in 11 categories including Most Innovative Game, Most Family-Friendly Game, Most Promising Game In Development, Best Game Design, and more. Out of these categories, winners will be chosen by both judges, press and conference visitors. In addition as a quick side note, twice as many judges have been selected in comparison to previous events (hint: I will be one of those judges).

“This is the biggest showcase so far - in all regards - by the amount of submissions, participating countries and developers. Our hope is that all participants will be able to get the most out of the conference and showcase. After all, it\'s the developers who make Indie Prize great”, says Yulia Vakhrusheva, Director of Indie Prize.

For the winners, the prizes include: a Unity License, 5K in Google Cloud Services, Photon Cloud Services, headsets from Plantronics, various devices from Amazon, a free ad on PocketFullOfApps (hey, that\'s us!) and live game streaming from the Indie Prize Awards to Twitch. Finally, the "Best In Show" winners will receive $1,000 stipends from Casual Connect that will go towards their trip to Casual Connect Asia in Singapore in May.

Don’t Forget This Week’s Coverage of Casual Connect Amsterdam! [Sticky]

Don’t Forget This Week’s Coverage of Casual Connect Amsterdam! [Sticky]

The time has finally came folks -- in just a couple days Casual Connect Amsterdam will kick off after plenty of waiting and anticipation. We first announced out coverage back in December of last year and have been posting small updates every now and then, just like the lecture schedule. In addition to any awesome conference, we\'ll also be at all the after parties and networking events. Unlike previous conferences we covered where we did roundups, we\'re going to try something new this time. Instead of doing one roundup per day then an entire recap of the conference, we\'ll do one consistent live blog full of updates all throughout the day. That we you folks can better stay updated and in tune with what is going on. We\'ll also be including plenty of pictures in the live updates as well, so be on the look out for that. So without further to do, stay tuned for the updates and let the fun begin!

Casual Connect Europe 2015 in Amsterdam Lecture Schedule

Casual Connect Europe 2015 in Amsterdam Lecture Schedule

With Casual Connect Europe 2015 in Amsterdam just a week away, it\'s time to gear up and get ready for a fun-filled week. Set to be about two times bigger than Casual Connect Eastern Europe in Belgrade, there will be even plenty more interesting speakers, lectures, and post-conference parties. Wrapping up the event will be the Indie Prize Showcase on at noon on Friday, February 6th. Apart from that, the actual conference will take place at the Beurs Van Berlage from Wednesday, February 6th to Friday, February 8th from 8:00 -- 18:00 every day. For those attending or interested in attending, here\'s some quick highlights on the lectures and speakers:

• Especially For Devs: Google Cloud Platform Workshop and Unity Focus Sessions


• Dan Fiden CSO of FunPlus on Why the Gaming World is Flat


• Evil Game Design Challenge 4 hosted by Scott Foe starring Tomo Moriwaki, Anwar Dalati And My Tran.


• David Helgason Founder of Unity on Micro-Audiences


• Shazia Makhdumi VP of Google Play for Education on The New Generation of Digital Learning


• Anders Evju CMO of PlayPhone on Mobile Game Distribution in Emerging Markets is a Must: Here\'s How To Do It


• Elad Kushnir VP of Playtika/Caesars on The State of Social Casino


• Matt Hall and Andy Sum on The Road to Crossy Road: Inside the 12-week hit of 2014


• Sebastian Barabanow CEO of Game Factory on 10 Years of Game Development


• Emily Greer CEO of Kongregate on Breaking Labels: Core, Casual, and other Misconceptions


• The Merits Of Multiplayer - A Discussion starring Rik Haandrikman, Ori Shaked, Leonard Frankel, Jan-michel Saaksmeier, Erdem Inan and Alfonso Villar.

Those interested can see full line up of lectures, panels, and speakers broken down into an easy read format based upon the time slots by clicking here. Apart form that, you can expect plenty of coverage of next week\'s event including photos, interviews, news, and plenty more.

Join Us at GamePoint’s NEON Casual Connect Europe Party!

Join Us at GamePoint’s NEON Casual Connect Europe Party!

With Causal Connect Europe less than three weeks away, it\'s time to get all the necessarily preparations under way and let the excitement begin. Out of the seven networking events happening, GamePoint\'s NEON party will be the main event at this conference. Taking place on February 5th from 8:00pm to 1:00am (UTC+01), the party will be held at Club AIR and feature various DJs as well as an awesome neon theme. Those already attending the conference can see the full details here. On the other hand if you don\'t have a ticket to the conference but would like to go, you can register here. As we announced our coverage of the event last month, I\'ll be at both the event and all the additional networking events. So if you\'re a developer and want to get in contact, be sure to check out this link. Until then, we\'ll see you all in Amsterdam!

Announcing Our Coverage of Casual Connect Europe!

Announcing Our Coverage of Casual Connect Europe!

With Casual Connect Belgrade in the books, it\'s time to turn our focus on the next big event. Taking place at the Beurs Van Berlage in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Casual Connect Europe will take place from February 4th through the 6th. Almost three times the size of Casual Connect Belgrade, this event will be home to 2,000 professional attendees, 170 speakers, and 120 Indie Prize teams. Out of the 120 Indie Prize teams, only a select handful will walk home with one of the much coveted awards. That said, there\'s a lot more at stake and the competition will be fierce this time around. That only means one thing though -- we get to play a lot of fantastic games from numerous indie developers that deserve a chance at making it big. Those interested can check out the official Indie Prize website for the Amsterdam event here. Just like our coverage of Casual Connect Belgrade and San Francisco, we\'ll be doing regular reporting of the event with pictures, interviews, updates, round ups, and much more. I\'ll also be down on the Indie Prize floor judging some of the games, so be on the lookout for me and be sure to say hello as well. With Causal Connect Europe being roughly one and a half months away there are plenty of updates that we\'ll share with you as the event approaches, so be sure to stay on the look out.