The dragons are coming - voting for Digital Dragons Awards has begun

17 marca 2023

In less than two months, on May 15, 2023, during Digital Dragons Conference in Krakow, Poland, we will recognize the winners of the most prestigious award in the Polish game industry. The Digital Dragons Awards gala will be held that day and the famous statuettes of hatching dragons will be awarded in seven categories. The final verdict is influenced by the entire community of gamers and game developers, who can vote for their favourites until April 7.

A list of nominated games will be created based on the community's votes, which will then go to the jury, composed mostly of leading media representatives, for deliberation. The voting form is available on the Digital Dragons website. This year, the organizer of the conference and gala, Krakow Technology Park, has prepared seven dragon eggs, which will be received by the winners in the following categories: Best Polish Game, Best Polish Game Design, Best Polish Game Art, Best Polish Game Audio, Best Ongoing Polish Game, Best Foreign Game and Special Recognition Award.

The past year may not have been as electrifying for the domestic industry as the first two years of the pandemic, but that doesn't mean it was lacking in great titles to play. Everyone will, of course, focus (deservedly) on Techland's megapremiere, Dying Light 2: Stay Human, and it's likely that this production is the sure bet of most viewers and critics. However, I'm mostly curious to see how the much smaller, but by no means lesser productions - Hard West II, Blacktail or Midnight Fight Express - will do. After all, it wasn't so long ago - in 2021 - that games like Carrion and Ghostrunner faced such a colossus as Cyberpunk 2077. I'm also intrigued by the results in the Best Ongoing Game category: which of the many games of the live service nature released by Polish studios wins. It will certainly be difficult to determine the nominees and winners in the Best Foreign Game category, the only one in which non-Polish productions are awarded. 2022 was full of such high-profile foreign works as Stray, God of War: Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West and, above all, the unmissable Elden Ring. One thing I can say for sure: digital games have never done so well, domestically or globally. Anyone complaining about “how things used to be” is only wasting valuable time that would be better spent on gaming.

Jacek Wandzel, Digital Dragons Awards coordinator

Digital Dragons Awards follow new trends in the industry and respond to them. Compared to last year's award category structure, there have been two significant changes.

Best Ongoing Polish Game is a response to the changing mobile and online game market and new publishing models. This award is for MMO and live service games or productions supported long after release or leaving Early Access. We want to recognize projects that have taken feedback to heart or achieved success through steady growth and community support. Best Polish Game Audio, on the other hand, replaces the Best Original Soundtrack category. We don't forget about soundtracks and music, but we want to recognize the efforts of effects specialists, sound designers and directors and games in which audio plays as important of a role as video and gameplay.

Jacek Wandzel, Digital Dragons Awards coordinator

The awards will be given for the twelfth time. Last year, the most statuettes were won by Bloober Team, a Krakow-based studio, whose hit The Medium was awarded in as many as three categories - the most important one, Best Polish Game, as well as Best Polish Game Design and Best Polish Original Game Soundtrack. The soundtrack from the game, thanks to KPT's cooperation with the KBF, will be presented in connection with the award during a special concert at the Krakow Film Music Festival in May.

Digital Dragons for Ukraine

Like last year, the conference organizers are mindful of the plight of Ukrainian game developers. That's why a special pool of 20 free tickets and five booths in the CEE Showcase has been earmarked for them - to apply for them, just send an email with your reasons to gamedevforukraine@digitaldragons.pl.

Participation in the Digital Dragons conference is a great opportunity to make new business contacts, including convincing a potential investor or publisher to your project. Conference guests are also often looking for new talent to hire.

Meet the new speakers

Regardless of the behind-the-scenes networking activities, Digital Dragons is always an excellent opportunity to expand your professional competencies thanks to the powerful conference section, which this year will include dozens of lectures divided into seven thematic tracks. We have just announced the names of the following lecturers and the last call for submissions - in the mobile, production and leadership, and programming and technology categories - is open until the end of March.

Speakers who have joined the dragon team include acclaimed composer Inon Zur, Katya Pateva and Dimitar Simidchiev (both from 11 bit studios) and John Fuller (Avalanche Studios Group).

For those who are passionate about the technological side of gamedev I particularly recommend John Fuller's lecture on the economic aspects of developing and maintaining one's own technology. On the other hand, I especially direct the attention of those conference guests with an artistic bent to Inon Zur, a composer we have wanted to invite to Krakow for several years. The author of music for Dragon Age or the upcoming Starfield will talk about composing based on his own experience with Out of This World. All game designers will surely be interested in lectures by a duo of veterans from 11 bit studios, Katia Pateva and Dimitar Simidchiev, whose portfolios includes work for Ubisoft on the Assassin's Creed series.

Maciej Śliwinski, program coordinator of Digital Dragons