Digital Dragons Indie Celebration winners

15 maja 2020

Ghostrunner of Krakow's One More Level studio turned out to be the best game of the indie games competition organized by Krakow Technology Park in cooperation with Walkabout, Steam and AMD. The games The Riftbreaker (EXOR Studios) and Stoneshard (Ink Stains Games) also gained recognition in the eyes of the competitions jury. The level of productions that entered into the event was so high that the jury also decided to mention other games.

The best game of Digital Dragons Indie Celebration turned out to be Ghostrunner (One More Level, Poland) - an action FPP game set in the cyberpunk world, combining the elements of white weapon combat with skillfully completing subsequent levels. Arguing the choice of the competition jury emphasized perfectly designed levels and, above all, the game mechanics.

Ghostrunner

This game takes running on the walls and managing the flow of time to a whole new level

Jakub Rokosz (Fools Theory), Jury Member

For the team standing behind Ghostrunner, the award in Digital Dragons Indie Celebration is extremely important:

The fact that the jury has chosen our game from among many other amazing productions is a great boost of motivation for the coming months and at the same time shows that as a One More Level team, we are going in the right direction with the development of the game. Taking this opportunity, I would like to thank the players, who have even flooded us with a positive response to the demo and are an inspiration and source of ideas for us (and challenges: wink:). I'm sure that without them this success wouldn't be possible. Finally, the words of admiration and recognition for the whole OML team, driven by passion and determination. Thanks to this, Ghostrunner is already an exceptional production, and the best is still ahead of us.

Szymon Bryła, Head of Studio at One More Level

Second place in the competition was won by another Polish developer - The Riftbreakers game developed by EXOR Studios, which is a unique combination of strategy and base building management with a survival game mixed with RPG and action elements. In the case of the game prepared by Szczecin-based studio, the jurors paid attention primarily to the sensationally prepared system of building a base on a distant planet, developed according to the principle "easy to learn, difficult to master".

For Paweł Lekki, CEO of EXOR Studios, it is a great recognition:

We are super excited about the The Riftbreaker reaching the winners' podium in the Digital Dragons Indie Celebration contest. There was a plethora of outstanding titles in the competition and it is an honor to be amongst the winning few. The Digital Dragons Indie Celebration contest has been a great way for us to reach new fans and to showcase the game to a broader audience. The very broad support of numerous press outlets and media personalities is precious to any independent developer.”

Paweł Lekki, CEO of EXOR Studios

The last place on the podium was taken by Stoneshard from the Russian Ink Stains Games studio. The jury considered the greatest advantages of this open-world, medieval turn-based RPG to be an exceptionally skillful combination of the Darksouls' 2D climate with mechanics taken straight from the legendary Ultima series.

During Indie Celebration, the audience following the event on Steam's dedicated website and numerous streamer broadcasts from around the world could also vote for their favourite games. The Community Vote Award was finally won by Last Oasis developed by Donkey Crew - an MMO game set in an open, post-apocalyptic world.

The winning teams from the first three places and the Community Vote winner will receive computers with Ryzen 9 CPUs funded by AMD, the event partner.

The competition among the 50 games that were selected for the competition was so fierce that the Jury also decided to award individual recognitions for the production that caught the attention:

Special recognition Brett Makedonski, Destructoid - Ars Fabulae (Punk Notion, Poland)
Special recognition Jakub Rokosz, Fool's Theory - Not for Broadcast (NotGames, UK)
Special recognition Jakub Wójcik, Indie Games Poland - Liberated (Atomic Wolf, Poland)
Special recognition Karol Zajączkowski, 11 bit studios - Enemy on Board (Windwalk Games, USA)
Special recognition Robert Purchese, Eurogamer - Rhythm Fighter (echo games, China)

Demos of games participating in Digital Dragons Indie Celebration, including some of the awarded titles, are available until the end of Sunday 17 May on Steam's dedicated website.