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International Mobile Gaming Awards

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The International Mobile Gaming Awards ("IMGA") is an annual competition and awards ceremony that honors outstanding games made for mobile devices. It is the longest standing international competition for mobile games. Notable IMGA winners include Candy Crush Saga and Monument Valley. It is the only competition that unites the industry by celebrating excellence and innovation in games.

The best mobile games submissions are awarded at the prize-giving IMGA ceremony, which takes place in various cities across the United States and Asia.

IMGA was founded by Maarten Noyons in 2004 and is headquartered in Marseilles, France.

History

In 2004 the mobile games industry was still finding its feet. As developers began carving out a space in the market, the French division of Discreet announced the first "International 3D Mobile Gaming Competition."[1] With over $50,000 of prizes to be won, the contest was designed by NCC Partners CEO Maarten Noyons to help showcase young mobile games and was supported by Nokia, Orange, Intel, IBM and more.[2]

With 85 entries, the awards took place on the 3 February 2004, at the IMAGINA festival in Monte Carlo. There were four categories: Grand Prix, 16MB, 1MB, 200K/native, and 200K/Java. Later that year, Discreet was acquired by Autodesk who decided to close the French office - and thus the competition. However, Noyons convinced Discreet to let him take full control of the event and in doing so he founded IMGA as it's known today.[3]

Renaming the event the International Mobile Gaming Awards, Noyons has grown IMGA into a worldwide competition. Each year, the awards now receive around 1,000 submissions, 600 of which are usually submitted to the jury. Over a two-day judging process, the entrants are whittled down to 60 nominees.[4]

For ten years the winners were announced at the GSMA's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but the 11th IMGA saw the ceremony moved to GDC in San Francisco,[5][6][7] during the Game Developers Conference and Game Connection.

In 2016, the competition added a new category for VR games[8] and announced 102 nominations and 11 categories.[9] Sam Barlow (UK) won the Grand Prix with Her Story, a detective game.[10]

After Europe and the US, the IMGA has launched its program in China and Southeast Asia creating two additional competitions: IMGA Southeast Asia[11] in partnership with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and IMGA China[12] in partnership with Migu – China Mobile’s digital content entity, and co-hosted by MyGamez,[13] a publisher for foreign mobile games in China.

Award Categories

The awards celebrate innovation and creativity in mobile games worldwide. Based on their merit, games are recognized in a variety of categories that are decided on by the jury, when they meet each year for the judging process. The categories for the most recent International Mobile Gaming Awards included[14]:

  • Excellence in Gameplay
  • Excellence in Visual Art and Design
  • Excellence in Innovation
  • Excellence in Audio
  • Excellence in Storytelling
  • Best Feel Good Game
  • Best Meaningful Play
  • Best Quickplay Game
  • Best Multiplayer Game
  • Best Technical Achievement
  • Guilty Pleasure
  • Best VR Game
  • Best Upcoming Game

Winners

The following games won the "Grand Prix" at their respective IMGA ceremonies, the award that recognises the best mobile game of that year's nominees.

Aside from the main categories and the Grand Prix, there are two more prizes. These include the "People's Choice" award, which was introduced in 2008, for the game that receives the most votes from the general public; while the jury's "Honorable Mention" was introduced in 2012, for the game the judges believe deserves extra credit.

Year Award Winner Ref
2019 Grand Prix Florence IMGA[15]
Jury's Honorable Mention Flipping Flip
People's Choice Cooking Diary: Restaurant Game
2018 Jury's Honorable Mention Hidden Folks IMGA[16]
People's Choice Life Is Strange
Best Upcoming Game The Enchanted World
2017 Grand Prix Pokémon Go IMGA[17]
Jury's Honorable Mention Mekorama
People's Choice Skygarden: Farm In Paradise
2016 Grand Prix Her Story IMGA[18]
Honorable Mention LongStory
People's Choice Shadowmatic
2015[19] Grand Prix Monument Valley[20][21] IMGA[22]
Honorable Mention Threes!
People's Choice Vainglory
2014 Grand Prix Badland IMGA[23]
Honorable Mention Luxuria Superbia
People's Choice Tiny Thief
2013 Grand Prix The Walking Dead IMGA[24]
Honorable Mention Devil's AttorneyZombies Run!
People's Choice The Room
Best Social Game Candy Crush Saga[25]
2012[26] Grand Prix Infinity Blade II IMGA[27]
Honorable Mention Contre Jour
People's Choice Flick Tennis: College Wars
2011 Grand Prix Beyond Ynth IMGA[28]
People's Choice Perfect Cell
2009 Grand Prix Labyrinth 2 IMGA[29]
People's Choice Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior
2008 Grand Prix Unusually, all entrants won[30] IMGA[31]
People's Choice Kroll
2007 Grand Prix Metal Gear Solid Mobile IMGA[32]
People's Choice WRC 3D
2006 Grand Prix Triangler IMGA[33]
2005 Grand Prix AR Tennis IMGA[34]
2004 Grand Prix Burt IMGA[35]

Judging session

The judging process takes place in Marseilles, France in January every year. Jury members are invited to review and play all submitted games and select the nominees. The main judging criteria are the mechanics of the gameplay, the quality of the sound design and visual art and the originality in storytelling.

IMGA is open to entries from all mobile games developers. Past participants include students, researchers, artists, individual developers and publishers. The winners of each of eight category are decided by an international jury of experts and journalists from Asia, the US and Europe.

Past judges include industry veterans such as King's former games guru Tommy Palm, Dean Takahashi[36] of VentureBeat, and Unity Evangelist Oscar Clark[37]

References

  1. ^ "International 3D Mobile Gaming Competition".
  2. ^ "Autodesk - Press Room Archive - Discreet and Partners Announce the First International 3D Mobile Gaming Competition to Drive 3D Mobile Game Development". usa.autodesk.com. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  3. ^ VentureBeat - How mobile gaming has evolved, as seen through prism of its global awards
  4. ^ "How we judge - International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  5. ^ "International Mobile Gaming Awards hit San Francisco - CNET". CNET. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  6. ^ 148 Apps - IMGA Awards To Be Announced in San Francisco at Game Connection
  7. ^ CNET - International Mobile Gaming Awards hit San Francisco
  8. ^ "IMGA Launches Mobile Virtual Reality Category - VR Focus". VR Focus. Retrieved 2015-12-15.
  9. ^ "The International Mobile Game Awards announces its nominees for 2016 - VentureBeat". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
  10. ^ "Sam Barlow's Her Story is the big winner of the 12th IMGAs - PG.biz". PG.biz. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  11. ^ "Malaysia host first ever IMGA mobile games competition Southeast Asia".
  12. ^ "IMGA announces first China edition".
  13. ^ "MyGamez, the Chinese publishing platform for high quality foreign mobile game titles in China".
  14. ^ "15th IMGA nominated and awarded games". International Mobile Gaming Awards. Retrieved 2019-09-16.
  15. ^ "15th IMGA nominated and awarded games". International Mobile Gaming Awards. Retrieved 2019-06-22.
  16. ^ "14th IMGA nominated and awarded games". International Mobile Gaming Awards. Retrieved 2019-09-16.
  17. ^ "13 th IMGA awarded games - International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  18. ^ "12 th IMGA awarded games - International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  19. ^ AFJV - Les nominés pour la 11ème édition des IMGA ont été dévoilés
  20. ^ Android Headlines - The International Mobile Gaming Awards Sees Monument Valley Win The Grand Prix
  21. ^ "Top 5 best puzzle games for your android smartphone". india.com Retrieved 2016-8-9
  22. ^ "11 th IMGA awarded games - International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  23. ^ "10 th IMGA awarded games - International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  24. ^ "9 th IMGA awarded games - International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  25. ^ "King's Candy Crush Saga Wins the International Mobile Gaming Award's 2013 "Best Social Game" Award".
  26. ^ Slide To Play - Nominees Announced for 2012 International Mobile Gaming Awards
  27. ^ "8 th IMGA awarded games - International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  28. ^ "7 th IMGA awarded games - International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  29. ^ "6 th IMGA awarded games - International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  30. ^ "IMGA Grand Prix". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  31. ^ "5 th IMGA awarded games - International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  32. ^ "4 th IMGA awarded games - International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  33. ^ "3rd IMGA games". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  34. ^ "2nd IMGA games". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  35. ^ "1st IMGA edition in 2005, Barcelona". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  36. ^ "How mobile gaming has evolved, as seen through prism of its global awards (interview)". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  37. ^ "The 11th IMGA". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
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