AMD PIXEL AWARDS EUROPE 2024

12th edition of the largest European indie gamedev competition.

As every year, there will be held an international competition for the best games presented during the Pixel Heaven Games & Pop Culture Festival 2024. The productions selected by the Jury in the qualifying rounds will be presented in the Pixel Expo exhibition area. The award ceremony will be held on Saturday, June 8 at 20.00 on the Festival’s main stage.

SIMPLE RULES

1. Playable games should be submitted up to and including 8 May 2024. You can apply with any platform games. Contest submissions are free of charge, each participant has the right to apply with 3 games from their portfolio. In the application form, it is necessary to provide a link to the build or 14 independent access codes to the game for all members of the Jury. When submitting a game, please do not assign it to any of the competition categories in advance. We treat VR and Mobile simply as one of many platforms, on a par with, for example, PC or PS5. Any questions? Send an e-mail to [email protected]

2. The promotional materials that can be sent together with the game are an addition and have no effect on the evaluation by the Jury.

3. There are no restrictions as to the theme, genre or subject of the game.

4. It is permissible to submit a game that has not premiered yet, in demo or prototype version.

5. If your game was in finals of the previous edition of the contest, you cannot submit the game you submitted last time.

6. Games that were available on the market before 28 May 2023 cannot be submitted for the contest, regardless of the form of distribution, model of payment, gameplay mode, and access (incl. Early Access).

7. The games will be judged by the Jury in the following categories. At the same time, the Jury stipulates that it may not award Prizes in all of the categories listed below, but only in selected ones. This will depend on the number of games submitted and their quality, which will be judged by the Jury.

COMPETITION CATEGORIES

Big Fish Grand Prix
Indie Grand Prix
Best Gameplay (best gameplay)
Best Art (best visuals)
Best Audio (best audio setting)
Best Soundtrack
Awesome Box (best physical release of the game)
Best Story (best script)
Retro Roots (best retro reference)
Big Bang! (biggest surprise)
Best Student (best student project)
Warsaw Excellence (best game native to Warsaw)
Players’s Choice (Secret Level community award)

8. The jury selects in each of the competition categories up to 3 games nominated for the prize. Each game can be nominated in more than one category.

9. The creators of the game that qualify (nominees) for the final will receive a 4 sqm. exhibition space. The organizer will provide each of the creators with an exhibition stand at the Pixel Expo area, which will comprise a 2×2 m area with a table, two chairs, a power socket, powerful PC and professional screen and WiFi access. The creator will also receive two free entry cards for the entire event. Should you need more free entry cards, please contact [email protected]. Furthermore, the creator can present a banner/roll-up advertising their game/studio.

10. The winners will receive the prizes funded by the Partners of Pixel Heaven Games & Pop Culture Festival 2024.

11. Additional contest categories may be added in cooperation with the Partners of Pixel Heaven Games & Pop Culture Festival 2024. We will inform about such decisions as they are made.

13. Good luck!

JURY MEMBERS

Ryszard Chojnowski
Known here and elsewhere as Ryslaw. An English major by training, he has been professionally involved in all sorts of games for more than 20 years, translating them, working on production, writing about them, recording radio shows and YouTube videos. He is also preoccupied with linguistics, music, fantasy, comics, collecting various things, keeping in shape, strength sports, and obstacle running.

Arkadiusz Kamiński
Dark Archon, editor-in-chief of arhn.eu since 2010. The man. Legend. Self-proclaimed sarcastic omnibus. Big fan of technology and video games, both new and old. Proud of his collection of classic gadgets, bits and bobs, games and wihich are all his own. Programmer, translator, musician and walking encyclopedia. Lover of life, singer of songs. Definitely fond of cringe reviews.

Michał Król
Passionate and collector of Polish games, journalist promoting Polish productions and gamedev companies. Editor and analyst of PolskiGamedev.pl and creator of the blog Gracpospolita.pl. Co-host of the Giermasz broadcast on Radio Szczecin, where he also runs the ?Gramy po polsku? corner – devoted to Polish games. Member of the editorial board of the PSX Extreme monthly, reviewer and author of the permanent column “Good, because Polish”. Webmaster and specialist in new and social media.

Jakub Marszałkowski
Organizer of Game Industry Conference, one of the founders and a member of the Indie Games Polska Foundation Council, researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Poznań University of Technology. Honored with the Annual Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, as the organizer and promoter supporting Polish game developers.

Radosław Nałęcz
Author of radio and television programs. Almost 30 years of professional experience gained in commercial and public media. Privately a father of 2 children and a fan of video games. Graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Michał Nowicki
Editor-in-chief of GRAM.PL. Professionally in gaming for some 20 years, fanatically for twice as long. He started with the cult in some circles Television Game from Ameprodu, then got too often from the rubber band to finally become a hardened PC gamer. He probably likes erpegs the most, both old-school paper games and those written in code, preferably with some kind of non-obvious setting. He loves dense atmospheres, dense music, dense beer and caves. He reads too much fiction instead of learning something useful. Above all, however, he loves to write about himself in the third person.

Natalia Pych
She works as a senior producer at one of Warsaw’s game publishers, Games Operators. She knows both sides of the coin – both the development side, where she takes care of cooperation with external teams and the progress of projects according to plan, and the publishing side, where she checks and evaluates pitches and checks the potential of an idea on the market.
In addition, Natalia is the owner and editor-in-chief of Grajmerek and an ambassador for Women in Games. She actively encourages women to embark on a game dev adventure.
Privately, she is a lover of dogs, medical series and Indian dance.

Pawel Schreiber
Video game researcher and critic, lecturer at Kazimierz Wielki University. He has written about games for Pixel, Dwutygodnik, jawnesny.pl blog and Culture.pl portal.

Ewa Maria Szczepanowska
In the AV industry since 2000, since 2015 at the Warsaw Film School as PR manager, Creative Director, currently Spokesperson and Vice Rector for Communications and New Media. Originator and organizer of the 7th edition of Warsaw Film School Game Jam and Warsaw Game Jam PRO, juror in the Grand Video Awards, among others. She manages the gamedev pillar of WSF, the educational program of the Video Game Creation major and the High School of Video Game Creation. Producer of the game “Best Month Ever,” created by the film and game production studio at WSF.

Agnieszka Szóstak
In gaming industry since forever, though at first it was a rather informal relationship. Adventure Zone website editor and CD Action magazine journalist. Working as a PR Specialist at CD Projekt RED studio for several years, being responsible for The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077. Now managing her own PR company called PR Outreach, helping independent developers effectively promote their amazing games.

Rafał Szrajber
Organizer of the Team Computer Game Development competition and the Game Graphics Contest competition, industry-specific initiatives dedicated to students. Lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź and the Institute of Computer Science of the Lodz University of Technology, where he teaches narrative through space and game design. Ambassador of sectoral education and inter-university cooperation. In his free time, an independent artist focused on using heritage as a soft power carrier.