Game Access Report - People's Choice Award and Best Graphics Nomination

As you've read in our last week's blog post and , we have been publicly presenting an early demo of Planet Nomads for the first time. How did it go? We got supercharged by people building crazy things. Planet Nomads won People's Choice Award and Best Graphics Nomination. Hi-octane after-parties with other devs were highly productive and hostesses were very nice to us. All and all, a massive success on all fronts.

Presenting a Slice of the Final Game

After breaking off the shackles of initial nervousness, the whole team plunged right into it. You don't usually imagine programmers as extremely eloquent rockstars, but that was exactly what happened on the indie expo floor.

Planet Nomads got a great spot at Game Access and the action never stopped. Pavel, Tomas, Petr, Maly Kuba and Cenda were all happy to explain everything they have been working on during the past year.

We've met long time Minecraft and Space Engineers fans, who switched from intrigued passers-by to master builders in twenty-minute sessions. A guy from Novus Inceptio (hardcore sandbox RPG that had a booth next to us) kept coming back for more, always with progressively more bizarre ideas for vehicles, which used multi-level suspension systems and joints in places where they shouldn't be. To our surprise, they sometimes even worked. Here's one of them after an unfortunate right-click in the wrong spot.

Then came Carlos, and figured he'd build a bunker with vertical and horizontal blast doors, because why not? He sure made us happy and seemed pleased with his impenetrable bunker creation. His bunker was also circle-shaped. And even though that meant creating a different grid for each column, it still served its purpose.

Being a Game Developer Is the New Sexy

This may come as a surprise, but a few things attract girls like the sure-fire combo of Planet Nomads and passionate developers.

Here's Pavel explaining his physics brainchild.

And here is Tom... looking at things.

Planet Nomads Captured the Crowd

If experiencing all of the above was everything we brought home from Game Access, we would have been very happy. Turns out the final icing on the cake was yet to come.

"And the winner of the People's Choice Award is... Planet Nomads!"

Sweet baby Jesus! It felt like the Oscars. Well OK, more like the Golden Globes. Anyway, with adrenaline, endorphins, blood and all body fluids pumping, we went on the stage, about two hundred pairs of eyes straight upon us, and managed to put together an acceptance speech without dropping the mic or the prize. Another huge success for team Nomads.

So besides experiences for life, we have also brought home this magical trophy and two tickets to Casual Connect in Tel Aviv! We've learned from Game Access organizers that some 200 people voted in the People's Choice Award, which is not a small number. We're grateful to everyone casting their vote for Planet Nomads.

Expert Panel Awards

Other notable categories included Best Graphics and Best Gameplay and were decided by industry veterans from companies like NVIDIA, Remedy, Bohemia Interactive or Keen Software House.

Chameleon Run won the Best Gameplay category, among BLACKHOLE and Layers of Fear. All game titles worth checking out.

Planet Nomads was nominated for Best Graphics together with Chameleon Run and Novus Inceptio. Martin took the prize home for Novus Inceptio.

Congratulations to all the winners and a nod to all developers on the floor. We had a good time together. Game Access was a great event, on par with some of the established game dev conferences. The organizers did an incredible job, especially since it was the first year of Game Access, and we're looking forward to the next, where we intend to grab the best graphics spot this time around.

Can't Wait to Play, Can You?

Worry not, Planet Nomads is coming in a couple of months with a closed-alpha preorder.

PS: Oh, and Nomads, we've documented the whole trip. The only footage missing is from the award ceremony. So once we get hold of that, you get to see it through our eyes, the highs and lows of this marvelous adventure :)

PSS: As promised, here's the !

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