Interview

TIGA Awards prove body not afraid to recognise 'excellence' of non-members, says CEO Wilson

Big or small, TIGA-member or not, enter now

TIGA Awards prove body not afraid to recognise 'excellence' of non-members, says CEO Wilson
As the night draws in on 1 November, UK trade association TIGA will host its first ever Games Industry Awards at Bath's historic Assembly Rooms.

It's an event designed by the body to recognise the achievements of British developers, but one that also suggests a significant shift in approach within TIGA itself.

Following notable criticism regarding the body's decision to charge non-members for a self-publishing guide aimed at indies, TIGA has decided to open up a number of the awards on offer to studios not on board with the body.

It's a move that, in theory, means even one or two man mobile studios could find themselves picking up a gong or two come the end of the night.

To find out more about what motivated such a move, we caught up with TIGA CEO Dr. Richard Wilson for his take.

Pocket Gamer: What are you hoping to achieve with the launch of the TIGA Games Industry Awards?

Richard Wilson: The TIGA Awards are designed to achieve three objectives. Firstly, we intend to celebrate the creativity and technical excellence of the UK games industry.

Secondly, TIGA has introduced the innovative 'business of games' categories to highlight business professionalism in our sector.

Thirdly, through these Awards TIGA wants to say 'thank you'; to our members, to our partners in the wider industry and to our friends beyond the sector.

The games development and digital publishing sector is one of the UK's best industries – and these Awards will prove it.

How can mobile developers benefit from these awards?

TIGA believes that the mobile games market provides exciting prospects for UK studios. As smartphones evolve into powerful game platforms, top tier mobile games increasingly resemble console games.

We want mobile developers to receive the recognition that they rightly deserve. So mobile developers can benefit from entering many of the TIGA 'games categories'.

Mobile developers who are TIGA members should also enter some of the business of games categories.

Finalists and winners will receive a range of valuable benefits, including positive PR and recognition throughout the games industry.

The awards ceremony and party, which will take place as part of Extended Play Festival's after hours event on Thursday 1 November, will also be great fun!

Several of the awards will be presented twice – with one awarded to a large studio and one to a small studio. What's the thinking behind this approach?

At TIGA we are focused on championing and strengthening the entire games development and digital publishing sector.

Our board includes representatives from a variety of studios and our membership services are designed to support start-ups, small, medium and large games businesses.

Equally, I am determined that TIGA should mark the achievements of both small and large studios through the TIGA Awards.

While we rightly want to celebrate the successes of our well-known studios, it's also vital that the achievements of smaller and start-up studios are fully acknowledged and applauded by the wider industry.

By designing five of our games categories to make awards to both small and larger studios, TIGA is ensuring that both up and coming games businesses and more well-known games businesses are recognised.

Less than half of the awards on offer are available exclusively to TIGA members. Was opening the event up to non-members a difficult decision?

TIGA is run by developers and digital publishers for developers and digital publishers.

TIGA ultimately exists to serve its members' interests. Yet we are also dedicated to advancing, championing and strengthening the wider UK games sector.

So it made perfect sense for TIGA to provide games categories for the entire industry - including members and non-members - and to reserve business of games Categories for TIGA members.

This enables TIGA to recognise the best games in the industry over the last 12 months, and to salute our members' business excellence and to highlight best practice.

Can you tell us more about the judging process and the panel that will be assessing entries?

The TIGA Awards judging process combines two important features - transparency and industry involvement.

All entries are submitted to awardsentry [at] tiga [dot] org by the deadline 8th October.

The full list of entries will be published on the awards website and we will then ask that the industry emails awards [at] tiga [dot] com with their vote for each category - games categories voted on by everyone, business of games categories by TIGA members only.

The top three entries will then reach the shortlist and our panel of judges will meet to make final decisions on the winners.

The judges are highly experienced professionals drawn from academia, industry and the creative sectors. The final winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on 1 November.

To ensure judging is a fair process, any judge who has entered their company/game in for an award will be asked to step out of all judging connected with their own entry.

Finally, I'd just like to say how pleased I am that the TIGA Awards will be part of this year's ExPlay Festival.

The ExPlay Festival brings together some of the world's brightest stars in the computer games industry, is superbly run by people including Korash Sanjideh and Ella Romanos, and is a huge amount of fun.
Thanks to Richard for his time.You can find out more about the TIGA Awards on its website.
Staff Writer

PocketGamer.biz's news editor 2012-2013