Bafta Games Awards 2017: the winners, political digs, and profoundly British bumbling

This year’s ceremony recognised an impressively diverse range of video games
Not holding back: Danny Wallace cracked jokes about Brexit, Pewdiepie and Russia at the Bafta Games Awards
BAFTA/Thomas Alexander
Ben Travis7 April 2017

The world of video games might not be as glamorous as Hollywood (spoiler alert: few developers look as dashing as Ryan Gosling or Amy Adams) but the industry scrubbed up for the red carpet at the Bafta Games Awards 2017.

Hosted by Danny Wallace at Tobacco Dock, the ceremony awarded beautifully crafted indie games and innovative blockbusters alike with an impressively diverse range of winners.

Here’s what happened at the most prestigious British awards show in the games calendar.

A current affair

Awards ceremonies always offer those at the microphone the chance to make jabs at current affairs — and Wallace didn’t hold back.

In his opening five-minute monologue, the comedian joked that Russia had picked all the winners, made a dig at disgraced video blogger PewDiePie, whose YouTube Red series was recently cancelled over claims of anti-Semitism, and of course cracked some Article 50 gags: “Thanks to Brexit, next year’s trophy will be a Katie Hopkins Toby Jug, and a prize fund of 12 shillings — which by then will make you the richest person in Britain.”

Life in mono dominates

The game on everyone’s lips this year was INSIDE — the moody, Gothic puzzle platformer from Limbo creators Playdead.

The Danish developers bagged four Baftas (Artistic Achievement, Game Design, Narrative and Original Property) for the near-monochrome side-scroller, proving that the new black is, well, black.

Premature congratulations

Uncharted 4 bagged the coveted Best Game trophy — but music producer Naughty Boy nearly announced the winner before he’d read out the nominees, causing Wallace to dive in and stop him opening the gold envelope too soon.

“This was foreplay!” Naughty Boy blagged, red-faced. “Metaphorically speaking…”

It’s still polite to thank your mum and dad

First-person mystery game Virginia triumphed in the Music category, with British composer Lyndon Holland stepping up to take the award — and his parents were top of the list in his thank-yous ahead of the rest of the game’s creators.

“I’m going to be quite cheesy and thank my mum and dad,” he said as he opened his acceptance speech, drawing a huge cheer from the crowd. Top son points, there.

The British bumble

What do you do when you win the British Game award? Follow it up with the most British acceptance speech of all time. Developers Phil Duncan and Oli De-Vine channelled Four Weddings-era Hugh Grant with their level of awkward polite bumbling, seeming genuinely shocked to have won the category for their madcap cooking simulator Overcooked.

“Wow, we are not prepared for this in the slightest,” Duncan confessed, while De-Vine rifled through his pockets for a scrap of paper.

Even better, when they also won the Family category later in the night, Duncan added that they still hadn’t prepared anything, as De-Vine sighed: “This is just silly now.”

Playing with a conscience

The Game Innovation award this year went to the artful and emotional That Dragon, Cancer — a wrenching game telling the story of a couple whose young child is diagnosed with a terminal illness. The interactive experience was inspired by its creators Ryan and Amy Green, whose young son Joel passed away from the disease.

Accepting the Bafta, Amy paid tribute to her son, saying: “Our life with Joel was hard but it was really beautiful.

“When we thought about creating a game that would become the only legacy he would have, we created a game that was hard to play, but we believe it was beautiful.”

A game-changing icon

This year’s Special Award went to designer and developer Brenda Romero, who has been a driving force in the games industry for more than 35 years.

Romero has worked on franchises including Wizardry and Dungeons & Dragons, and created physical “documentary games” in her groundbreaking series The Mechanic is the Message.

She’s not slowing down either. “Right now I’m making the game I’ve literally wanted to make since I was a kid,” she hinted in her acceptance speech — a tantalising prospect.

Follow Ben Travis on Twitter: @BenSTravis

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