The Game Developers Conference honours six Swiss startups

The Zurich-based game developer Mr whale’s Game service is among the winners of the Best in Play awards of the Game developers Award program. Five other Swiss developers were listed among the Best in Play honourable mentions. Moreover, two Swiss companies will participate in the pitching contest at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the world's largest professional game industry event hosting over 27000 attendees. Programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the development of interactive games and virtual reality gather to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry.

One of the highlights of the GDC event are the presentations of the best games that won the Best in Play Award program. Eight winners of the 17th Best in Play annual award have been announced; among them is the game FAR: Lone Sails developed by Swiss startup Mr. Whale's Game Service. Lone Sails is a vehicle adventure game in which the player is required to maintain and upgrade his unique vessel to traverse a dried out sea.

In addition, eight games have been listed in the” Best in play honourable mentions”. Among them are five games developed by Swiss startups. These include:

Airheart – (Blindflug Studios AG): Airheart is an action game about a young woman, who flies her airplane and catches skyfish among beautiful sky islands.

Niche - (Team Niche): Niche is a digital board game about genetics, heredity and evolution. Player are challenged to keep their species from extinction by smart breeding (based on real genetics) and smart resources management.

Oniri Islands - (Tourmaline): Oniri Islands is a cooperative adventure game for two players. Players embody two children lost on a mysterious island who try to find their shadows together using animal masks with magical powers.

Break a Leg - (Apelab): Break a Leg is a VR experience getting its inspiration from the magic shows of the 19th Century such as Houdini and Kellar. Built to entertain the crowds based on tricking the mind through misdirection and routine, the conjurers obeyed drastic rules to fool the mind of the audience.

Splash Blast Panic - (Team KwaKwa): Splash Blast Panic is a multiplayer competitive party game where the player must shoot, ram, dodge and bully their opponents outside the screen with a variety of watergun-based weaponry.

GDC Pitch contest at GDC Play
The GDC Play will once again showcase some of the most interesting, emerging/independent developers and their games. Ten developers have been selected to pitch before the jury and the audience, among them are two Swiss companies, N-Dream with “AirConsole”, an online platform that transforms user's browser into a video game console, and Tourmaline with “Oniri Islands: Children of the River”. The jury will award the presenter with the best pitching skills.