Stealth action game "Dishonored", featuring a masked
bodyguard-turned-assassin, was named best video game of the year at an
award ceremony on Tuesday.
An exotic adventure, "Journey", beat big
budget rivals to take home five awards at the British Academy of Film
and Television Arts (BAFTA) Game Awards.
"Dishonored", developed
by France's Arkane Studios that is owned by privately-owned U.S. company
ZeniMax Media, beat the widely expected favourite, "Journey", for the
top prize.
Also nominated for that award were "Far Cry 3" from
Ubisoft, EA's "FIFA 13", "Mass Effect 3" from Bioware, and "The Walking
Dead" from TellTale Games.
But "Journey", by independent U.S.
developer Thatgamecompany in which players travel from a sprawling
desert to find secrets of a forgotten civilisation, went home with most
prizes, winning five awards after being nominated in eight of 17
categories.
"Journey", the third game from Thatgamecompany
following "Flow" and "Flower", won awards for Artistic Achievement,
Audio Achievement, Game Design, Online Multiplayer and Original Music.
The
BAFTA prizes, started in 2003, are among the few awards for
achievements in the gaming industry that is estimated to have trebled in
size in the past decade with consultancy DFC Intelligence valuing the
industry at $78.5 billion.
The host for the fifth consecutive
year, Irish comedian and gamer Dara O'Briain, said the 53 games
nominated this year included blockbuster titles but also games with more
imaginative thinking from independent developers.
"This year's
list shows a movement towards what animation can do and the imagination
of that - it's a very interesting list," O'Briain said ahead of the
ceremony.
Two awards were won by both survival horror game "The
Walking Dead" and "The Unfinished Swan", a game developed by Giant
Sparrow and published by Sony.
The inaugural award for a British
Game went to "The Room", a puzzle adventure from developers Fireproof
Games, which the jury described as "an engaging, enigmatic, beautiful,
slow burn".
Daniel Krupa, games writer at video game website IGN,
said the nominations for the BAFTA Game Awards highlighted the greater
range of games that had emerged in recent years due to apps on
smartphones and new distribution methods for games.
Following is a list of the main winners of the British Academy Games Awards in 2013
Best game
"Dishonored"
Debut game
"The Unfinished Swan"
British game
"The Room"
Game design
"Journey"
Performer
Danny Wallace (The Narrator) - "Thomas Was Alone"
Story
"The Walking Dead"
Family
"LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes"
Action
"Far Cry 3"
Sport/Fitness
"New Star Soccer"
Game innovation
"The Unfinished Swan"
Original music
"Journey"
© Thomson Reuters 2013