Prize-giving for the 3HMA videogame contest with the participation of the creators of Cálico Electrónico and Social Point

July 13, 2012

Forgotten Kodama, a videogame where defending nature plays a key role, was given 3,000 Euros as the best project of the international contest The Three Headed Monkey Awards. This is the first edition of a contest for amateur videogames and animations organized by the UPC School in the framework of the Masters’ programme in Videogame Design and Creation.

The Audience’s Mention Prize, with a prize of 1,500 Euros went to Nihilumbra and the UPC Prize, also with a prize of 1,500 Euros, went to the team behind Betty the Bee, a videogame created by students from the last edition of the Masters’ programme for their final project. The jury, which included three of its members, Simón Lee, Manel Sort and Ramon Nafria, made a special mention to the quality of the more than 30 videogames that participated in the contest, all of which were amateur. Jesús Alonso, the director of the UPC School Masters’ in Videogame Design and Creation mentioned the relevance of these initiatives that “give visibility to the more creative part of your work, to your talent and efforts”, referring to the participants.

The prize-giving was also an occasion to go over the situation of the videogame and digital animation industries. Alonso introduced the speaker Horacio Martos, one of the creators of Social Point, the studio in Barcelona with well known titles such as Social Empires, Social Wars –which are both a success on Facebook –, Pool Master, Trial Madness or Super Cravon. Martos, who is a former student of the Masters’ in Videogame Design and Creation, defended the rise of a sector “where art and technology join forces as in no other place”. The Director of Social Point explained his beginnings with the application Publistars, which was worthy of a prize given by Facebook to the best application in Spanish. From that moment, their revenue went from 309,000 Euros to 3,300,000 Euros and the staff grew from 10 to 60. Another important contributing factor to this qualitative leap forward were the investors Nauta Capital “who offered us their know-how and turned us into a visible company”. According to Martos, what makes Social Point’s videogames different is that “we try fostering competitiveness among users”

The funniest moment came from Niko, the creator of the anti-superhero Cálico Electrónico an irreverent character who is the protagonist of an online serial which has reached its fourth season, also opening a new professional stage for his studio, Nikotxan. Cálico Electrónico was born, according to its creator, from an iconic character for the website of a relative of his. It then evolved to become a superhero going against the current, becoming a total success “thanks to all the people who heard of me in advertisements, by word of mouth, and through platforms such as yonies.com and youtube. In this new season, Cálico Electrónico returns to its origins.

The event ended with a fun and unexpected game, where the knowledge of participants was tested. The pianist Daniel Palacios played several pieces from a well-known videogame and the audience had to find out which videogame it was taken from.