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International Mobile Gaming Awards

The International Mobile Gaming Awards ("IMGA") is an annual competition and awards ceremony that honors outstanding games made for mobile devices. It is the longest standing international competition for mobile games. Notable IMGA winners include Candy Crush Saga and Monument Valley.

The best mobile games submissions are awarded at the prize-giving IMGA ceremony, which takes place in various cities across the United States and Asia. IMGA was founded by Maarten Noyons in 2004 and is headquartered in Marseilles, France.

History

In 2004 the mobile games industry was still finding its feet. As developers began carving out a space in the market, the French division of Discreet announced the first "International 3D Mobile Gaming Competition."[1] With over $50,000 of prizes to be won, the contest was designed by NCC Partners CEO Maarten Noyons to help showcase young mobile games and was supported by Nokia, Orange, Intel, IBM and more.[2]

With 85 entries, the awards took place on 3 February 2004, at the IMAGINA festival in Monte Carlo. There were four categories: Grand Prix, 16MB, 1MB, 200K/native, and 200K/Java. Later that year, Discreet was acquired by Autodesk who decided to close the French office – and thus the competition. However, Noyons convinced Discreet to let him take full control of the event and in doing so he founded IMGA as it's known today.[3]

Renaming the event the International Mobile Gaming Awards, Noyons has grown IMGA into a worldwide competition. Each year, the awards now receive around 1,000 submissions, 600 of which are usually submitted to the jury. Over a two-day judging process, the entrants are whittled down to 60 nominees.[4]

For ten years the winners were announced at the GSMA's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but the 11th IMGA saw the ceremony moved to GDC in San Francisco,[5][6][7] during the Game Developers Conference and Game Connection.

In 2016, the competition added a new category for VR games[8] and announced 102 nominations and 11 categories.[9] Sam Barlow won the Grand Prix that year with Her Story, a detective game.[10]

After Europe and the US, the IMGA has launched its program in China in 2015 and Southeast Asia in 2016 creating two additional competitions: IMGA Southeast Asia[11] in partnership with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and IMGA China[12] in partnership with Migu – China Mobile's digital content entity, and co-hosted by MyGamez,[13] a publisher for foreign mobile games in China.

Judging session

The judging process takes place in Marseilles, France in January every year. Jury members are invited to review and play all submitted games and select the nominees. The main judging criteria are the mechanics of the gameplay, the quality of the sound design and visual art and the originality in storytelling.[14]

IMGA is open to entries from all mobile games developers. Past participants include students, researchers, artists, individual developers and publishers. The winners of each of eight category are decided by an international jury of experts and journalists from Asia, the US and Europe.

Past judges include industry veterans such as King's former games guru Tommy Palm, Dean Takahashi[15] of VentureBeat, and Unity Evangelist Oscar Clark[16]

Award categories

The awards celebrate innovation and creativity in mobile games worldwide. Based on their merit, games are recognized in a variety of categories that are decided on by the jury, when they meet each year for the judging process. The categories for the 2020 International Mobile Gaming Awards included:[17]

Winners

The following games won the "Grand Prix" at their respective IMGA ceremonies, the award that recognises the best mobile game of that year's nominees.

Aside from the main categories and the Grand Prix, there are two more prizes. These include the "People's Choice" award, which was introduced in 2008, for the game that receives the most votes from the general public; while the jury's "Honorable Mention" was introduced in 2012, for the game the judges believe deserves extra credit.

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2004

References

  1. ^ "International 3D Mobile Gaming Competition".
  2. ^ "Autodesk – Press Room Archive – Discreet and Partners Announce the First International 3D Mobile Gaming Competition to Drive 3D Mobile Game Development". usa.autodesk.com. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  3. ^ VentureBeat – How mobile gaming has evolved, as seen through prism of its global awards
  4. ^ "How we judge – International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  5. ^ "International Mobile Gaming Awards hit San Francisco – CNET". CNET. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  6. ^ 148 Apps – IMGA Awards To Be Announced in San Francisco at Game Connection
  7. ^ CNET – International Mobile Gaming Awards hit San Francisco
  8. ^ "IMGA Launches Mobile Virtual Reality Category – VR Focus". VR Focus. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  9. ^ "The International Mobile Game Awards announces its nominees for 2016 – VentureBeat". VentureBeat. 16 February 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  10. ^ a b "Sam Barlow's Her Story is the big winner of the 12th IMGAs - PG.biz". PG.biz. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  11. ^ "Malaysia host first ever IMGA mobile games competition Southeast Asia". 20 June 2016.
  12. ^ "IMGA announces first China edition". 30 June 2016.
  13. ^ "MyGamez, the Chinese publishing platform for high quality foreign mobile game titles in China".
  14. ^ "How the International Mobile Gaming Awards is changing with the industry". pocketgamer.biz. 13 December 2016. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  15. ^ "How mobile gaming has evolved, as seen through prism of its global awards (interview)". VentureBeat. 20 February 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  16. ^ "The 11th IMGA". YouTube. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  17. ^ a b "16th IMGA nominated and awarded games". International Mobile Gaming Awards. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  18. ^ Partleton, Kayleigh (3 August 2020). "Call of Duty: Mobile takes home two accolades at International Mobile Gaming Awards". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  19. ^ "15th IMGA nominated and awarded games". International Mobile Gaming Awards. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  20. ^ Forde, Matthew (21 March 2019). "GDC 2019: International Mobile Gaming Awards winners revealed". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  21. ^ "14th IMGA nominated and awarded games". International Mobile Gaming Awards. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  22. ^ "13 th IMGA awarded games – International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  23. ^ Takahashi, Dean (1 March 2017). "IMGA names Pokémon Go as the mobile game of the year". VentureBeat. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  24. ^ "12 th IMGA awarded games – International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  25. ^ "11 th IMGA awarded games – International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  26. ^ Priestman, Chris (5 March 2015). "Monument Valley wins big at both the IMGAs and the GDC Awards". pocketgamer.com. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  27. ^ "10 th IMGA awarded games – International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  28. ^ "9 th IMGA awarded games – International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  29. ^ "8 th IMGA awarded games – International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  30. ^ Oxford, Nadia (7 March 2012). "IMGA 2012: And the winners are…". Gamezebo.[permanent dead link]
  31. ^ "7 th IMGA awarded games – International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  32. ^ "6 th IMGA awarded games – International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  33. ^ "5 th IMGA awarded games – International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  34. ^ "4 th IMGA awarded games – International Mobile Gaming Awards". Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  35. ^ "3rd IMGA games". Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  36. ^ "2nd IMGA games". Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  37. ^ "1st IMGA edition in 2005, Barcelona". Retrieved 1 September 2015.

External links