The Digital Dragons Conference 2023 is taking place in Krakow, Poland in less than two months, and voting for The Digital Dragons Awards is now live. At The Digital Dragons Awards ceremony, winners of the most prestigious award in the Polish game industry will be recognized as the awards ceremony will take place on May 15, 2023. The final verdict for the winners is influenced by the entire community of gamers and game developers so if you want to vote for your favorite Polish developers, you can vote for them until April 7, 2023.
For this year, the organizer of the conference and gala, Krakow Technology Park has prepared seven dragon eggs which will be received by the winners in the following categories:
- Best Polish Game
- Best Polish Game Design
- Best Polish Game Art
- Best Polish Game Audio
- Best Ongoing Polish Game
- Best Foreign Game
- Special Recognition Award
A list of nominated games for these categories will be created based on the community’s votes and they will be sent to the jury which will comprise leading media representatives. If you want to vote, you can access the voting form available on the official website of the event. All of the titles selected for each category are in this voting form and you can vote for your favorite selection in each of the seven categories. The finalists will be announced at the main event in May.
Jacek Wandzel, Digital Dragons Awards coordinator says:
The past year may not have been as electrifying for the domestic industry as the first two years of the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean it was lacking in great titles to play. Everyone will, of course, focus (deservedly) on Techland’s megapremiere, Dying Light 2: Stay Human, and it’s likely that this production is the sure bet of most viewers and critics. However, I’m mostly curious to see how the much smaller, but by no means lesser productions – Hard West II, Blacktail or Midnight Fight Express – will do. After all, it wasn’t so long ago – in 2021 – that games like Carrion and Ghostrunner faced such a colossus as Cyberpunk 2077. I’m also intrigued by the results in the Best Ongoing Game category: which of the many games of the live service nature released by Polish studios wins. It will certainly be difficult to determine the nominees and winners in the Best Foreign Game category, the only one in which non-Polish productions are awarded. 2022 was full of such high-profile foreign works as Stray, God of War: Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West and, above all, the unmissable Elden Ring. One thing I can say for sure: digital games have never done so well, domestically or globally. Anyone complaining about “how things used to be” is only wasting valuable time that would be better spent on gaming.
Best Ongoing Polish Game is a response to the changing mobile and online game market and new publishing models. This award is for MMO and live service games or productions supported long after release or leaving Early Access. We want to recognize projects that have taken feedback to heart or achieved success through steady growth and community support. Best Polish Game Audio, on the other hand, replaces the Best Original Soundtrack category. We don’t forget about soundtracks and music, but we want to recognize the efforts of effects specialists, sound designers and directors and games in which audio plays as important of a role as video and gameplay.
This will be the 12th edition of the Digital Dragons Awards. During last year’s ceremony, Bloober Team managed to score the most statuettes for their title The Medium in the categories of Best Polish Game, Best Polish Game Design, and Best Polish Original Game Soundtrack. The soundtrack of The Medium, with the cooperation of KPT and KBF, will be presented in connection with the award during a special concert at the Krakow Film Music Festival in May. For this year, the organizers are mindful of the plight of Ukrainian developers so they will be giving out 20 free tickers and five booths in the CEE Showcase to Ukrainian developers. If you want to apply for them, you can send an email with your reasons to this email ID.
Just like always, the conference will hold plenty of behind-the-scenes networking activities however Digital Dragons will also host different conferences this year as well. The conference section will feature dozens of lectures which are divided into seven thematic tracks. At this point, the last call for submissions is still open and it will remain open until the end of March 2023. So far, the speakers who have joined the dragon team include acclaimed composer Inon Zur, Katya Pateva, and Dimitar Simidchiev (both from 11 bit studios), and John Fuller (Avalanche Studios Group).
Maciej Sliwinski, program coordinator of Digital Dragons Conference. Says:
For those who are passionate about the technological side of gamedev I particularly recommend John Fuller’s lecture on the economic aspects of developing and maintaining one’s own technology. On the other hand, I especially direct the attention of those conference guests with an artistic bent to Inon Zur, a composer we have wanted to invite to Krakow for several years. The author of music for Dragon Age or the upcoming Starfield will talk about composing based on his own experience with Out of This World. All game designers will surely be interested in lectures by a duo of veterans from 11 bit studios, Katia Pateva and Dimitar Simidchiev, whose portfolios includes work for Ubisoft on the Assassin’s Creed series.
Currently, the tickets for Digital Dragons Conference are everyone for cheap in its Early Bird option and it will remain live until the end of this month. After March ends, the prices will go up if you purchase the ticket so until the end of this month, you can grab the tickets for a discounted price. Make sure to get your votes in on your favorite categories as the voting for Digital Dragons Awards will only last until April 7, 2023.
Related:
- Dying Light 2: Stay Human Wins Best Polish Game of 2022
- Digital Dragons Conference 2023 Concludes with Amazing Results
Additional information about the event is available on the official website of the event.
