There was more to GameCity than Minecraft winning the Prize

So, in the end, the first GameCity Prize went to Minecraft. The eclectic panel made up of Charlie Higson, Nitin Sawney, Murdoch-baiting MP Tom Watson and others chose the PC-only sandbox indie-phenomenon over Portal 2, Pokemon Black & White and others (see below for the judges and shortlist). Like all panel-chosen gongs it was a compromise but a worthy one: Minecraft is a creative, ever-changing experience, a non-commercial idea that has become a hit.

It’s also not the sort of game you’d expect to pick up a ‘game of the year’ gong at BAFTA, Spike or Golden Joystick awards. Which, I believe, is the point.

Because the Nottingham-based GameCity festival, now in its sixth year, is different. It offers gamers and non-gamers alike a new, somewhat left-field, way to experience, enjoy and discover video games in a way that’s unprecedented, certainly in the UK. And so the Prize needs to share those values.

Even having a prize is a potentially dangerous move for GameCity. The greatness of GameCity – and it is great, as we will see – is the way it creates different perspectives on video games: whether that is having Eric Chahi create a menu for a sit-down meal, or Retro City Rampage’s Brian Provinciano getting kids to create monsters and building a game around it, or being able to play the unreleased Journey along with thegamescompany’s Robin Hunicke.

If the Prize comes to define GameCity it could lose that identity – and become defined by it, as, say, Sundance has started to be defined by what wins its awards.

So Minecraft was a strong choice – better, certainly, than Portal 2. Not that Portal 2 isn’t a fantastic game – it is (as our 10/10 Portal 2 review says) – but having picked up a Golden Joystick last month and likely to run some of the big names like Battlefield 3, Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3 close in ‘game of the year’ lists it wouldn’t have made much of a statement.

Minecraft is an indie game – an indie game that’s sold a million or more copies and made its creator, Markus Persson (known as ‘Notch’), a millionaire in the process. It’s ugly. It’s about building stuff. And it refuses to compromise. As writer Dan Griliopoulos says in his excellent Sabotage Times piece, Minecraft is “nasty to you – there are many ways to die, and most of them are your own fault. Tunnel deep enough and you’re likely to get drowned, fried by lava, buried by your own rocks, killed by cave beasts, or just starve. I’ve seen beautiful, slowly-constructed loggias full of books built in the sky and burnt down because someone didn’t build a fireplace properly.”

Persson told The Guardian that he was “very excited” about winning the Prize but added that it meant more because the other nominees contained “some of our favourite games recently. It's a great honour to be compared to those games”.

“I was surprised by how decisive the Jury were about it winning, to be honest,” says GameCity director Iain Simons. “Like a lot of the audience, I wouldn't have been surprised if Portal 2 or Limbo had walked away with it as they're probably the most obviously 'arty'. The great thing about it is that the coverage has all been wholly positive,” adds Simons.

And the Prize has put GameCity in the news. As well as coverage in The Guardian (whose games correspondent, and Made2Game columnist, Keith Stuart ran breakfast debates with panellists every day) and The Observer, the Prize was picked up on BBC World News (where rent-an-art-quote Ekow Eshun sang its praises) and the Today programme on Radio 4.

“I'm genuinely staggered and delighted by the coverage. We've never made the National TV News before, for instance - we've never been featured on Today before,” says Simons.

For all this to matter the Prize must stand for something: for creating a way of discussing video games that isn’t dominated by violence, or sales figures or age restrictions or addiction or flame wars or ‘my console is better than yours’ or ‘how can you say that game is a 7 when it’s clearly an 8 you must be deranged’. What GameCity has done over its six iterations and a slew of GameCityNights events is create a space where you can explore the creativity and playfulness of video games without having to resort to the tiresome ‘is this art?’ debate.

“For video games to be on the news and the story not to be about violence or a big product launch is pretty exciting for us,” says Simons – who personally fronted and introduced a lot of the activity.

And as the Prize is a counterpoint to the BAFTA, Spike and even E3 awards, so the festival itself is very different from the ‘expos’ we’re used to, whether they be the Eurogamer or GAME events from earlier this year.

Part of that is the sorts of games featured – “we're not especially fixated on the *next* game” says Simons. The titles at GameCity are mostly indie fare like SpiltMilk’s Hardlines and Xbox Arcade hero Retro City Rampage; off-beat and downloadable titles from big publishers like Ubisoft’s Just Dirt or celebrations of classic titles: this year featured a ‘Zelda takeover day’ celebrating the series’ 25th anniversary, for instance.

That’s not to say there aren’t new games at GameCity – two upcoming Sony titles, thatgamecompany’s aforementioned Journey and Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 3 were both heavily featured with the latter’s co-lead designer Richard Lemarchand on hand all week.

That mix – and the lack of hierarchy inherent in the approach – is unique to GameCity. “It's great to see an event focused on growing the mainstream view towards videogames,” says Bryan Provinciano, the man behind Retro City Rampage.

The second part is the mix of people who attend: here the ironic T-shirt clad core gamers, wannabe developers and students mix with families looking for a half-term distraction and those simply drawn in by the Nottingham city centre location.

Robin Hunicke was at GameCity to share Journey with festival goers. “Games are special and sharing them means we are all in a community,” she told the opening night crowd. “The future of games is the children and families who come to GameCity to play the games. There will be children who come to see and talk about the games that are being featured here and a few of them are going to turn into game creators. What makes me so excited about participating in this event is that some of them will be new and different from me and will have better ideas. And I’m excited not just about GameCity 12 or 24 but GameCity 1,000 and the games that will be there.”

The third part is the something far less tangible: the atmosphere. It’s strangely uplifting to be at GameCity – to see an appreciation of games as *games* and not products or franchises or box office receipts. “Everyone I met [at GameCity] felt like lifelong friends within a few hours. The week flew right by I was having so much fun,” says Provinciano.

It might be the setting: a provincial city in the East Midlands with plenty of heritage that gives up its market square and many buildings to the festival every year. It’s certainly a change from the capital. And almost everything is free and simple to enter – the occasional queue notwithstanding – with no celebrities brought in to get TV coverage or booth babes bussed in to appeal to the horny young male demographic.

"As ever GameCity was brilliant, going from strength to strength with each year, not to be missed," sums up JustAddWater boss and GameCity veteran Stewart Gilray who was on hand to show Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD.

GameCity6 was a triumph, an affirmation of everything that is great about video games. The sheer joy of the festival is something you have to witness yourself and I really hope you get a chance to next year. We’ll see you there.

GameCity Prize Judging Panel:

• Jude Kelly OBE (Chair) - Artistic Director of London’s Southbank Centre and chair of the arts, education and culture committee for the 2012 London Olympics
• Charlie Higson – The Fast Show writer and actor, now kids’ novelist
• Dave Rowntree – Once of Blur, now a Labour Party campaigner
• Ed Hall – Reality TV presenter
• Frances Barber – Actress, most recently on Doctor Who
• James Crabtree – Comment editor of The Financial Times
• Nitin Sawhney – Musician, songwriter and DJ
• Tom Watson – Murdoch-baiting MP
• You Me At Six – Band , winners of the Best British Band at the Kerrang! Awards

 

GameCity Prize Shortlist:

• Child of Eden (Platform: Xbox 360, PS3; Developer: Q? Entertainment; Publisher: Ubisoft)
• Ilomilo (XBLA; Southend Interactive; Microsoft Game Studios)
• LIMBO (XBLA, PSN, PC; Playdead;Playdead)
• Minecraft (PC; Mojang;Mojang)
• Pokémon Black & White (Nintendo DS; Game Freak; Nintendo)
• Portal 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Mac; Valve; EA)
• Superbrothers: S&S EP (iOS; Superbrothers, Capybara; Capybara Games)

 

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