European Game Night honours French, Spanish and German indies

Three prizes were awarded at this year's SpielFabrique European Game Night. The main prize, awarded by a jury consisting of Ubisoft, KölnBusiness, Institut Francais, Digital Dragons and Games From Spain, went to Resistance Studio from Spain, Farbspiel Interactive from Germany got the Youth Jury award, while Unexpected Studio from Montpellier was awarded the Franco-German Award.

The fourth European Game Night, organised by European agency SpielFabrique, was once again a pan-European pitch event on devcom Tuesday, with studios from different countries competing for the favour of the jury. Whereas in 2022 four German and four French studios competed, this year two German, two French, two Polish and two Spanish studios took part. The prize categories have also changed since last year: While in 2022 only the pitch prize was awarded, which went to Cologne studios, this year there were three prizes. The prize for the best pitch went to Spanish studio Resistance, which is developing a humorous VR game about repairing houses, "Fix it Fast!". Founder Ester Sánchez de Vera received the award. In addition to the plaque, the prize consists of an AirFrance ticket redeemable for any flight.

A jury of young people, provided by the Franco-German Youth Office OFAJ DFJW, also evaluated the pitches according to their own criteria. Farbspiel Interactive, a German studio, won for "Belonging", a narrative examination of cults and how they influence people. Studio director Valerie Kenntemich accepted the prize on stage. A third prize was also awarded by the OFAJ: the Franco-German Videogame Award, organised annually by OFAJ and SpielFabrique, went to Unexpected Studio and its CEO Sarah Van Crombrugge from Montpellier, who are developing "Kallax", a co-op multiplayer game in which players have to work together to build furniture.

The Pitch Award jury voted in the style of the Eurovision Song Contest: no one was allowed to vote for their own country. The judging criteria were creativity, communication of values, fun factor and pitch quality. The judges were provided by Ubisoft, Games from Spain, Institut Francais and KölnBusiness.

The evening was sponsored by Games from Spain, Institut Francais, the French Embassy, KölnBusiness, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, OFAJ DFJW, NRW.Global Business and AirFrance.

All eight studios from the four countries present were:

• Mechka Studios from Poland, which is developing "Marko: Beyond Grave", a dark Slavic metroidvania.
• Deus Marmota from France, a pair designing Rogue, Rogue Baby, a sidescroller in which you play as a baby in an apartment. The game humorously shows real dangers for babies and how to avoid them.
• Estudio Future from Spain, who want to combine systems from Rocket League and Overwatch with "Rivals: Hover League".
• Spoonful Games from Germany, whose new game "Adventurers' Advocate" is a management title in a fantasy setting, in which you plan the raids of adventurers and found a union for adventurers.
• Tangent Universes from Poland with "Whimsical Heroes", a turn-based tactics game with cute characters and camp management.
• breakfirst Game Development from France for "Little Big Detective", an investigative puzzle game with a mix of detective and hidden object elements.
• The winner Resistance Studio with "Fix it Fast!", a humorous VR game about repairing houses.
• The Youth winner Farbspiel Interactive with "Belonging", a game about cults and how they influence people. Farbspiel was invited to participate in 2022, but was unable to take part last year due to a Covid infection.

Finally, young Ukrainian Andrii Kudelia, who fled to Germany before the Russian attack and has since been programming games in Roblox as PebbleSand1, was given a slot on stage to promote advertising opportunities in his games.