Ukrainian mobile puzzle G30 – A Memory Maze has won the international competition of independent games Indie Games Showcase from Google company. This information is presented on the competition page.
The final of the competition was held on June 25 in London Saatchi Gallery – 30 best developers presented their projects there. The Google Play team has chosen three winners from the finalists: Photographs and Ordia from British studios EightyEight Games and Loju, as well as G30, Kyiv citizen Ivan Kovaliov.
G30 – A Memory Maze is the story of a person with cognitive impairment who tries to put together a rapidly elusive past before the disease consumes his memory completely. The levels of the game are memories. Solving puzzles, the player restores not only the visual image of the event but also the thoughts and feelings which are associated with it.
“Each level adds details to the dramatic plot of the game, each step in the puzzle can change the meaning of the story. You will be able to feel how a person with a mental impairment perceives the world and see how society reacts to it,” the developer describes the game in such a way.
Indie Games Showcase is Google’s annual competition for independent games. The Google Play team selects the best projects of the year from the thousands of contestants, from which then three winners are selected without reference to the genre or other game properties.
As a prize, the winners receive premium placement on Google Play and in special categories of the app store, as well as consultations with the company’s specialists. In addition, the winners receive a voucher for digital campaigns from Yellow Head agency in the equivalent of 100,000 euros, a voucher for $200 in the Unity Asset Store and a one-year subscription to Unity.
Winning this competition is not the first victory for G30 and Ivan Kovaliov. Previously, G30 was included in the selection of the best new games of the Apple App Store and was also the “Game of the Day” in the United States, Britain, China, and other countries. The game holds a rating of 4.8 in the US App Store based on more than 1,300 reviews. Also, the Ukrainian mobile puzzle has been included in the lists of “The Best New Mobile Games 2018” by The Guardian, “The Best Games for iPhone and iPad 2018” by Macworld, “The Best Video Games of May” by Le Monde and other publishers.
“Winning Google’s competition precisely will give us the opportunity to get a global featuring for the game in the store and, as a consequence, an increase in sales will further enhance the game’s reputation as innovative (unique telescopic text mechanics) and, of course, will help with new contacts and industry partners” – the representative of the developer commented.
