CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards 2022 shortlists announced

Relax Gaming, Blueprint Gaming, Habanero and Pragmatic Play lead the way in the race for the CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards 2022, with multiple nominations on the shortlists announced today.

The awards celebrate the success of the game development industry and recognise the contribution of the teams behind the industry’s most creative and innovative titles.

The winners of all 20 categories will be revealed to an audience of igaming industry executives at the lavish Game Developer Awards ceremony at the Hilton in St Julian’s, Malta on Thursday 26 May.  

Relax Gaming will be hoping to retain the Slot of the Year title it won at the inaugural awards in 2021, and two of the company’s six nominations come in the category, with both Top Dawg$ and Money Cart Bonus Reels in the running.

They face competition from 4ThePlayer’s 90k Yeti Gigablox, Habanero’s Marvelous Furlongs, Just For The Win’s Western Gold 2, NetEnt’s Starburst XXXTreme, Pragmatic Play’s Gates of Olympus, SG Digital’s Stargate Megaways, Swintt’s Rock n’ Ways XtraWays and Yggdrasil’s Suncatcher Gigablox in the headline category.

Blueprint Gaming has five nominations, including one for The Goonies Return in the Game Licensed Content section. Also making the shortlist are WWE Legends: Link&Win™ by All41 Studios, Space Invaders Roulette from Inspired Entertainment, The Walking Dead by Playtech, Game of Thrones™ Power Stacks™ from Slingshot Studios, John Daly Spin It And Win It by Spearhead Studios and Vibra Gaming’s The Phantom. 

Habanero’s four nominations include Orbs Of Atlantis in the Game Innovation category, which will see all the shortlisted studios present their titles at the CasinoBeats Summit conference and exhibition on the afternoon of 26 May, ahead of an audience vote to decide the winner. 

The other titles in the running for the Game Innovation honour are 60 Second Heist from 4ThePlayer, Africa X UP™ by Alchemy Gaming, Lollipop from AvatarUX, X-iter™ by ELK Studios, Star Guardians by Evoplay, Hoonga Boonga from Gamzix Technology, Royale With Cheese Megaways by iSoftBet, Madame Clues from Lady Luck Games, Aviator by Spribe and Aloha Spirit XtraLock™ by Swintt. 

Pragmatic Play has also landed four nominations, including a place on the Slot to Watch shortlist for Extra Juicy Megaways. It will face competition for the award from AvatarUX’s Lollipop, Just For The Win’s Divine Riches Helios, NetEnt’s Super Stars, Pearfiction’s 15 Tridents SwiftHits, Playtech’s Buffalo Blitz Megaways, Red Tiger’s Narcos Mexico and Relax Gaming’s Money Cart 2.

The full shortlists for 13 of the 20 categories can be found on the Game Developer Awards 2022 website, while the remaining seven will be decided by data generated by SlotCatalog, the leading analytics platform for the slots industry.

Rasmus Sojmark, CEO and Founder of the Game Developer Awards’ organiser SBC, said: “It’s been another stellar 12 months for the games development industry. You only have to look at the quality and depth of the shortlists to see that the games produced keep on getting better and better.

“The Game Developer Awards are an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the work of the teams that continue to drive the industry forward by producing such imaginative, engaging and fun games. It will be fascinating to see which studios are victorious on the night, but given the strength of the industry, just making the shortlists is a real achievement.” 

To book a table at the CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards ceremony, contact sales@sbcgaming.com.

To find out more about the CasinoBeats Summit conference and exhibition at the InterContinental in St Julian’s Malta, including how to book a pass, visit the event website.