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2010 ATOM Awards Games Finalists Battle the Environment, Humanity and ‘the Unknown’ in order to Survive!

Create. Inspire. Celebrate – ATOM Awards

MELBOURNE – Monday 6 September, 2010 – The finalists in the Best Interactive Video Game category of this year’s ATOM Awards program have indicated the increasing move into ‘games with feeling’ by creating games that ponder environmental and emotional issues as part of the game play.

“It’s great to see entries into the interactive / video games category in many ways tackling the same depth of issues that some of our documentary and educational resource submissions also highlight,” commented Simon Wilmot, ATOM Awards Executive Officer.

“The convergence of games with the wider area of media is helping to enrich existing media platforms and as a stand alone platform is also proving a viable and appealing way in which to educate, challenge, entertain and influence,” he added.

Layton Hawkes of Victoria University is a finalist in the Best Interactive / Video Game category with his production ‘Gemma and the Living World’. The game is an exploration of how video games can be used to convey a moral message – to expand human awareness and personal responsibility. ‘Gemma and the Living World’ focuses on humanity’s dwindling regard for its world, Earth and the environmental implications.

The protagonist, Gemma Welsh, is a young girl who lives within the bounds of a polluted, consumerist society. Gemma feels an emptiness inside that she cannot understand and so sets out to find a glimmer of hope. When she is thrown into the Living World, she finds that the Creature – the world – is afflicted by a wasting sickness. Her drive to answer the emptiness she feels inside means that she must find a way to eradicate the source of the sickness and restore the world to its natural state.

By exploring how humanity’s connection with Earth has been lost – and why – the game shows the ‘damage’ that can be resolved in part by the decisions that each person makes and the actions they take.

‘Fragile Soul’, a game created by Ben Marinan, Tobias Stack, Terry Williams and Aprille Mazitelli of the Southbank Institute of Technology is another finalist in the 2010 ATOM Awards Best Interactive / Video Game category.

A puzzle adventure game, ‘Fragile Soul’ also features a female protagonist whose soul is sucked into a balloon. In order to restore her soul, she is forced to go on a quest to find her necromancer father who is the only one who can restore her soul. Along the way, she has to cleverly control and manipulate objects and people to assist her in her quest.

Joel Gatt of Caroline Springs College, Victoria is another finalist in the 2010 ATOM Awards Best Interactive / Video Game category with his game, ‘The White Room’. A cryptic, mind bending game, ‘The White Room’ puts the player in a situation where they’ve woken up in a white, nondescript room only to find that they need all their powers of logic and problem solving in order to not only escape, but to survive.

The 2010 ATOM Awards will be presented at a gala ceremony, held in the Plaza Ballroom, Regent Theatre, Melbourne on Friday 22 October, 2010.

The 2010 ATOM Awards program is presented by ATOM.

The 2010 ATOM Awards is sponsored and supported by Sustainability Victoria, Aurora Community Channel, EnhanceTV, Roadshow Films, Madman, Encore Magazine, Griffith University, Holmesglen, SAE Institute, Qantm, Deakin University, Scotch College, AFTRS, Federation Square Melbourne, ScreenHub, Nikoda, Quest Collins Street Central, Wide Angle, Qpix, iZDOT, Metro Magazine, Screen Education Magazine, Open Channel, Northbridge Piazza - City of Perth, Screen West, I.D.E.A and Big Mouth Marketing Communications.

The 2010 ATOM Awards is funded by Screen Australia, Arts NSW, Film Victoria and the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development, Victorian Government and the South Australian Film Corporation.

For more information about the 2010 ATOM Awards please visit www.atomawards.org

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