Observation wins "Best British Game" at BAFTA Games Awards 2020!

So that came as a surprise!

In what was possibly our strangest award experience yet, watching from home on group chat with the team in isolation during a global pandemic, we took home the Best British Game award for Observation!!

Our short thank you video can be found in the ceremony (https://youtu.be/gvkXzAM5Ino?t=2643 ) although as it says in the small print at the end, it was quite hard to think straight and get across our true thanks to everyone involved (and there was light heartedness to be had!!), especially given that at the time of recording we didn’t know if we’d actually won or not (All nominees had to record a thank you!).

Given we don’t have a clock ticking as we speak, we’ll go into more detail with a full length thank you:

Firstly, and again, we want to thank everyone at Devolver Digital, especially the wonderful Graeme, Andrew, Nigel and Anna who helped steer the ship whilst we made the biggest, most difficult game we had ever made. Without them, it not only wouldn’t exist, but with their guidance and patience it wouldn’t have been half the game it ended up being. Fork Parker himself was honestly a nightmare to work with, but the rest of the amazing team made up for that in spades. They really carry him y’know.

Ben Andac who pushed the game to Sony right in the beginning, was instrumental in it coming to life, and along with Spencer and Lorenzo, helped form a partnership we could have only have dreamed of. Ben is also quite possibly the nicest man in game dev, and we are so glad to have had him join us on the journey.

Also at SIEE were the wonderful Nick, Myles and Dominic, who guided the project and allowed us to carry out our vision despite it being such a weird game! Their trust in us was so important, and we’re so happy to have done them proud.

We want to thank the incredible cast, especially the truly amazing Kezia Burrows and Anthony Howell. Anthony delivered every line with perfection, and brought SAMs evolving consciousness to life. Kezia pretty much became part of our team, working regularly with us as we wrote and rewrote, made changes and evolved the character throughout the games development. She is not only a tremendous acting talent, but also a good friend of the team and someone we want to work with on pretty much everything and anything we do. Directors find actors they like and work on multiple films together, and we’ve found Kez. Llongyfarchiadau! From Isolation to Observation, and onwards!

We worked with several external teams on various aspects of the game - from 3D Artists at the amazing Digimonsters group (Thanks Dave, Adam and the team!), to extremely patient localisation teams (Thank you SO much Sophie and Patrick!), the lovely people at Testronic and Lionsbridge, and more. With some quality wordsmithing from Will Porter, and some amazing character work from Ranulf and Jack P (the latter who is joining us full time for the next project!) we couldn’t have made those characters work the way they did without you. Chris B provided much needed 3D guidance and direction in formative stages, and the incomparable Stefano Tsai designed a station that just looked and felt perfect. And with Robbie, JT, Salima, Stephanie, Thomas, Rodrigo, and the many other people involved, they carried out the most professional and successful marketing of an indie game I’ve ever seen!

Massive thank you to Andrew and Craig at We Throw Switches too, for helping build a press event and launch party that done the effort of all those involved justice, and really blew people away - people who are used to this stuff - with the professionalism and quality you would expect from teams 10 times the size.

On a similar note, we want to thank the store teams and press that have covered the game and given it a spotlight. The coverage we got allowed so many to see the game, and we’ve read every single review, good and bad, and learned something from them all.

And related, a MASSIVE thank you to the fans, and everyone who has bought, streamed or watched the game. We do it for you. ❤

To Alex T, Asim, everyone at SIDE, Territory Studios, the magnificent Serjan, and the incredible Robin Finck, and to all those giving advice and guidance throughout the 2 years+ of it’s development - including but not limited to, Mike B, Rob Anderberg, Thomasz S, Mr Bithell, Ally Hebson, Mel P, Ken Levine, Paul Allison, Paul Abbott, Gary Napper, Rowan Tafler and so many more - THANK YOU.

lots of love:
J, O, L, C, O, A, G, B, L, A, M, J, T, R

p.s. just wait till you see what we’re doing next…