Today, the annual LBS Game Awards was held, and I was a participant!

Ljud & Bildskolan (LBS) is a set of high schools in Sweden that prioritise teaching technical- and aesthetical programs like game development, graphic design, music & sound production, and even E-Sports, which is nuts to me.

In the LBS Game Awards, all 17 schools select at max 4 games made by students which are judged by a jury made up of the schools themselves, and they all compete in 8 different categories, with the big one being the Best Game Award.

Now, while I don’t think the jury essentially being only made up by the schools themselves (who will have a bias towards their own entries) is a good idea, I do think this is a fun initiative by the school. And besides, it gave me a reason to finish the first chapter of the game, which includes the base game itself. So, I am thankful for that and I plan on participating next year as well!

The game was nominated in 5 categories, I believe it had the most nominations of all games in the competition, yet I didn’t win in any of them. Womp, womp. 🎺

While I won’t say that the competition was “rigged” as most of my friends do…

Exhibit A.

I do think most of the entries were actually pretty good this year, but some of the winners were a little suspicious to me. In “Best Technology”, a Pixel Gun 3D lookalike won, which even my dad thought was odd. My dad. Not that he’s not tech-savvy; He is. He’s just not that much of a gamer, so his sussing out that win is significant in my eyes. Or he’s just incredibly supportive, probably a bit of both.

I was nominated in the following categories…

• Best Game
• Best 3D Graphics
• Best Technology
• Best Sound and Music, and
• Best Trailer

Congratulations to the winners of these awards, I hope you get everything you deserve in your game development journey!

I DID get a personal congratulations from the school chief, aka the one who is in full tune and control of pretty much EVERY school in the country. He seemed to be rooting for his hometown Varberg to win the awards, so I thank him and appreciate the sentiment!

This has also encouraged me to potentially submit my game to not only other game awards but other game publications! This has proven to me that my game has at least a smidge of legitimacy to it, and I’m more than willing to show off my work to more people. So, as a last word about this topic, I want to thank everyone at LBS Varberg, especially my programming teachers Ulrik and Camilla, for creating a really supportive environment, and for encouraging me to get the game out there.

In other news…

A new hotfix is out now! Version 1.1.2 includes the ability to now skip the 1-3 cutscene if you’ve already seen it! (You will need to go through the entire cutscene once before you can skip it next time - You WILL still have to replay the level again even if you’ve already beaten 1-3 in a separate version of the game.)

The Upgrade System is under the hammer, and we are working hard on it and are planning a 1.2 release in early June, so stay tuned!

Full Changelog

[1.1.2] - 2023-05-30

ADDED

• The 1-3 cutscene can be skipped if the player has seen it entirely before
• Modular Variable Savefile System: Implemented a new and efficient saving system used for the (in-development) Upgrade System and Cutscene Skip functionality.

CHANGED

• Crouching and Sliding adjusted to feel snappier
• Rebuilt lighting in 1-2

REMOVED

• DirectX12 support for now, as it seemingly causes issues like crashing after booting into main menu

KNOWN ISSUES

• Lighting in some areas of the game (especially 1-2) might (honest to god STILL) look odd or incorrect (perhaps more than previously)

Changelog formatting is partly based on  [Keep a Changelog] (https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/). Version numbers are formatted as such…

• MAJOR.MINOR.HOTFIX
  • Major releases include broad visual & technological additions or overhauls of primary game elements or systems that might invalidate older game versions, such as save files.
  • Minor releases include changes that are significant or broad but do not include anything that may invalidate older versions of the game.
  • Hotfix releases include Quality of Life changes or fixes to other bugs and issues.