For the eleventh time, the Pixel Heaven Games and Pop Culture Festival 2023 will award prizes for the best independent video games released in the period after the previous edition of the event. The growing international importance and prestige of the awards, in which more than 150 games from all over the world participate each year, this year gained additional emphasis in the form of acquiring a title Partner – Intel brand.
Intel is a brand that for years has been driving not only the computer market, but most importantly supporting game developers and gamers around the world. This is evidenced by dedicated technology for the gaming industry, as well as projects such as Intel Gaming Alliance or the electrifying Intel Extreme Masters tournament for gaming fans. Combining the Awards for the European gaming industry with such a prestigious Partner is a great honor, so they will also change their name. From this edition, the winners will be awarded with the Intel Pixel Awards Europe 2023.
Games can be submitted to the competition until April 28th, using the form on: pixelheavenfest.com
The award ceremony will take place on May 27 at 8 pm on the main stage of the Pixel Heaven Games and Pop Culture Festival 2023 at the Creative Industries Development Center s at 65 Minska Street in Warsaw. For more information, visit intelpixelawardseurope.games
Meet the Jury staff:
○ Marcin Borkowski - former editor-in-chief in legendary Top Secret magazine, recently an independent game developer again.
○ Asia Buganik - previously at cdp.pl, QLOC, Crunching Koalas, and from 2018 on board at GOG.com, where she deals with global PR, marketing and consumer research. Great fan of indie games and cats.
○ Liz Katrin - singer and creator of music for video games and movies. Geek, gamer. She sings in a variety of styles and languages (including fictional ones), lends her voice to game characters and hosts the PodLIZuchy podcast on YT.
○ Michał Król - passionate and collector of Polish games, journalist promoting Polish productions and gamedev companies. Editor and analyst of PolskiGamedev.pl and creator of the blog Gracpospolita.pl. Co-host of the Giermasz broadcast on Radio Szczecin, where he also runs the ?Gramy po polsku? corner – devoted to Polish games. Member of the editorial board of the PSX Extreme monthly, reviewer and author of the permanent column “Good, because Polish”. Webmaster and specialist in new and social media.
○ Krzysztof Maliński - in gamedev for more than 12 years. Throughout those years he has been working as a designer, producer and programmer. Currently Technology Director at Huuuge Games. In his spare time – Indie developer at Insane Code.
○ Artur Maksara - associated with the games industry since 2009. Member and co-founder of Indie Games Poland Foundation. He started as a QA tester and a specialist in localization and translation, later dealing with, among others, level design and production of the Shadow Warrior 1 and 2. Lately working as an advisor in the field of business development and mentor in the Industrial Development Agency?s Game acceleration programme. Currently Senior Developer Relations Manager at Intel.
○ Jakub Marszałkowski - organizer of Game Industry Conference, one of the founders and a member of the Indie Games Polska Foundation Council, researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Poznań University of Technology. Honored with the Annual Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, as the organizer and promoter supporting Polish game developers.
○ Paweł Schreiber - video game researcher and critic, lecturer at Kazimierz Wielki University. He has written about games for Pixel magazine, Dwutygodnik portal, jawnesny.pl blog and Culture.pl portal.
○ Ewa Maria Szczepanowska - in the AV industry since 2000, since 2015 at the Warsaw Film School as PR manager, Creative Director, currently Spokesperson and Vice Rector for Communications and New Media. Originator and organizer of the 7th edition of Warsaw Film School Game Jam and Warsaw Game Jam PRO, juror in the Grand Video Awards, among others. She manages the gamedev pillar of WSF, the educational program of the Video Game Creation major and the High School of Video Game Creation. Producer of the game “Best Month Ever,” created by the film and game production studio at WSF.
○ Agnieszka Szóstak - in gaming industry since forever, though at first it was a rather informal relationship. Adventure Zone website editor and CD Action magazine contributor. Working as a PR Specialist at CD Projekt RED studio for several years, being responsible for The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077. Now managing her own PR company called PR Outreach, helping independent developers effectively promote their amazing games.
○ Rafał Szrajber - organizer of the Team Computer Game Development competition and the Game Graphics Contest competition, industry-specific initiatives dedicated to students. Lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź and the Institute of Computer Science of the Lodz University of Technology, where he teaches narrative through space and game design. Ambassador of sectoral education and inter-university cooperation. In his free time, an independent artist focused on using heritage as a soft power carrier.
○ Mateusz Witczak - publisher of the PolskiGamedev.pl website. Critic, columnist, journalist, for many years the head of the journalism department in “CD-Action” monthly magazine. He wrote about games, among others in “Play” “PC Format” and “Playbox” magazines, as well as in the pages of WP.pl, Interia.pl and Onet.pl. He collaborates with “Biweekly magazine”, and publishes texts on minorities and exclusion in “Polityka” weekly.
○ Kuba Wójcik - one of the founders and President of the Management Board in the Indie Games Polska Foundation, which was established to support Polish video game developers. The role of the foundation is to help in the process of acquiring greece, creating a brand, promoting and selling. Winner of the Special Distinctions of the 2017 Award of the Year, awarded for a special contribution to the games industry.
○ Grzegorz Zajączkowski - engineer, programmer, social animator. Expert in the digitization department of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland.
