There were five excellent finalists in the GGDA's second annual Best in Georgia competition, but our panel of professional game developers finally chose Alter Gravity as the winner. Congratulations to the team, which gets space to demo their game at SIEGE, as well as thousands of dollars worth of professional consulting and services.

The best in Georgia competition encourages teams from the Global Game Jam to continue working on their games after the jam is over. The competition does not only look at what they bring to the jam, but what they can do in the weeks following. The main goal of this competition is to encourage teams to continue developing their titles, and help create a polished portfolio piece worthy of distribution

Each Georgia game jam site nominated one game for the competition. The titles competing for Best In Georgia this year were:

Georgia Tech: Voice Ball

GSU: WaveDash

The Guild Hall: Dead Wreckoning

SCAD Atlanta: Take The Stage

SCAD Savannah: Alter Gravity

The teams had until Feb. 10 to continue developing their games.  They were then judged on the following five categories:

Originality- is it immersive? Are the gameplay and mechanics unique/original? Are the story, settings, and characters engaging? Does the world have internal consistency?  Does it make me want to know what happens next?

Gameplay - What are the fun factors of the game? Are there interesting options that can take the game in a variety of directions? Is the game play innovative or derivative? If it’s derivative, does the gameplay add any new twist to existing gameplay styles? Are there Rewards at key game events or levels that add motivation for the player to continue? Are the rewards fun and/or innovative?

Visuals - Is the style of the art complimentary to the theme/gameplay and help to tell the story? Does the art add clarity to the gameplay, or make it difficulty to tell what’s happening?

Music/sound - If there is sound, does it compliment the theme? Does it to help immerse me in the world, or is it jarring and distracting?

Technical Complexity - What technical feats were accomplished? How did this complexity in development lend to a better gameplay experience? (i.e. procedural generation, VR, etc.)

In addition to getting their game named "Best in Georgia", the winning team got professional passes to SIEGE, a place at SIEGE to demo their game, and legal and professional consulting services to help them continue their development. Thanks to our sponsors, including Project MQ!