Are you familiar with the Spike TV Video Game Awards? Yeah, do not feel bad if you are not. Spike TV has been running this awards show since about 2003. It’s garnered its fair share of criticism, for being mostly a party for celebrities to attend and for nominating games that had no real business being nominated.
Despite some real rough patches, I think they’re trying to turn things around. If you look at this year’s list of nominees, there are some actual decent selections. Humbly enough, skate. has been honoured with a nomination in the “Best Individual Sports Game” category. We are up against Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, Virtua Tennis 3, and a game called Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground.
I’ve been told that in that particular category, a TH game has won every year since its inception. This years show will air on Sunday night but it will actually be taped on this Friday night in Las Vegas. Our executive producer Scott will be down in Vegas as the dev team representative.
As another sign that the show is turning more legit, we actually don’t know who the winner will be. As such, the fact that Tony Hawk himself will be attending makes it even more interesting.
Despite a bit of cheesiness and way too much focus on the celebrities, companies actually get to send part of the dev team to the show. It’s actually someone who worked on the game who gets to make an acceptance speech. So, for every ten minutes the camera is on Carmen Electra, please pay attention to the 30 seconds or so a dev team member gets to thank his or her fans and family for supporting their game.
Yeah, I know these aren’t the Oscars or the Emmys but I’m genuinely excited about our nomination. This is probably how some dude over at Weta Digital felt when Return of the King got Oscar nominated for special effects, knowing full well that he wrote the software for “random Orc attack patterns”.
So, if you’re interested, tune into Spike TV this Sunday at 9pm. If anything, you’ll enjoy host Samuel L. Jackson. Wish us luck but remember to send said luck before the taping on Friday night.