Game Audio Awards

15/03/2024

A week ago, we discovered the current stars of the game music and audio world and celebrated them in our spectacular gala! 🌟

We want to thank all our amazing guests, nominees, winners, judges, volunteers, sponsors, and above all, our hardworking team for making GAA 2024 an unforgettable celebration of game music and audio. 🎮🎶 Your presence and support truly made the night shine.

We also made history at our gala, as one nominee took home a whopping three out of four awards! 🏆🏆🏆

Here's the list of the Game Audio Awards 2024 winners and let's give them a bit of glory and love:

🔊🎶 Best Game Sound Design 2023
COCOON
Lukas Julian Lentz and Mikkel Anttila

🎮🎶 Best Game Music 2023
Alan Wake 2
Petri Alanko, Poets of the Fall - Marko Saaresto, Olli Tukiainen and Markus Kaarlonen

✨🔊🎶 Firestarter Award for Best Game Sound Design, Audience Favourite 2023
Alan Wake 2
Petri Alanko, Poets of the Fall - Marko Saaresto, Olli Tukiainen and Markus Kaarlonen

✨🎮🎶 Firestarter Award for Best Game Music, Audience Favourite 2023
Alan Wake 2
Petri Alanko, Poets of the Fall - Marko Saaresto, Olli Tukiainen and Markus Kaarlonen

🔥 Outstanding Achievement
LEMPO – Olli Ketonen
for an outstanding one-man vision & realization in game music & sound design

🔥 Outstanding Achievement
Palia – Steffen Schmidt and Kevin Notar
for outstandingly beautiful score & orchestration

Congratulations to the winners!

08/03/2024

Don't forget, the Official Afterparty will follow the usual tradition – at Snooker Time. 🥳

No ticket to the gala? No worries!

If you'd like to join us after the gala, see you there by midnight at the latest. 😉

Location: Asemakatu 28, 90100 Oulu.

08/03/2024

Couldn't make it to the Game Audio Award Gala?
No worries! Join the party through the live stream. 🎉

Join to watch the live stream starting at 6 pm at https://youtube.com/live/U0oEqKf6e20

Welcome!

07/03/2024

Tomorrow we will know the best game music and audio of 2023! 🏆 The prizes crafted by Lastu are eagerly waiting for their recipients to claim them!

06/03/2024

🌟 Sponsor Introduction 🌟
Game Audio Awards 2024 Sponsor Lastu.

Lastu is a Finnish company that manufactures ecological and personalized phone cases. Each phone case is made to order according to the customer's preferences, so you get the exact protection you want for your phone. The cases are environmentally friendly and crafted from carefully selected materials such as wood, reindeer leather, fish leather, and M05 camouflage fabric.

And the GAA winners will receive a fabulous awards made by Lastu at Friday's gala!

For more information, please visit lastu.co.

Thank you for supporting game music and audio with us!

05/03/2024

🌟 Volunteers 🌟
Game Audio Awards 2024 Volunteers IGDA Oulu.

"Building bridges & connecting people through sauna, grill and beverage!"

IGDA Finland Oulu Hub is known for that!

Thank you to the awesome volunteers who will be coming to help us arrange the gala. See you on Friday!

*IGDA The International Game Developers Association

02/03/2024

🌟 Sponsor Introduction 🌟
Game Audio Awards 2024 Sponsor Empires Not Vampires.

"We’re building the next generation of engaging, casual long-lasting games. Our mission is to bring players worldwide into the mesmerizing universe of Empires for an unforgettable gaming experience."

Empires Not Vampires Entertainment Ltd. is an experienced mobile games development company founded in Finland in 2017. Team members have worked together for many years developing and publishing Free To Play mobile games reaching the top 10 download charts as well as collaborating with some of the biggest games studios on the planet including Fingersoft, Amanotes and Nitro Games.

For more information, please visit empires.games.

Thank you for supporting game music and audio with us!

02/03/2024

🌟 Sponsor Introduction 🌟
Game Audio Awards 2024 Sponsor Housemarque.

Housemarque is an award winning game development studio with the goal of creating memorable game experiences. Our passion is to create world class games with tight and intuitive gameplay feel.

Here, the motto is “Game is King”.

Housemarque joined Sony PlayStation Studios family in June 2021. PlayStation Studios is a collection of world-class game development studios, responsible for some of the most revered and successful game franchises in the world.

For more information, please visit housemarque.com.

Thank you for supporting game music and audio with us!

01/03/2024

🌟 Sponsor Introduction 🌟
Game Audio Awards 2024 Sponsor Rovio.

"We craft joy with player-focused gaming experiences that last for decades."

Rovio Entertainment Corporation is a global mobile-first games company that creates, develops, and publishes mobile games, which have been downloaded over 5 billion times. Rovio is best known for the global Angry Birds brand and has since evolved from games to various entertainment, animations, and consumer products in brand licensing.

For more information, please visit www.rovio.com.

Thank you for supporting game music and audio with us!

01/03/2024

🌟 Sponsor Introduction 🌟
Game Audio Awards 2024 Sponsor Supercell.

Supercell was founded on the idea of giving game developers and teams the independence to decide what kinds of games they make and how they choose to make them. Over a decade and five global games later, our dream still stands: to create great games that as many people as possible play for years and that are remembered forever.

Supercell is a game company based in Helsinki, Finland, with offices in San Francisco, Seoul and Shanghai. Since our launch in 2010, we've brought five games to the global market – Hay Day, Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, Clash Royale and Brawl Stars.

For more information, please visit supercell.com/en.

Thank you for supporting game music and audio with us!

29/02/2024

🌟 Sponsor Introduction 🌟
Game Audio Awards 2024 Sponsor Genelec.

What would an audio event be without proper sound reproduction? It wouldn't sound like anything! The excellent sound experience is made possible thanks to our sponsor, Genelec , who has provided the sound system for our event this year. They are also incredibly generous, offering prizes to our amazing winners!

So don't forget to meet Mirko at the event:

“Hello, I'm Mirko Ekberg, Genelec Pro Audio Sales Manager. I bring a wealth of experience in sales and a passion for creative problem-solving. My track record includes successful campaigns and a knack for understanding market dynamics. Let's connect and explore how my skills can contribute to our shared goals.”

For more information, please visit www.genelec.com.

Thank you for supporting game music and audio with us!

28/02/2024

🎮🎶 We're excited to announce that the nominees for the 2024 Best Game Music category are now revealed! They are the following:

⭐️ LEMPO
⭐️ Palia
⭐️ Baldur's Gate 3
⭐️ Alan Wake 2
⭐️ Assassin's Creed Mirage
⭐️ Cocoon
⭐️ Marvel's Spider-Man 2
⭐️ Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
⭐️ Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
⭐️ Sea of Stars

28/02/2024

🔊🎶 We're excited to announce that the nominees for the 2024 Best Sound Design category are now revealed! They are the following:

⭐️ Marvel's Spider-Man 2
⭐️ Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
⭐️ Cocoon
⭐️ Synapse
⭐️ Disney: Speedstorm
⭐️ THE FINALS
⭐️ Alan Wake II
⭐️ Star Wars: Jedi Survivor
⭐️ Baldur's Gate III
⭐️ Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

26/02/2024

🌟 Sponsor Introduction 🌟

Game Audio Awards 2024 Main Sponsor Fingersoft

Fingersoft is happy to support the Game Audio Awards again! The Oulu-based mobile game studio is famous for its worldwide smash hits Hill Climb Racing and Hill Climb Racing 2 which have accumulated over 2 Billion downloads across platforms. Founded in 2012, Fingersoft today employs 115 people.

For more information, please visit fingersoft.com.

Thank you for supporting game music and audio with us! ❤

25/02/2024

🔊 Jury member of Sound Design category - Dave Rowe 🎶

Dave Rowe has been in game audio for over 25 years, the greater part of it at Activision leading audio for the Tony Hawk franchise, the Guitar Hero franchise, and the Call of Duty franchise. He enjoys taking the linear art form of audio and music and translating his cinematic approach to non-linear media. In his spare time, he enjoys family and golf, and hopes to one day play at Pebble Beach.

25/02/2024

🔊 Jury member of Sound Design category - Joonas Turner 🎶

Joonas is a Sound Designer, Music Composer and a Game Designer at E-Studio who has worked on many games of various scopes and sizes. You might have heard his work on games such as Nuclear Throne, Downwell, Badland (1/2/Brawl), ScourgeBringer, Atomicrops, Tormentor X Punisher, Bleak Sword, Cult of the Lamb, Carrion, Broforce, Noita, or his latest project, Go Mecha Ball.

24/02/2024

🔊 Jury member of Sound Design category - Sam Hughes 🎶

Sam Hughes is the Audio Lead at Metacore and has been working in sound for over a decade. Before joining Metacore, he worked at Remedy Entertainment with various AAA titles such as Alan Wake II, Control, and Crossfire X. As Metacore’s Audio Lead, Sam pioneered the studio’s audio and developed the sound landscape of the popular and critically acclaimed Merge Mansion mobile game. Outside of his day-to-day job, Sam also hosts The Sound Architect Podcast, where he interviews voice actors, composers, sound designers and other top audio professionals around the globe.

24/02/2024

🔊 Jury member of Sound Design category - Mika Niinimaa 🎶

With over 25 years of experience in the field of sound design, Mika Niinimaa's journey has solidified the belief that crafting sound is indeed an art. "Each project deserves dedication and love, as this approach reveals new details and nuances in the end result with every listening session."

Primarily functioning as a sound designer, Mika also boasts experience as a sound editor. His work history encompasses a wide range of productions, from feature films to advertisements, games, animations, documentaries, and art films. Currently, a significant portion of his time is dedicated to international fiction productions. Additionally, Mika serves as a sound design instructor at the Turku Arts Academy and is a co-owner of one of Finland's film mixing studios.

23/02/2024

🎮 Jury members of Game Music category - Elvira Björkman and Nicklas Hjertberg 🎶

Two Feathers is a studio that specializes in music and sound for games. This composer duo consists of Elvira Björkman and Nicklas Hjertberg, bringing their experience of working with a wide range of games and music genres, varying from successful indies to big-scale AAA-titles. While studying game development they planted the seed of Two Feathers in late 2012 and has since grown well known within the games industry through their musical works to everything from Legaue of Legends, Vermintide 2 and Angry Birds 2 – to indie successes such as Hammerwatch and Aragami.

The duo's current highlighted works: We’re proud to have worked with “Metal:Hellsinger”, where we as a duo has composed all the music and brought on famous metal acts to perform on our soundtrack, such as the vocalists from System of a Down, Arch Enemy, Trivium, Lamb of God, Refused, Dark Tranquillity, Soilwork, Jinjer and Black Crown Initiate. In 2022 we personally performed the music from this soundtrack Live at Gamescom, with a few of the guest singers mentioned above performing on stage. This became Gamescom’s biggest concert yet with over 500 000+ watching it live on stream, and filling max capacity at the venue (around 3000 people). The concert was arranged by Funcom.

22/02/2024

🎮 Jury member of Game Music category - Orvar Säfström 🎶

Orvar Säfström is a concert producer and writer, and a former film critic and television host, from Sweden. He has been awarded the Swedish film industry Honorary Award and the Swedish Gaming Association “Gamer of the year”. He has published several books on games and fandom through his publishing house Fandrake. In the symphonic world, Orvar is the leading producer of concerts with game and film music in Scandinavia, more than 100 productions with 35 orchestras since 2006.

22/02/2024

🎮 Jury member of Game Music category - Salla Hakkola 🎶

Salla Hakkola (M.M. Sibelius-Academy, Finland) is a multi-award-winning harpist-composer and performance artist, best known for her game soundtracks for the brands Angry Birds, Clash of Clans and Merge Mansion. She worked for Rovio in 2011-2019 as a composer, producer and music consultant, composing music for games, the Angry Birds Toons – animation series, trailers, artist collaborations, and the Angry Birds Movie (2016).

As a harpist she is a pioneer of the electric harp, touring with some of the most prominent rock / pop groups in Finland, using harp in experimental contemporary art contexts, and recording for various albums, including her own productions.

Besides game soundtracks, her works include music for orchestras, choirs, film, animation, theatre, dance productions and experimental collaborative events in avant-garde and underground scenes in Helsinki and abroad.

Since 2019 she has worked in her own audio company, focusing on game & film music, providing music for Supercell’s IP’s and Metacores Merge Mansion to name a few.

Her prizes include Game Audio Awards 2016 - best game soundtrack for The Fruit Nibblers OST; NYX Game Awards 2023; Grand Winner for the Best Music in mobile for for Merge Mansion albums; NYX Game Awards 2023 Gold winner for the Best Original Game Soundtrack for Friends & Dragons OST albums; and NYX Game Awards 2023 Gold winner for the Best Original Game Soundtrack for Friends & Dragons OST.

04/02/2024

🎼 Submit now – Don't miss this opportunity!

Today is the final day to submit your sounds or music for our judges to review! Submit your entries during February 4, 2024.

Submit your application at:
https://gameaudioawards.com/news/enroll-your-audio

Whose music or sounds do you want to see as a nominee?

02/02/2024

🎶 Get ready to meet the jury of 2024! 🎶

Introducing the jury for this year:

🔊 Sound Design

⭐️ Joonas Turner
⭐️ Mika Niinimaa
⭐️ Sam Hughes

🎮 Game Music

⭐️ Elvira Björkman
⭐️ Nicklas Hjertberg
⭐️ Orvar Säfström
⭐️ Salla Hakkola

The jury is eagerly anticipating the opportunity to listen to the remarkable entries for the best sound design and game music of 2023!

Submit your game audio today:
https://gameaudioawards.com/news/enroll-your-audio

31/01/2024

The winners take it all! 🔥🏆

In addition to infinite fame and glamour, the winner will receive a fantastic prize. Our sponsor, Genelec, has promised to gift this year's winners with two Genelec 8330A SAM™ Studio Monitors and a GLM Calibration Kit!

What would you do if you won this sweet set?

Sign up for the competition to chase the prize:
https://gameaudioawards.com/news/enroll-your-audio

10/01/2024

🎼🎮 Game Audio Awards 2024 - Get ready!

Exciting news for all sound designers and game music creators! Game Audio Awards are now seeking the best sound design and the best game music of 2023. 🌟

Spread the word and submit your outstanding work now: https://gameaudioawards.com/news/enroll-your-audio

Submission deadline: February 4th.

And stay tuned for the announcement of our esteemed jury members for 2024!

Submissions now open! We are now looking for the best sound design and the best game music of 2023! Please use these forms to send us your details. If you have any questions, please send them to: [email protected] Deadline for submissions is February 4th. SUBMISSIONS FOR SOUND DESIGN CATEGORY...

11/03/2023

And here are the winners of GAA2023.

BEST GAME SOUND DESIGN
Infinity Ward Audio Team for
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

BEST GAME MUSIC
Elvira Björkman and Nicklas Hjertberg (Two Feathers) for
Metal: Hellsinger

FIRESTARTER AWARD FOR BEST GAME SOUND DESIGN
Mads Vadsholt for
The Forest Quartet

FIRESTARTER AWARD FOR BEST GAME MUSIC
Filippo Vicarelli for
Vampire Survivors (Side B)

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to all the wonderful creators who submitted their work for this year's GAA. You are all awesome and we love you!

The winners will be contacted for their prizes.