Summary:
6/8/2018: We were nominated for two awards, for Best Execution in Art as well as Best Execution in Narrative!
10/8/2018: We did it! While we sadly didn't quite manage to get Best Execution in Art, we hauled home Best Execution in narrative!
14/8/2018: We were interviewed by the provincial radio section of P4, the interview then published online!
Said interview is linked below, with a manually transcripted and translated version for those who don't speak Swedish:
Here is the radio interview, in its entirety, transcripted into English. Apologies for the delay, here's the link again if you wish to listen along to the audio while you read:
Participants:
Interviewer: Josefin Möller
Lemon Curd Games: Cecilia Höglund & Linus Persson Lundh
Text within () is for context, [] denote quick replies injected into the dialogue.
Introduction
"Last week the Swedish Game Awards were held in Stockholm, a game developer contest for students and independent game developers who want to gain some visibility for their games in the world.
A gang of game development students from the University of Skövde brought home a prize in one of the categories with their game."
Interview
Josefin: So now I have gotten myself to the University of Skövde, sitting here with two people from Lemon Curd Games, which is the group that won a prize in Stockholm with their game.
Cecilia: Yup, my name's Cecilia Höglund, I'm a lead for the graphics department, as well as having done voice acting, i.e. voices, for characters and the intro.
Linus: I am Linus Persson Lundh, author and the one who manages our Facebook page as well as various other things on the web.
Josefin: Then we'll begin with Swedish Game Awards, in which you partook with your game.,What is it? (SGA)
Linus: Well the Swedish Game Awards is a competition mostly for students, as well as other enthusiasts and hobbyists within game creation, so not individuals who are professionally employed or have been in the past.
Josefin: And, so when you decided to participate. was that a goal that you have worked towards long term?
Cecilia: I would say that to begin with, we made the game specifically because we wanted to complete something and feel that we have actually created a game. It is our first year after all, so even just the feeling to have finished was a wonderful experience, but then later we received information that this contest existed, Swedish Game Awards as it's called. There you could send it in (the game), which is precisely what we did.
Josefin: And then you even won in one of the categories?
Linus: We managed to nab Best Execution in Narrative. [Cecilia: Yup.]
But it's also important to note that we got nominated in graphics, (Best Execution in Art) and it's also very important to keep in mind that regardless of the fact that the nominations concern very specific things, that we never would have gotten to that point without the group. Say for example that we had been dissatisfied with how the game was presented, then we never would have submitted it.
Josefin: So Best Execution in Narrative could be approximated to mean roughly "Best Execution in Story-telling". [Linus: Yes, approximately.] (Translating into Swedish for the radio audience)
So how did it feel once you found out that you had been nominated?
Cecilia: It's indescribable, really. I think that I'm not alone within the game group saying exactly that, it being the first year (of studies) and everything. To all intents and purposes, we'd been working within our fields for half a year, I really can't even explain it with words. It was your birthday too Linus, at the same time, so congratulations on that.
Josefin: And then you brought home the prize in one category as well, so then it must have been even more joyous if at all possible?
Linus: Being the author, saying that it (the sensation) is beyond description is probably a poor omen as to my future prospects, but that's simply the way it is, it can't be described, that emotion. I remember that having well received the prize I sat there with the plaque staring at it for some five minutes, completely oblivious to the fact that at the bottom there was prize money. So our colleague Anderson who worked on the music and did a fantastic job, he went "Have you seen this!?" and then I went "Huh, what? Oh!". It's plainly completely surreal.
Cecilia: And I do believe that we screamed the loudest in the entire room when the prizes were awarded.
Josefin: So the game that you won with, that you worked on with your colleagues, can you tell (us) what it's called and what it's about?
Linus: The game's called Cateau, which is a game about what friendship truly entails, to put oneself in a situation with which one isn't comfortable or familiar in order to help one's friend to get better. That's the story in a nutshell.
Josefin: Within the title then, Cateau, can one guess that it involves cats in some way?
Linus: You can, for it certainly isn't the battle (by the same name) during World War I that we're talking about, so it's cats that we are discussing here.
Josefin: So what do you get to do within the game then? Meet cats, something else perhaps?
Cecilia: Yes, precisely. So one plays as the protagonist, friend of the character Roselle. Roselle begins to feel very poorly, and then it's about friendship as Linus said before, so one might engage in things that you're very uncomfortable with. Particularly meeting cats in this case, which the protagonist isn't comfortable with. Doing so you encounter many cats with different personalities, and Roselle then begins to grow more and more with time in the game.
Josefin: And with the game looking as it does today, is it completely finished, have you been able to publish it in some way?
Cecilia: I would say that a game is probably never completely finished, but on the other hand we're extremely proud of what we have accomplished and the plan is to publish it within the near future.
Regards,
BusinessCasualSauron, PR Manager & Author
