ETA: The guys from NinjaKiwis mentioned that they wanted to come to Casual Connect and accept their Zeebys award, but they decided that the price for getting to the conference was just too high. Considering that many casual games studios are small one to five people setups where cost is a big factor, and that they live in New Zealand…well, ’nuff said. ;)

I attended The 2nd Annual Zeebys Awards last night. This is an awards ceremony produced by Gamezebo and the Casual Games Association that applauds those in the casual games industry that work hard to produce the casual games titles that many of us love while donating money to the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation. My impression, however, is that fewer people than one would think in the industry actually support the Zeebys.

There were only a little over 100 people that showed up to the ceremony, even though there were substantially more who showed up to the conference. Of course, maybe the two events scheduled that evening that overlapped it had something to do with that. Then again, that also says something about the casual game industry support of the awards.

The Zeebys were able to raise $11,000 for the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation, which is great. I recently reviewed The Tuttles Madcap Adventure on iGame Radio, and some of the proceeds of the sale of that game also went to this deserving charity.

The awards ceremony itself came across as mixed. I felt like I was in a frat event for much of it…or rather, a frat’s view of the Oscars. Some of what happened was truly hilarious and would have worked in a more mature style event, such as when the 2007 Hall of Fame award was given to Paul Thelin of Big Fish Games. A video that parodied the old Olympics videos of decades past but in which pictures of Paul were used was played. My favorite line from the video was, “But [Paul's] next game would blow our minds. Animated gifs on tiles. Where does he come up with this shit?!”

A novel approach was to have the band The Somatones play segments of music from each of the finalist games from the Best Audio category. They were actually quite good, but unfortunately played the music for too long, and the audience started to become bored. I think only one or two pieces held people’s attention for most of it. If they had narrowed the time down to about 2 to 2.5 minutes, that probably would have been better. Still, their rendition of Peggle music was probably the best.

But for the most part it just felt like a bunch of folks in the area doing a block party, and one which most didn’t want to attend. Even when the Somatones played segments from Guitar Hero II/III, still it was hard to get the audience to respond. Clapping was usually scattered. I wondered if some were comatose. And the host came across as a geek addressing fellow geeks at a PAX party, or the GDC…not as a host addressing the general public (which the Zeebys were trying to target this year by selling tickets to everyone).

They weren’t even able to give the Zeebys award to those who won, since the awards weren’t ready in time. Instead they gave away t-shirts, with a promise of the awards later (”in the mail”). And the host apparently didn’t realize that not everyone who came up on the stage got a t-shirt, because they eventually became short of them.

Despite this rather scathing commentary, I did have fun, and did enjoy seeing some of my favorite games win awards, and watching truly appreciative developers and publishers accept them. So, without further ado, the winners of the 2nd Annual Zeebys Awards.

People’s Choice Awards (represent casual games of the year as voted by the general public; 35,000 people voted, according to Gamezebo)

1. Best Puzzle Game: Jewel Quest II, by iWin (this has a Mac version too!)
2. Best Time Management Game: Diner Dash: Hometown Hero, by PlayFirst (this has a Mac version too!)
3. Best Arcade and Action Game: Peggle, by PopCap Games (this has a Mac version too!)
4. Best Word and Trivia Game: Trivial Pursuit: Genus Edition, by RealGames
5. Best Card, Board, and Mahjong Game: Monopoly Here & Now, by RealGames (this has a Mac version too!)
6. Best Strategy and Simulation Game: Chocolatier, by PlayFirst (this has a Mac version too!)
7. Best Hidden Object and Adventure Game: Dream Chronicles, PlayFirst (this has a Mac version too!)
8. Best Web Game: Bloons, by Ninja Kiwis (obviously, it works on Mac because it’s web-based; but I’ve never heard of these guys…they also never showed up to accept their award.)
9. Best Casual Game of the Year: Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile, by Oberon Games

Craft Awards (represent casual games awarded excellence in game design in the designated categories as voted by peers in the Casual Games Association)

1. Best Visual Arts: Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate, by Big Fish Games (this has a Mac version too!)
2. Best Audio: Peggle, by PopCap Games (this has a Mac version too!)
3. Best Story/Narrative: Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate, by Big Fish Games (this has a Mac version too!)
4. Best Social Game: Who Has the Biggest Brain?, by PlayFish
5. Best XBLA Game: Worms, by Team17 (this has a Mac version too!)
6. Most Innovative Game of the Year: Build-a-Lot, by HipSoft (this has a Mac version too!)

Note gleefully how many of these games have Mac versions! Of the thirteen games that won awards, nine have Mac versions (two others work on the Mac by virtue of the fact that they are web based games). A total of eleven of the thirteen are available for Mac users.

If you take a look at the above categories and compare it with the categories on the Zeebys site, you will notice something interesting. In the Craft Awards, they skipped Best Character, Best Mobile Game, and either they gave Build-a-Lot the Innovative Game of the Year, or the Technology award…I’m not sure, because they labeled it “Best Innovation” when they came up, and it wasn’t given towards the end of the ceremony with the People’s Choice for Best Casual Game (which one would think it would). I’m not sure why the host skipped these categories…and no, I didn’t fall asleep (though there were times, I’ll admit, when I felt like it).

Oh, I did forget one other award. They had a Game Portal of the Year award too. This was created by the people who were at the ceremony itself sms’ing their choice in. I can’t remember all of the choices available, but it came down to a neck and neck run between Reflexive and Big Fish Games, with Big Fish Games eventually edging Reflexive out in the end (Reflexive had the lead for much of the time). Pogo, I think, came in a close third.

Congrats to Big Fish Games (though I wish Reflexive could have won…nothing against Big Fish, but I have a kind of special place in my heart for the folks at Reflexive), and congratulations to everyone else who won an award.

And to Gamezebo who put on the awards ceremony? I think you’re trying to get too big too quick, guys. Perhaps you should slow down a little next year. The general public, unfortunately, doesn’t give a squat yet about the doings and goings on of the casual games industry. It’s going to be a bit, I think, before they will care. And it certainly will be, at the rate you are publicizing this to the general public. Make up your minds about who you are targeting the show to, and then stick to it. I think you’ll do better in the end, for yourselves, the developers and publishers in the industry, and for your charity next year.

And I hope you survive the awards contender for next year.