The Catalan video game 'Endling' wins a BAFTA

Concern about the climate crisis is one of the main themes of Endling – Extinction is Forever, the video game developed by the Barcelona studio Herobeat Studio that tonight won the “Beyond Entertainment” award at the 2023 BAFTA Games Awards.

This shocking adventure released last summer puts the player in the shoes of a fox whose mission is to protect her cubs in the middle of a world devastated by human activity.

“This award is dedicated to those games that provoke political thought, that expand our knowledge and that in some cases even promote social change”, said the British comedian, Sophie Duker, just before announcing the name of the winning title.

In the “Beyond Entertainment” category, Endling was up against other games with messages and social themes, such as Citizen Sleeper, Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, I Was a Teenage Excolonist, Not for Broadcast, and We’ll Always Have Paris.

The man behind Endling’s original idea, Javier Ramello, as well as the game’s art director, Pablo Hernández, have collected the award at the gala held last night at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

It’s not the only award Herobeat Studios’ debut game has garnered since its release. At the end of last year, it was the most awarded at the Catalan videogame SAGA gala and, recently, it has also obtained the Premi Ciutat de Barcelona for audiovisuals and digital culture.

Although they are best known for their cinematographic aspect, the awards organized by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts also have great prestige in the field of video games.

Beyond Endling, the most awarded title in this edition of the BAFTA Games Awars has been God of War Ragnarök from the Sony Santa Monica studio, which has won in five categories: Animation, Audio, Music, best leading performance for Christopher and best performance. Secondary to Laya DeLeon Hayes.

However, the symbolic winner of the gala has been the small, but tremendously addictive, Vampire Survivors, the game created by the independent developer Luca Galante, which has won the Best Game and Best Design awards.