The festival’s award for best game of the year was bagged jointly by Raspina Game Studio for “Sargozasht”, and Avagames for “An Soye Baran”.
The top award is named Golden Homa after a mythical bird in Iranian legend, the event’s website (irangamefestival.ir) reported.
Sargozasht (destiny in Persian) which is to be published in the coming months is an adventure game that can be played on personal computers, Sony PlayStation and Xbox, according to Financial Tribune.
An Soye Baran (on the other side of rain in Persian) is a smartphone platformer game developed by Avagames. It was published on Feb. 14. In addition to Golden Homa, each team received a 500 million ($3,900) cash prize.
Held by Iran Computer and Video Games Foundation, the festival was backed by video-sharing website Aparat and digital advertisement agency Tapsell.
The best games were decided by a 13-member jury comprising veteran game developers and critics along with well-known journalists in the field.
In addition to the best game award, top games in nine genres were also picked by the panel. Beside the Golden Homa trophy each winner received 200 million rials ($1,560) cash prize.
Public Poll
The games were also put to a popular vote through which Hezar Dastan: Shazad (Thousand Fables: Prince in Persian) was picked as the year’s most popular game winning a Golden Homa and 150 million rials ($1,170) cash award.
Based on the public poll, the best game update award with a 50- million-rial ($390) cash prize went to trivia mobile game Quiz of Kings which has gone viral with Iranian players.
The poll was conducted via text messages and 48,000 people voted.
According to organizers, 146 locally-developed games participated in the festival.
Participants included 124 mobile games for Android handsets, three for iOS devices and 19 games that can be played on personal computers and gaming consoles.
Entries were reviewed based on technical, aesthetical, design, musical, and production criteria by the jury which studied the products between Jan. 21and Feb. 19.
There are over 150 game development companies in Iran. The average company has 8 to 12 people while bigger enterprises have 30 employees.
More than 28 million gamers live in the country, annually generating 9.2 trillion rials ($72 million) for the expanding game market.