London 'gamer Oscars' to pit Angry Birds vs Call of Duty

British film has one, so does the nation's TV industry, but the annual festival dedicated to the success of the UK's gaming business is less well known.

For the next month, events across the capital will mark the London Games Festival, ending with its own Oscars-style ceremony, the Golden Joysticks, which itself celebrates its 30th anniversary.

Last year more than one million votes were cast by members of the public, in the event dedicated to gong-giving to the must-play console and computer titles.

This year's voting is now open at Golden Joysticks with a who's who of games vying for the coveted prizes, from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to Angry Birds Space.


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But away from the back-slapping, the London Games Festival also has a more serious purpose - to raise the profile of an ever growing industry that's playing a large part in some of the world's biggest virtual entertainment blockbusters.

At one of the opening events, Games Invest, independent developers were offered the chance to pitch their ideas - Dragon's Den style - to investors with the money and means to bring them to life.

And with some of the UK's larger gaming studios either shutting or under threat, such as the recently-closed Bizarre Creations, makers of the Project Gotham Racing series for the Xbox and Xbox 360, the need to nurture the talent of the future is paramount according to co-organiser, Jamie Sefton, of Game Republic.

He explained: "This is our third year but it has become increasingly important because there's been a lot of high profile studios closed down.

"Out of that you get lots of exciting indies starting up and in Yorkshire, where I am based, we've seen an enormous number of startups form because bigger companies have folded or people are after a change.

"Red Kite was born from ex-Rockstar people, some who had worked on Grand Theft Auto, and they just fancied doing cool iPad story-led stuff. You are going to see some big success stories in the near future from these indies."

He added: "There's a funding gap for indies. A lot of publishers do not have as much work for hire so we started an event to bring together the key people on the issue of financing, such as VCs, Angels, publishers and public organisations such as universities.

"Game companies can apply and investors choose who to meet on the day. This year we had 42 meetings happening. Deals don't tend to be done on the day, it can take more than a year to come through, but we have had successes in the past."

Jamie explained crowd-funding has now become a major avenue for smaller independent developers looking to bring their games to life. One of those involved in Games Invest is crowd-fund platform IndieGoGo.

He said: "The indie scene has never been such an exciting place to be. Revolution's Broken Sword crowd-funded double what was asked for.

"By going to fans, indies can finally make the game they want to make without interference from publishers. But for anyone thinking of doing it, you must be very focused or you can be pulled in a million different directions trying to get the business side off the ground."

LGF offers a wide range of events including apps workshops, networking sessions, a hackathon, video game karaoke and even a gaming art exhibition, held at City Hall, the offices of the London Mayor Boris Johnson.

The free five-day event starting on October 22 will feature original one-off concept designs, storyboards, wire framed drawings and sculptures, all created for games and interactive entertainment. Many will then be auctioned off for charity Special Effect, which aims to help those with disabilities enjoy gaming.

LGF director Kirsty Payne said: "The London Games Festival is becoming an increasingly important part of the capital's calendar.

"The way people buy, play and consume games is changing - and we hope to reflect that with a wide range of brilliant events falling under one glorious banner.

"The London Games Festival changes and grows as the games industry evolves and we hope that year on year it leaves a legacy, promotes games and the games industry as not only a great place to base a career on but also to show the world that we're good at what we do and that interactive entertainment is a fun, positive, creative and skilled place to be."