Qualicum Beach’s Cloudhead Games has hit a home run with its first video game, winning three honours from the Canadian Video Game Awards in Montreal.
Cloudhead’s The Gallery Episode 1: Call of the Starseed was named this year’s best virtual reality game as well as taking home the honours for best game innovation and best technology.
The company had been nominated for nine awards.
“It was a shock to win three, we didn’t expect that,” said Cloudhead chief executive Denny Unger, noting the three they won were in the categories that meant the most. “They highlighted the successes we did have.”
Cloudhead was founded in 2012 and spurred on through a Kickstarter campaign in 2013. It started with three people working out of Unger’s garage and has grown into a team of 19. That will increase again, Unger said, both as a result of its success with the first game and the technology and tools the company has created to play in a virtual reality world.
Unger said he expects the company to be two or three times its current size very soon.
He said being based in Qualicum Beach is more a help than a hindrance when it comes to hiring and attracting talent.
“What we found when we started hiring up was a lot of those [small coastal town] qualities were attractive to developers, especially those that had been in the industry and been in the big city already,” he said. “The only down side is the time it takes for [new hires] to get here and get settled.”
Cloudhead is working on a number of new projects and is halfway through the second episode of The Gallery.
Victoria’s Red Nexus Games was also up for a Canadian Video Game award; it was nominated for best debut game for Friday Night Bullet Arena. The firm was a runnerup in the category.
