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BAFTA will honour Brenda Romero with the Special Award at the British Academy Games Awards on Thursday 6 April, they’ve announced today.
BAFTA’s Special Award recognises individuals for their creative contributions to their industry, in this case video games, and will be presented to Romero for her "her illustrious career in game design, her advocacy for the art and creative process behind game-making, and her commitment to encouraging the next generation of talent in the industry."
Romero entered the games industry in 1981 and has had a spectacular career since, working on franchises that came to define gaming: Jagged Alliance, Wizardry, Ghost Recon and many more. In 2013 we listed her as one of the 25 people that changed games that year, and we’ll be awarding her the 2017 Development Legend award at our Develop Industry Excellence Awards this summer. She currently co-owns Romero Games in Galway, Ireland with her husband, fellow game developer John Romero.
Nick Button-Brown, Chair of BAFTA’s Games Committee, said: "Brenda is such a great role model for people wanting to enter the industry and her advocacy for the excellence of creativity within the Games industry helps us all. Given the work that BAFTA does in helping people get into the games industry, having Brenda as such an eloquent advocate is fantastic."
Brenda Romero added: “I am first and foremost grateful to BAFTA for recognising the artistic potential and power of games. This recognition is culturally critical for games overall. So for that, I am profoundly thankful. As for me? Genuinely, I am still in a state of shock, having been chosen. I’ve devoted my life to games – making them, teaching them, playing them – and to receive any honour from the community is incredible. But a BAFTA? It’s well beyond anything else."
