Kate Edwards receives GDCA’s 2020 Ambassador Award

The Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) has revealed the recipient of 2020’s Ambassador Award is Kate Edwards.

Formerly executive director of the non-profit International Game Developers Association between 2012 and 2017, Edwards is now executive director of the Global Game Jam. They also worked at Microsoft for 13 years as a geopolitical strategist before establishing their own consultancy, Geogrify, which helps developers maximise their international reach by “making content accessible to local markets through translation”. Edwards is also on the board for gaming mental health advocacy charity, Take This.

The Ambassador Award is rewarded for “helping video games advance to a better place through advocacy and action” and is selected each year by the Game Developers Choice Special Awards Jury, which currently includes Frank Cifaldi (The Video Game History Foundation), Ed Fries (1Up Ventures), Tracy Fullerton (USC Games), Raph Koster (Playable Worlds), and Erin Robinson (Guerrilla Games).

“The true ambassadors of the games industry are those figures who have helped progress the state of games to embrace more players, and Kate has done that by bridging cultural divides and connecting people across diverse game communities,” said GDC general manager Katie Stern. “Kate has always been an incredible evangelist to the game community itself, both through her work with the IGDA and now Global Game Jam, as well as her culturalisation work, and we’re so happy to give her this award.”

I'm tremendously honored and humbled, thank you my #gamedev friends and colleagues for the recognition! https://t.co/clj8mwFxRr

— Kate Edwards (@geogrify) December 17, 2019

“I’m tremendously honoured and humbled, thank you my #gamedev friends and colleagues for the recognition!” Edwards said on Twitter.