About Us

The Organization

The National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR®) Corp. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation devoted to promoting and recognizing game developers. Its annual awards have honored video game design and programming for more than two decades.

The NAVGTR® Awards feature 50 competitive categories recognizing achievement in animation, art direction, character design, controls, game design, game engineering, musical score, sound effects, writing, and more. Since its inception in 2001, the academy has recognized over 7,146 talented individuals.

The general voting body of reviewers, journalists, analysts, content creators, and writers includes contributors for Destructoid, EGM Now, Game Rant, Gamers Temple, GamesIndustry.biz, Gamespot, IGN, Investor’s Business Daily, Kotaku, Mashable, Massively, MMORPG, MSNBC, Nintendo World Report, PC Gamer, Polygon, The Koalition, Ten Ton Hammer, Terminal Gamer, and Venture Beat.

Additional varied outlets include Austin American-Statesman, Chicago Sun-Times, CNN, COIN-OP TV, GamesRadar, Los Angeles Times, Moody’s, NBC, New York Times, NTN24, The Ottawa Citizen, San Jose Mercury-News, USA Today, The Vancouver Sun, Wired News, and hundreds more.

Contact Us

info at navgtr dot org

Back in ’82 when I was executive editor on Electronic Games magazine, we were constantly asking the industry [why] it refused to publicize its creative talent. Imagine any other entertainment industry — books, movies, TV, music, etc. — where successful past product by an artist or artists was not used to market current and future product. How many times have we seen [ads saying] ‘From the people who brought you [name of hit game]’ or ‘By the creators of [name of game]?’ Not many. As long as the developers remain anonymous, they will never have any value beyond ‘What have you done for us lately?’

Bill Kunkel