Lee Williams of Newport traveled all the way to San Francisco to accept the trophy at the IGF Awards Ceremony, part of the Game Developers Conference.
The 48-year-old won an award of excellence for his design for Cryptmaster, a dungeon adventure game he has been developing for the past three years.
“The game is a word-based dungeon crawling puzzle RPG with a spooky and bright atmosphere,” Lee said.
It is scheduled for release on May 9th for PC, with a port to PlayStation scheduled for the summer.
Lee wrote the dialogue, designed the game, and also provided the voice for the title character.
He worked with his friend Paul Hart, who was based in New Zealand and did all the coding and artwork.
“We were thrilled and truly surprised to win the award in a category that includes some incredible competition,” Lee said.
“The trip to San Francisco was surreal, in a good way.
“My family on the island was up to watch the awards ceremony, and my sons Arthur and Kasper were watching me give a speech with one of their favorite toys, a little red dinosaur, peeking out of my pocket. He was happy to see it.”
Lee has a background in education and has taught in several island schools, most recently at Oakfield in Ryde.
In 2019, he started working full time as a writer and game developer.
The father of two has lived on the Isle of Wight all his life, apart from five years when he worked in China.
