Here Are the Finalists for the Australian Game Developer Awards
Watch the live birthing of a game, is what I thought when I saw that one of the new categories for this year’s Interactive Games & Entertainment Association’s (IGEA) Australian Game Developer Awards (AGDAs). Said new category being ‘Best Emerging Game’. Such vivid imagery exists alongside the other new categories: ‘The Game Connect Award’ (best at Connect Four?), ‘Best Mobile Game’ and ‘Best Ongoing Game’. Now, that last one refers to games as a service, which I’m not so sure we should be rewarding, but hey that’s why I just write the news.
Anyway, these new awards join the existing categories, all to go before a panel of 38 judges who have been sworn to secrecy and must each produce a game-themed gavel with which to pound out their votes.
This year’s AGDAs will be streamed via Twitch on 7 October at 7PM AEDT. You’ll be able to watch the ceremony at https://www.twitch.tv/igea_au.
Below are the main categories and finalists. I must admit I haven’t heard of some of these, so I have a bit of home-grown homework to catch up on. Have you played them all? Reckon they deserve to win? Well, gets you a Waluigi gavel and whack along at home during the night!
AGDA Award Finalists
Best Art
- Windbound (5 Lives Studios)
- Rite (Pond Games)
- Necrobarista (Route 59)
Best Gameplay
- Boomerang Fu (Cranky Watermelon)
- Baron: Fur is Gonna Fly (DM Games)
- Moving Out (SMG Studio)
Best Narrative
- Necrobarista (Route 59)
- Under a Star Called Sun (Cécile Richard)
- Quantum Suicide (Cotton Candy Cyanide)
Best Sound
- Roombo: First Blood (Samurai Punk)
- Audioplay: Alien Strike (Audioplay)
- Boomerang Fu (Cranky Watermelon)
Best Music
- Rite (Pond Games)
- Baron: Fur is Gonna Fly (DM Games)
- Under a Star Called Sun (Cécile Richard)
Best AR/VR
- Misadventure in Little Lon (True Crime Mysteries)
- Shooty Skies Overdrive (Mighty Games Group)
- Espire 1: VR Operative (Digital Lode)
Best Serious Game
- Under a Star Called Sun (Cécile Richard)
- Kana Quest (Not Dead Design)
- KangaZoo (Chaos Theory Games & Pentaquest)
Best Mobile Game
- Ballistic Baseball (Gameloft Brisbane)
- Crossy Road Castle (Hipster Whale)
- Pico Tanks: Multiplayer Mayhem (Panda Arcade)
Best Ongoing Game (Game as a Service)
- World of Tanks (Wargaming Sydney)
- Piffle (Hipster Whale and Mighty Games Group)
- Battlestar Galactica Deadlock (Black Lab Games)
Best Emerging Game
- Quantum Suicide (Cotton Candy Cyanide)
- Rite (Pond Games)
- Elden: Path of the Forgotten (Onerat)
Game of the Year
- Boomerang Fu (Cranky Watermelon)
- Necrobarista (Route 59)
- Moving Out (SMG Studio)
Winners of the Rising Star, Adam Lancman, Studio of the Year and The Game Connect Awards will be announced on the night.
It is said that Dylan Burns has no shadow, or if he does that it portents a shifting of the elder signs that govern the floating curses of the universe, gathering their power and directing ill intent and misfortune to all game developers that enact post-release patches. Consequently, Dylan’s shadow curse finds itself working overtime, permanently engaged, thus the propagation of legend. When not guiding the swirling forces of evil, Dylan enjoys writing (evil) fiction, taking menacing walks, and lurking behind bus stops with a general demeanour that suggests malevolence.