Here’s your finalists for this year’s Australian Game Developer Awards

The Australian Game Developer Awards (AGDA) are returning once again this year, celebrating and awarding the best of Australian game development. This long-standing event has awarded titles like 2020’s Moving Out and 2019’s Untitled Goose Game amongst many other outstanding, locally made projects.

This year’s finalists have recently been announced and feature exciting projects including recently released games like The Artful Escape and Webbed as well as titles still awaiting release such as Unpacking. The full list of finalists can be seen below as well as from the official website.

Excellence in Art 

> The Artful Escape (Beethoven & Dinosaur)
> art of rally (Funselektor)
> Unpacking (Witch Beam) 

Excellence in Gameplay 

> Unpacking (Witch Beam)
> Ring of Pain (Twice Different)
> Webbed (Sbug Games) 

Excellence in Narrative 

> TOPOGRAPHY (Cecile Richard)
> The Forgotten City (Modern Storyteller)
> Choices That Matter: And The Sun Went Out (Tin Man Games, Screwtape Studios) 

Excellence in Audio 

> Webbed (Sbug Games)
> TRIOS (Samurai Punk)
> The Artful Escape (Beethoven & Dinosaur) 

Game of the Year 

> Webbed (Sbug Games)
> The Artful Escape (Beethoven & Dinosaur)
> Unpacking (Witch Beam) 

Excellence in Accessibility 

> Submerged: Hidden Depths (Uppercut Games)
> Unpacking (Witch Beam)
> Eastern Market Murder (True Crime Games) 

Excellence in Mobile Games 

> The Oregon Trail (Gameloft Brisbane)
> Eastern Market Murder (True Crime Games)
> Botworld Adventure (Featherweight Games) 

Excellence in Serious Games (Applied/Impactful) 

> Sharmila (World Food Programme and Chaos Theory Games)
> Streets of My Town (Institute of Games)
> TRIOS (Samurai Punk) 

Excellence in Ongoing Games (Games as a Service) 

> Pico Tanks (Panda Arcade)
> Crossy Road Castle (Hipster Whale)
> The Sims FreePlay (EA Firemonkeys) 

Excellence in Emerging Games (Student or Early Career) 

> Pebble Witch (Fuzzy Ghost)
> Project Wingman (Sector D2)
> Video World (Things for Humans) 

It’s super encouraging to see another year of phenomenal releases get celebrated. Australia definitely has game development talent despite very little government funding to help support the industry. Regardless, it’s important to recognise the above achievements as homegrown success stories.

What game do you think will take home the big award?