IndieCade announced the 2020 #AnywhereAndEverywhere Festival award-winning games and developers during a virtual ceremony on October 23, including top talent and titles across adventure, narrative, puzzle, augmented reality, tabletop and live action genres. The Grand Jury awarded hand-illustrated adventure game Mutazione with top honors, and special awards celebrated noteworthy developers Derek Yu of “Spelunky,” Zuraida Buter of the Global Game Jam, and Holly Gramazio of “Dicey Dungeons.”
“By broadening our reach for the 2020 Festival to a global, virtual audience, we were able to connect with more indie developers, players and fans than ever before and celebrate top achievement across the indie games community,” said Stephanie Barish, CEO and Founder, IndieCade. “This year’s award winners represent diversity in both talent and gameplay and reflect the power of games as an art form, entertainment medium and tool to spark change.”
This year’s award-winning titles and developer teams include:
The Grand Jury Award: Mutazione, by Die Gute Fabrik
Mutazione received top honors at the 2020 IndieCade #AnywhereAndEverywhere virtual festival. Enter a mutant soap opera where small-town gossip meets the supernatural, and explore the Mutazione community, magical gardens, new friends and old secrets in this hand-illustrated adventure game.
The Jury Prix Award: Wide Ocean Big Jacket, by Turnfollow
For demonstrating excellence in craftsmanship, innovation and design, this year’s Jury Prix award was presented to Wide Ocean Big Jacket, a short story game that transports players to an overnight camping trip, complete with ghost stories, roasting hot dogs on the fire, 20 chapters and eight explorable areas rendered in 2D/3D art style.
Innovation in Interaction Design: Electric Zine Maker, by alienmelon
The Innovation in Interaction Design award honored Electric Zine Maker, a printshop and art tool with playful art, writing and image features developed to make zine creation simple and easy for kids and beginners. The Innovation in Interactive Design Award celebrates the specialized artistry and innovation required to engage with games on a new level.
Innovation in Experience Design: The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED], by TFL Studios
To celebrate Innovation in Experience Design and honor a game that provided a unique and curated experience, the award went to The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED]. This title is a cinematic platformer based on the original masterpiece from 1987, with additional game mechanics, sophisticated sound design, polished 2-bit CGA animated graphics, and modernized game design.
The Performance Award: Tangle Tower, by SFB Games
Tangle Tower is this year’s winner of the Performance Award, a detective adventure game that features a fully voiced and animated cast of characters and orchestral soundtrack. Players unravel a thrilling mystery by exploring a strange and twisted mansion, discovering curious clues, interrogating peculiar suspects and solving unique puzzles.
The Procedural Design Award: I Was A Teenage Exocolonist, by Northway Games
I Was A Teenage Exocolonist won this year’s Procedural Design Award, a narrative life simulation game about spending your high school years on an alien planet. Explore, grow up and fall in love, with the choices players make determining their course of life and survival of the colony. The Procedural Design Award celebrates titles that leverage randomness and algorithmic content to create unique and innovative interactions.
The Audio Design Award: NUTS, by Joon, Pol, Muuutsch, Char and Torfi
For demonstrating excellence in sound and auditory engagement, the Audio Design Award went to NUTS, a first-person narrative surveillance adventure with a unique puzzle mechanic and a bold visual style.
The Visual Design Award: Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective, by Darjeeling
This year’s Visual Design Award honored Labyrinthe City: Pierre the Maze Detective, a 2D puzzle game where players travel through the immense labyrinths of Opera City to catch Mr. X, an infamous thief who stole the Maze Stone. Take a trip through a fantastic world of amazing cities, tree-top towns and haunted houses.
The Location Based and Live Play Design Award: Terrarium: An Alternate Reality Game, by Fourcast Lab
The Location Based and Live Play Design Award celebrated Terrarium, an alternate reality game (ARG) scaled for approximately 1,700 people during the University of Chicago orientation for first-year students in 2019. This experience used transmedia storytelling and gameplay to increase understanding about and engagements with climate change.
The Tabletop Award: Thousand Year Old Vampire, by Tim Hutchings
Thousand Year Old Vampire received this year’s Tabletop Award. The role playing game chronicles the many centuries of a vampire’s existence, beginning with the loss of mortality and ending with inevitable destruction. Prompt-driven play and simple resource tracking provide easy rules for exploring your character’s human failings, villainous acts, and surprising victories.
The Impact Award: Sin Sol / No Sun, by micha cárdenas, Marcelo Viana Neto, Adrian Phillips, Kara Stone, Abraham Avnisan, Wynne Greenwood, Dorothy Santos, Morgan Thomas, Zia Puig and Clara Qin
Sin Sol /No Sun is an augmented reality game that allows users to experience the feelings of a climate change event and this year’s winner of the Impact Award. Set 50 years in the future, players learn to consider how climate change disproportionately affects immigrants, trans people and disabled people.
The Narrative Award: Journey of the Broken Circle, by The Lovable Hat Cult
Celebrating achievement in storytelling, the Narrative Award honored Journey of the Broken Circle, a fun and vibrant trip about life, love, fulfillment and existentialism, where new powers come from new relationships. Players meet fascinating characters on a quest to complete the broken Circle.
The IndieCade Choice Award: Mini Motorways, by Dinosaur Polo Club
Selected by this year’s nominated festival developers, the IndieCade Choice Award honored Mini Motorways, a game about drawing the roads that drive a growing city. Players build a road network and redesign the city to keep traffic flowing in a bustling metropolis.
The Trailblazer Award: Derek Yu
The IndieCade Trailblazer Award is an honorary prize given to a working creator who has made both great contributions to the field of games and captures the independent and pioneering spirit. This year’s Trailblazer Award went to Derek Yu, creator of “Spelunky” and “Spelunky 2,” co-creator of “Aquaria” and indie game blogger.
The Game Changer Award: Zuraida Buter
IndieCade’s Game Changer Award celebrates an individual who has impacted the gaming landscape in a significant way, a positive disruptor who has brought a paradigm shift to the community. Cultural curator Zuraida Buter of the Global Game Jam, Incubate Arcade, Screenshake Game Expo and New GameGrounds is this year’s Game Changer Award recipient.
The Bernie DeKoven Big Fun Award: Holly Gramazio
This annual honorary award was created in collaboration with Bernie DeKoven, to honor his legacy and to recognize creators significantly furthering the field and impact of new, big, and physical games. Holly Gramazio, writer of “Dicey Dungeons,” director of “Now Play This” and installation creator is this year’s recipient of the Bernie DeKoven Big Fun Award.
For more information on all nominees and the 2020 IndieCade #AnywhereAndEverywhere Festival, visit: https://anywhere.indiecade.com/
