After five days of festivaling, last night Freeplay 2012 closed with the handing out of the Freeplay 2012 Awards at the Order of Melbourne. This year, we received more entries than ever before, and were inspired and humbled by the diversity, experimentation, and confidence of all the projects.
Sadly, we could only pick three finalists, and one eventual winner, but for the first time, our judges felt there were projects which deserved to be highly commended too – and here they all are, the finalists, winners, and highly commended games in the Freeplay 2012 Awards.
Best Technical Innovation
Automation – Camshaft Software
Runners up
- [tesseract] – Douglas Warouw, Jason Fernandez
- Lunar Flight – Sean Edwards
Highly commended
- Colour Bind – Finn Morgan
- Spirit Hunters – Nnooo
Best Audio in a Game
Lunar Flight – Sean Edwards
Runners Up
- Expand – Christopher Johnson, Christopher Larkin
- They Love You – Zac Duff, Henrik Pettersson, Paul Annesley, and Nathan Antony
Best Concept Art
Peleda – Vishus Productions / Fiasco Studios
Runners Up
- DEATHSPUDS – Josh Sacco / Adam Taylor
- One Seed – Ariel Magnes
Best Art in a Game
Toybox – Barrel of Donkeys
Runners Up
- Little Things Forever – Matthew Hall
- The Last Stand: Dead Zone – Con Artist Games
Highly Commended
- Vector
- Puzzle Puppets – Byte Sized Wombat
Best Writing in a Game
Flatland: Fallen Angle – See Through Studios
Runners Up
- AUTHENTIC IN ALL CAPS – Christy Dena
- Gamebook Adventures 8: Infinite Universe – Andrew Drage
Highly Commended
- Muddle Farm
- Alone in the Park – Cheap Drunk Games
Best Design in a Game
They Love You – Zac Duff, Henrik Pettersson, Paul Annesley, and Nathan Antony
Runners Up
- escapeVektor – Nnooo
- Stickets – Wanderlands
Highly Commended
- Little Things Forever – KlickTock
- Beans Quest – Kumobius
- Rad Skater Apocalypse – MuzBoz
Best International Game
Splice – Cipher Prime
Watch their acceptance video.
Runners Up
- HUEBRIX – Yellow Monkey Studios
- The Fourth Wall – Logan Fieth
Highly Commended
- Nihilumbra – Beautifun Games
Best Australian Game
Stickets – Wanderlands
Runners Up
- Little Things Forever – Matthew Hall
- Toybox – Barrel of Donkeys
Highly Commended
[...] was excited for everyone nominated and by the winners. It makes me want to finish a game of my own before next year’s Freeplay and submit [...]
[...] getestet und die iPad App wurde – obwohl noch im Entwicklungsstadium – bereits für den “Best Writing in a Game”-Award auf dem Freeplay Independent Gaming Festival nominiert und gewann dort vor vielen bereits fertigen [...]