At next month’s Freeplay event in Melbourne the cream of Australia’s indie game design crop will be up for a whole bunch of awards. Here’s who is in the running.
Freeplay is Australia’s annual independent games festival. For the first time this year they’re honouring the year’s best indie games through the Freeplay Awards. The Awards will be held on August 15.
“We were pleasantly surprised at the large number and high quality of the entries,” says Freeplay judge Mark Flanagan. “It meant a lot of work, and it was difficult to choose winners, but we didn’t mind at all because the games were so entertaining to play.”
The nominees have just been revealed. I’ve only played two of the finalists – Captain Forever, pictured, and Jolly Rover. Have you played any?
Best Australian Game
Sword Lady & The Viking – Up Down Ready
Brawsome – Jolly Rover
Finn Morgan – Colourbind
Best International Game
Mahdi Bahrami (Iran) – Bo
Anders Højsted (Denmark) – TryFail
Yellow Jam (Brazil) – Last Hope
Best Design in a Game
Sword Lady & The Viking – Up Down Ready
Alexander Bruce Hazard: The Journey Of Life
The Voxel Agents Train Conductor
Best On-Paper Design
Tobye Ryan – Epic Adventure
Timothy Ryan – iCrazy Man
Katie Murphy – Galaqua
Best Art in a Game
Farbs – Captain Forever (series)
Alexander Bruce – Hazard: The Journey Of Life
KlickTock – Doodle Find
Best Concept Art
Fiasco Studios – Exodus
Evan Raynor – City Ruins
CatBus Interactive – Speed Demon
Best Technical Innovation
Farbs – Captain Forever (series)
Finn Morgan – Colourbind
Sword Lady & The Viking – Up Down Ready
Best Game Writing
Farbs – Captain Forever (series)
Alexander Bruce – Hazard: The Journey Of Life
PVI Collective – Transumer
Best Audio
The Voxel Agents – Train Conductor
Tin Man Games – Gamebook Adventures 1: An Assassin in Orlandes
Brawsome – Jolly Rover
Tom
Friday, July 30, 2010 at 10:01 AMI’ve played a little bit of Train Conductor. I found it entertaining and quickly challenging, and it does have a nice style about it. And it has trains!
PiMan
Friday, July 30, 2010 at 12:25 PMHazard: The Journey of Life is a great game. I played it when it was a mod for UT3, and I’ve played the demo of the standalone (UDK) version. I can’t wait for the full version.
Ryan Thomas
Friday, July 30, 2010 at 5:42 PMguessing torchlight isnt in here because it was “digitally released in 2009″?
PiMan
Monday, August 2, 2010 at 9:39 AMI’m guessing it’s not here because it wasn’t developed by Australians. As the headline says, this is Australia’s best indie games of the year.
Zan
Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 12:49 AMUp Down Ready is amazing, if you like retro games.
habba
Sunday, August 1, 2010 at 7:07 PMAnyone been able to find Up Down Ready?
The Bellman
Saturday, August 7, 2010 at 12:18 PMYou can find the game and some background over here:
http://dhamwoodprojects.blogspot.com/
The developers are working to get it into a more permanent location as soon as they can.