These Are The Best Australian Games Of 2014*

*According to the Game Developers’ Association of Australia (GDAA).

Towards the end of each year the GDAA runs the Australian Game Developer Awards, a celebration of the best games being made in Australia. The nominees have just been announced and there are some top notch Australian made games on the shortlist.

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Game of the Year

Crawl, by Powerhoof Studios
Crossy Road, by Hipster Whale
Duet, by Kumobius
Framed, by Loveshack Entertainment
Hand of Fate, by Defiant Development

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Studio of the Year

Defiant Development
Firemonkeys
Kumobius
Tin Man Games

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Accessibility Award

Appointment with FEAR, by Tin Man Games
Bonza, by Minimega
Framed, by Loveshack Entertainment

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Excellence in Art

Alpha Muse, by Current Circus
Crawl, by Powerhoof
Crossy Road, by Hipster Whale
Tail Drift, by Attract Mode Games

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Excellence in Audio

Battle Group 2, by Bane Games
Crawl, by Powerhoof
Duet, by Kumobius
Hand of Fate, by Defiant Development

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Excellence in Design

Bonza, by Minimega
Crawl, by Powerhoof
Crossy Road, by Hipster Whale
Duet, by Kumobius

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Innovation Award

Crawl, by Powerhoof
Fight the Dragon, by 3 Sprockets
Framed, by Loveshack Entertainment
Hacknet, by Team Fractal Alligator

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Technical Excellence

Assault Android Cactus, by Witch Beam
Don Bradman Cricket 14, by Big Ant Studios
Fight the Dragon, by 3Sprockets
Framed, by Loveshack Entertainment

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According to Tony Reed, CEO of the GDAA, the entries have been growing exponentially.

“The submissions for the 2014 awards have stunned us again,” he said. “We’ve had nearly double the number of entries and the quality bar has been raised significantly. The Australian game development industry is clearly revelling in the creative, innovative and commercial challenges that come with making games.”

Some of my own personal favourites, like Duet, have been nominated, but I think I’m even more surprised by the amount of games I haven’t played. As much as this is a celebration of Australia’s best video games, it’s also a cool list to work off if you’re interested in checking out some cool new video games.

The awards ceremony takes place in Melbourne on Wednesday, 29 October 2014, after Game Connect Asia Pacific. Looking forward to seeing who takes out top honours.