Although the jury chooses the winner for Most Creative Game and Most Innovative Newcomer, the visitors of PLAY will choose the winner of the Audience Award.

TICK TOCK: A TALE FOR TWO
Other Tales | DK | 2016
A game for two that can only be solved by communicating with each other. Players are in the same world within the game, but as they see different things they need to work together and solve the mysteries Tick Tock: A Tale for Two offers. The game wants to make reading a social action rather than something you do by yourself.

DE PICTURA
GeroGames | FRA | 2016
De Pictura is an inspiring VR experience in which players place paintings which eventually allow them to enter new places within the game’s environment. The game combines exploration and art.

KEYBOARD SPORTS: SAVING QWERTY
Triband | DK | not yet released
Keyboard Sports is an experimental platformer that reinvents the keyboard as your controller. Players need to type their way through different levels in order to find their tea. Or t?

Nominated in the category Most Innovative Newcomer Games are:

DEATH OF A POET
Eva Hambach | GER | 2017
The narrative game with point’n click elements tells the unexpected and crazy story of Hunter S. Thompson. Players experience the story of Death of a Poet from his point of view. The game combines illustrations with oil paintings to achieve a unique art style.

CLOSE
Tobias Zarges and Moritz Eberl | GER | 2016
A fox is on a journey through a vast and snowy landscape.
Wrapped in a warm coat you may follow him and become a part of his quest. Close is a poetic and atmospheric exploration game about yourself and the other one. About being alone and being together.

TELL ME WHAT YOU SEE
Pesky Bees | DK | 2017
Tell Me What You See is a cooperative game that relies on interactions between players. While one player is within a tiny room, wearing a VR headset, the other player observes the scenery from the outside. Their task is to get the mysterious machine running and to discover the tiny room’s secrets.

What is more creative? An art style, a game mechanic, an emotional or social experience, the game feel, the theme or story, the sound design, system design or maybe the creative use of hardware? Everything together? Nothing? The combination of the various elements inside the game? Is it up for the player to decide? The nominees for Most Creative Game left us with these questions and a very tough decision. Demonstrating numerous possibilities of creativity inside games.

In the jury’s opinion the game deserves the award for its highly creative keyboard input mechanics, which are perfectly interwoven with the story, including well written dialogues, characters, the level objectives and progression, enabling the player to escape his or her ordinary WASD world and forcing them to use all keys in different ways to help save QWERTY.

Keyboard Sports by Triband

Most Innovative Newcomer

The Nominees in this category are all together great examples of innovative game design. In the jury’s opinion the winning game deserves the award for its communicative gameplay that forces the players to talk with each other, to solve the riddles in the room. Also the clever implementation of the VR-device brings the players to a common gaming experience. The jury is curious about how the developers will further expand the game by adding new levels, implementing more riddles or maybe gameplay mechanics that will encourage the players to change their roles.

The jury had a hard time deciding which game will be the most innovative newcomer an it was a close decision.

Tell me what you see by Pesky Bees

Audience Award

This year’s winner of the Audience Award is a game that encourages innovation and creativity. It exemplifies what games can be. It also shows what PLAY stands for: trying out and experimenting; being original, easily accessible and something people with little or a lot gaming experience can enjoy together.

Close the Leaks by Henning Steinbock