and now, the winners!
everyone says when they run something like this that everyone who submitted did a great job, but while judging it we both genuinely remarked multiple times on how few unkind things we had to say about ANY of the entries. we wanted to give a prize to all 16 entries, genuinely.
but! our pockets are only so deep, and we promised 5 prizes. so without further ado, here they are:
BEST VISUAL TOKEN DESIGN:
Creature Fight
this was the easiest prize to award by far, these tokens are so charming and evocative. the game relies on you caring about these little guys, and we do!
MOST INNOVATIVE TOKEN MECHANIC:
Greensoul Regency
this game makes such efficient use of its tokens, we were both really impressed with how many different uses are squeezed out of a single set of tokens in this game. really slick design here.
BEST WRITING:
Wakeup Call
an art game about frustration with sharp comedy starting from literally the cover. you won't read another game this year with a clearer authorial voice.
MOST ORIGINAL SETTING:
8-ball Corner Pocket
it's pool! a wonderful little piece of ludonarrative synchronicity, using tokens to represent pool balls, and certainly not an environment often depicted in ttrpgs, even if maybe it should be!
MOST AFFECTIVE CORE SYSTEM:
Tiles and True Names
"fun" is an affect as well! the core spelling system is just far too engaging and compelling to ignore, what a pitch-perfect play paradigm. definitely do not miss this one.
SPECIAL MENTION:
Sar-Stan
while not technically a prize winner, we wanted to take a moment to highlight a particularly excellent design which didn't happen to be the right fit to win any of the specific categories we set up. mechanically robust, narratively compelling, visually beautiful, and overall an extremely polished work.
again, thank you all for your contributions. these games were all so cool. if you're reading this, you should go check some of them out! (your cohosts also made a pair of games which we did not consider eligible for these prizes, by the way. you may want check those out as well!)
if you won something, please reach out! through social media or direct messages if you know us, or our emails are listed on the jam's main page. the original prize listed was some tokens and stickers so you could realize your game, but this doesn't apply to all the games. if that's you, just let us know, we can work some equivalent out.
that's all for now! hope to see you again for our next game jam in january...