Here Are The Winners of Playcrafting's 2017 Bit Awards

Published: December 16, 2017 9:30 AM /

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2017 Bit Awards Deus Ex

The 2017 Bit Awards have wrapped up! Here's our post-event coverage of the event which we talked about earlier on Friday.

The awards show opened with a short monologue by Ruffin Prentis which was rather well-received. He was sharply dressed and spoke about his experience in the industry, particularly highlighting the work of the hundreds of people that work together to make modern games happen. The show kept a good pace and moved on to its first award, the Rising Pixel Award for Boston. Importantly, award winners could only be titles that were at Playcrafting sometime this year.

Boston Rising Pixel Award

Ryan Canuel of Petricore Games won the Boston Rising Pixel award. The announcement of his win was preceded by a video from friends in the industry who talked about him and how awesome he was. Some of the fellows were rather funny, wearing costumes or bringing props into the fray.

Tabletop Game of the Year

The winner was University of Dope by Vance Hall. Unfortunately, the winner was unable to be present at the show. I later learned that this was due to one of the game's co-creators unfortunately being involved in an automobile accident. Ms. A.V. Perkins later arrived and claimed the award for Vance Hall.

Best Student Game

Studio Wumpus won with Sumer. Two of the game's developers took to the stage and gave a brief rundown of their game, following that with thanks to the NYU Game Center and their fans.

San Francisco Rising Pixel Award

2016 winner Chetan Surpur took to the stage to announce the winner. Spread Shot Studios' Sorob Raissi won the award but was unable to make the trip to the show. He elected to have characters from his upcoming game Space Jammers give an amusing thank you speech (and like any good game dev, he pitched his game at the end).

XR Game of the Year

The winner was Panoptic by Team Panoptes. One of the developers took to stage and gave a shout-out to the other devs from the team who couldn't make it to the show. Once again, the winner embraced the spirit of brevity.

Bit Awards Warren Spector Tribute
The onstage band The Bits closes out the 2017 Bit Awards with a musical tribute to Warren Spector.

Best Style

The winner was Yi and the Thousand Moons by David Su. Mr. Su took to stage with a bit of bravery in his heart as he had not prepared a speech in the event of winning. He thanked his fellow developers, Playcrafting, and the fans.

Mobile Game of the Year

The award's presentation was preceded by a delightfully cheesy sketch, throwing back to an audience participation event from last year. The winner was Calculator: The Game by Simple Machine. The developers on stage stated that they were "super proud of their team for making a game out of a calculator".

New York City Rising Pixel Award

MaryMartha Ford-Dieng of Mot & Dot (The Ultimate Clap Back) was the winner for the last Rising Pixel Award. Amusingly, she was seated behind me and let out an audible "What?!" when the video montage preceding her name came on screen. She has had a difficult life and takes solace in the joy her game brings to people. She proceeded to thank her husband, friends, family, Playcrafting, and the NYC gaming community for being supporting her work. Mrs. Ford-Dieng's speech was heartwarming and genuine.

Player's Choice Award

This award was presented by Lucie Pohl. Ms. Pohl took to stage and got some laughs by talking about how she traded a David Hasselhoff cassette for a Game Boy in her youth. The award went to Mot & Dot's The Ultimate Clap Back, making for two awards won back-to-back. She ad-libbed her speech this time around and got some laughs, especially when she complained about sitting high up in the theater and having to walk downstage in five-inch heels. (Nonetheless, she carried herself beautifully both times.)

2017 Game Changer Honoree

Last year's Game Changer winner Ted Price of Insomniac Games took to the video screen to talk about how impactful the honoree Warren Spector took has been and continues to be to the industry. Mr. Spector opened by thanking his wife Caroline and talking about how he's been impressed by the creativity of the show's production. He talked about how he wanted video games to change the world and how people in his Origin days "thought [he] was nuts". (Joke's on them, it's the biggest entertainment industry worldwide now.) He closed by advising developers to think of themselves as "agents of change" who can make things they're passionate about.

PC/Console Game of the Year

The show's final award was presented by Mr. Spector himself. The winner was Perception by The Deep End Games. He joked about not having prepared a speech and thanked everyone who came to mind (and apologized to those he may have forgotten). He closed by saying that gaming was a light in the dark times of his life.

That's it for the winners of the 2017 Bit Awards!

TechRaptor attended the 2017 Bit Awards with a press pass courtesy of Playcrafting.

Did you get a chance to tune in to the 2017 Bit Awards? What was your favorite part about the show? Let us know in the comments below!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


A photograph of TechRaptor Senior Writer Robert N. Adams.
| Senior Writer

One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I… More about Robert N