The Winners of the '16 Bit Awards

Playcrafting had its second annual award show last night. Last year, their awards were a simple presentation in a small room. This year, they went for broke by creating the '16 Bit Awards which took place at the Parsons School of Design. I attended the show and have a recap of it on the way, but for the moment let's talk the awards and their winners!

Best Tabletop Game

• Complicated Board Game The Card Game by offcut games
• Mr. Game! by Game Revenant
• Killer Snails: Assassins of the Sea by Killer Snails
• Rhyme Antics by Calloway Creative Inc.
• Snippets by The Master Theorem Games

Killer Snails: Assassins of the Sea ultimately took home the prize. It's a deck-building game where you collect snails that prey on other marine life such as clown fish. (Sorry, Nemo!)

Best Student Game

• Afterward by Supinfogame - Rubika
• Cat Commander Z by Subvert Software
• Cognition by Lunafive LLC
• DIRE by Studio cRAWfti
• Spin Cycle by Eric Teo and Emma Wangand
• Witchualistic by EOS Interactive

Afterward was the winner for this category. It's an Action RPG with a top-down view (similar to classics of the genre such as Diablo) where you play a tribal shaman fighting against techno-organic creatures in a post-apocalyptic future.

Best Style

• 1979 Revolution: Black Friday by iNK Stories
• Ayo the Clown by Cloud M1
• Blade Ballet by Dreamsail Games
• Linelight by My Dog Zorro
• The Low Road by XGen Studios
• Peter Panic! by James Marion
• Slime-san by Fabraz

Peter Panic! was the one to get a trophy for their mantle. The game is a miniature musical where you try to bring the art of theater back to your hometown.

Best Virtual Reality Game

• Kitty in the Box VR by Mokuni LLC
• Narcosis by Honor Code, Inc.
• SwingStar VR by Computerlunch Games
• The Three Little Pigs VR by 1st Playable Productions
• Vistics by Dundee's Games LLC
• Zombies Shall Not Pass! by Wengu Hu

SwingStar VR was the winner. This game allows players to swing around a virtual reality world using a giant sticky hand attached to their head.

Best Mobile Game

• BlitzKeep by Flint Games LLC
• Cognition by Lunafive LLC
• Justice Royale by Zapling Studios
• Letter Club by Simple Machine
• Muhammed Ali: Puzzle King by Cosi Productions
• Orbit - Playing with Gravity by HIGHKEY Games
• Where Shadows Slumber by Game Revenant

Cognition was the winner for this category. Cognition is a title where cogs work their way through levels comprised of various office supplies and try to solve puzzles with a one-touch movement system.

Best PC/Console Game

• 1979 Revolution: Black Friday by iNK Stories
• Ayo the Clown by Cloud M1
• Blade Ballet by DreamSail Games
• Linelight by My Dog Zorro
• Little Bug by Buddy System
• Vidar by Razbury Games

1979 Revolution: Black Friday was the ultimate winner. In short, it's a game where you are plopped smack in the middle of the 1979 Iranian revolution as a photographer. You'll have to make choices as you progress through the story and talk with the people living in the midst of a country in upheaval.

Other Awards

After the core awards were handed out, a few special awards remained. The 2016 Game Changer Award went to Ted Price, CEO & Founder of Insomniac Games. He spent a good portion of his speech talking about growing up with video games and following his dreams. He also emphasized that he felt like he shared the award with his entire team.

Two Rising Pixel awards were awarded to Brett Taylor of My Dog Zorro and Chetan Surpur of HIGHKEY Games, respectively, to recognize them as growing game developers - one representing New York and one representing San Francisco.

That's it for the winners of The '16 Bit Awards!

What do you think of the games nominated in The '16 Bit Awards? Do you feel another title ought to have won a particular category? What do you feel is the biggest gaming award show out there today? Let us know in the comments below!