International Mobile Gaming Awards were held today, announcing winners in fourteen categories such as Excellence in Innovation, Best Meaningful Play and even Guilty Pleasures. Oh trust me, you'll feel guilty. Or not, which is even worse.
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The award for innovation went to Splitter Critters by Canadian Jesse Ringrose. The game indeed takes an out of the box approach and it looks delightful, to be honest.
The best multiplayer game was Tencent's Arena of Valor. Just in case you only know Tencent from their affiliation with PUBG in China, you should know that Arena of Valor happens to be highest grossing game in the world with reported figures of 80 million daily players.
The award for 'Best Quickplay Game' went to Tiny Bubbles by US team Pine Street Codeworks. It already snatched quite a few rewards, so be sure to check it out if you haven't already.
Excellence in Gameplay award went to Aussie developer Loveshack Entertainment and their game Framed 2, a noir themed puzzler that, much like Splitter Critters, employs out of the box thinking, pun intended. You'll be playing in boxes you see in comics and there are some very creative choices.
The award for Best Meaningful Play goes to Bury Me, My Love by Florent Maurin from France. The game is a text adventure with a twist - it's a text message adventure.
Excellence in Storytelling was scooped by The Witch's Isle, by Japanese developer Cocosola. The game relies on a pixelated retro feel and seems to have made quite a splash.
Adaptation of board game Tokaido by Funforge Digital from France received the Excellence in Visual Art award and it's immediately evident why. The game has a niche following and is unique in every sense of the word.
The Guilty Pleasure category went to Death Coming by Chinese dev Next Studio. In what the devs claim is a non-linear puzzler, you'll be playing as Death Junior, collecting souls in various creative ways. Now I see why they called it guilty pleasure, eh?
People have had a vote as well, choosing Life is Strange by French company Dontnod. With the game snatching more awards than it knows what to do with, I think it's safe to say it's worth checking out.
In conclusion, it seems a nice selection of games, seemingly nicely filled out with indie as well as higher tier titles.
We must admit, though, that we enjoy seeing independent developers getting recognition for clever thinking and transforming restrictions of a medium into inventive game mechanics. The gaming market can never have enough of it.
