GDC keeps growing and growing! What started as a convention for game developers to meet and learn from each other, has blossomed into a mid-sized convention filled with tech demos, indie games, big showy booths and a whole lot more. While it's still fairly business focused, the con has almost become a mini-E3. But it's still one of the best places to get in on non-traditional gaming experiences and meet young dreamers who are on their way to becoming the next generation's star developers. Without further ado, here are the awards for GDC 2018!

Raddest Sad Game
Attentat 1942

One thing about Indie games, many of them are sad. Like, really, really sad. That's because they're artsy, and one of art's functions is to address and explore the tragedy of life and the human experience. And it doesn't get much sadder than the events surrounding World War II and the rise of the Nazi regime. In this game, your task is to find out what happened to your grandfather. All you know is he was arrested by the Gestapo. But why? What exactly did he do? Beyond the great art, powerful music and intense atmosphere of the game, what really makes it special are the bits where you watch footage of real survivors of Nazi occupation describe the horrors they experienced. There's nothing as powerful as real life first-hand accounts. Games like these are great because they can teach kids in ways that textbooks just can't.  

You can learn about one of history's darkest hours by picking up this game on Steam right here. 

Hep Cat Award 
Night in the Woods

If you're hep to indie games, then you probably already know about Night in the Woods. It's a walking simulator done right. Meaning, all you basically do is walk around and talk to people, but the art, dialogue, music and style are so amazing it's thoroughly entertaining. You play a cat named Mae who dropped out of college and has returned home. If you've ever left home and returned, it's a surreal experience. It's the same place, but yet it's not because you have changed. This game captures that strange feeling perfectly as the main character goes through one awkward experience after another. What makes this game extra fun, is seeing how the Mae is remembered in the town by the things she did as a kid or in high school. Based on how many characters have something bad to say, she was quite a lark! Another neat aspect is all the little interactive details in the game, like the leaves that blow around when you run through them, or how mailboxes open and jostle when you jump on them, small touches like that make the town seem so much more alive. This is a fine example of what makes indie gaming special. 

You can mope about town and talk to funny animals by picking up the game, available here. 

Artsy and Crafty Award
Cosmic Top Secret

One of my favorite things about GDC is stumbling upon a game that looks like nothing I've ever seen before. Cosmic Top Secret grabbed my eyeballs instantly with its avant-guarde arts-and-crafts-gone-wild aesthetic. And the art style's not even the weirdest part! The game is an autobiographical tale of a woman whose father was a spy for the Danish government. And both her and her dad are in the game! Both their faces are on cardboard cut out bodies and they both provide much of the dialogue. Not only was her dad a spy, her mother was in charge of taking care of the Danish queen. Even the way you travel is strange, as your character crumples up into a paper ball and rolls around the strange arts and crafts world. And the icing on the super surreal cake was getting a demo by the lady who made the game and stars in it. That's the magic of GDC! If you ever meet someone who thinks "video games can not be art" point them in this direction. This is art. 

You can learn more about the game and when it launches on their website here. 

Best Brain Melter
Everything Is Going To Be OK

This was a great year for super crazy art games at GDC, and one of the absolute wildest was Everything Is Going To Be OK. Billing itself as a "digital zine," this hyperactive, interactive brain-melting experience had me laughing like a loon in the middle of the floor. By clicking on a crazy-looking computer screen, the player is treated to a rapid-fire series of super cute animated characters saying or doing super depressing things. Each one is fairly short but hits with the intensity of a mac truck. The tone is grim, even nihilistic, which juxtaposed to the adorable cartoonish characters with hilariously high pitched voices makes for a very uncomfortable, or hilarious experience depending on your sense of humor. Many of the scenarios deal with awkwardness or having a super low self-esteem. It's an assault on the senses as well as the intellect. Quite a game! 

You can be baffled and boggled by checking out the game yourself, available here. 

Best Sports Game
Racketboy 

Move over EA, there's a new sports game in town and they're making quite a "racket!" A Brazilian company hit upon a very entertaining concept--what if you added the ability to hit bullets back at enemies in a shoot 'em up? What if that was the only way you could defeat them? Just that little twist makes the entire experience feel new. In Racketboy (working name because there is also a girl character), you play a boy or a girl with a racket that has the ability to knock bullets back the enemies who shot them. As you fly through the bright, colorful retro style levels, you'll battle all kinds of wacky foes including giant bananas. Yes, bananas! The game puts more and more stuff in your way, adding a blockbusting gameplay element to make things even more intense. All of this is set to some super chipper chip tunes making it just plain fun. 

You can get more info about the game and play a demo right here. 

Best Multidimensional Puzzler 
The World Next Door

You know what's fun? Going to demonic dimensions! You know what else is fun? Puzzles! What if you could combine them in the same game? Well, now you can with The World Next Door! Jun the human teenager finds herself in a pickle when she's transported to a supernatural world filled with demons and other scary monsters. Complicating matters, if she doesn't get back to the human realm within a certain amount of time, she's a goner. Now it's up to you to make the correct dialogue choices to befriend demons to help you on your journey. And you'll need their help when the game shifts into puzzle fighting mode where you have to match up tiles with runes on them to attack and defend from monsters. It's an unusual mashup of genres that works due to the stylish art and excellent writing. 

No release date for this one, but you can find out more info their website here. 

I Have New Respect For That Profession Award
Yo, Bartender! 

In real life, I've always respected bartenders because it's a physically demanding job that keeps you running around on your feet all day. But I never really thought about how mentally challenging it is until I played Yo, Bartender! Part of the Alt.Control section of GDC which is a whole area dedicated to experimental ways to control video games. In this game, you're a bartender in a bar with very fussy costumers who leave if you don't make their drink fast enough. Most drinks in a bar are fairly simple, but some can be quite complicated with numerous ingredients. If every ingredient was just a button on a controller, it wouldn't be that hard or fun, but in this game, you have to actually pick up bottle representing the different liquids and pour it for the right amount of time. Plus hit buttons to add olives or limes and other stuff. Then you gotta push forward the cup to slide them their drink. Sounds easy, but when the drinks pile up and the customers start getting mad, you can get overwhelmed fast. This game will give you a whole new respect for the profession! 

Hint: Don't ever actually yell "Yo, Bartender!" in a bar, if you want to be served. 

You can find out more info on the game right here. 

Coziest GDC Store Item
GDC Knitted Beer Cozy

Each year, the GDC store sells tons of stuff with the words GDC printed on it. And why not, for many people, especially students from far away countries, this may be the only time they ever go. Most probably buy a shirt, backpack or something sensible. But for those who enjoy unsensible things (like me), there's the knitted beer cozy. I don't think you should drink beer and develop games, although some of the stuff I saw at the show seemed like that may be what actually happened. 

Most A-Muse-ing Game
Muse Dash

It's fascinating to see how the Japanese "anime aesthetic" has influenced so much of the creative and artistic world. Of course, anime can look like a variety of things, but to simplify it, I'm using "anime aesthetic" to mean big eyes, crazy colored hair and super duper cute stuff. And that perfectly describes the style of Muse Dash. Muse Dash is a rhythm game/perpetual runner where you must hit the buttons to the rhythm of the music to destroy all manner of absurd and adorable foes. The art, the music, the graphics and the overall atmosphere is just a lot of bubblegum fun. And it's a Chinese-made game, which makes it extra cool because we don't get a lot of those in the States. 

The game's not out yet, but it's listed on Steam. You can follow its progress here. 

I Laughed So Loud it Was Scaring People Award
Pool Panic

I'm loud. And I'm a laugher. So I'm used to annoying people with my natural loud/laughy nature. But when I sat down and started playing Pool Panic at GDC, I was literally laughing so loud, a few people got up and left. That's because this game is a riot! Especially to someone who's played a lot of pool. The game is funny enough with the pool balls all having faces and getting mad when you hit them, but I really lost it when I was about to hit a ball, and it just got up and walked somewhere else. YOU JUST DON'T EXPECT THAT WHEN YOU'RE PLAYING POOL. The game features 100 single player levels where you run around and do all sorts of thing pool balls can't do. You can also play multiplayer and do lots of things pool balls can't do with other people. It's just a bunch of nutty butty fun and it would make the oldest, sourest, hardest pool shark break out in a smile. 

You can laugh super loud and annoy people by picking up the game when it comes out. Details here.

Best in Show
Adventure Pals

After a long day of playing serious and not-so-serious games, you can kind of get a little delirious. It was in that exact state I stumbled upon Adventure Pals. A game where you have to ride a giraffe around and try to stop a villain from turning old people into hot dogs. And it's as wacky as it sounds! A two-player couch co-op platformer with a Cartoon Network goofball aesthetic. The action has a slight Meatboy feel to it, but with melee combat and a giraffe that uses its tongue as a helicopter. Of course! The game's filled with silly stuff and bursting at the seams with charm and irreverent humor. But that's merely the surface level, what resides below is a rock-solid platformer with excellent control and great level design. I think this one's gonna make a splash when it comes out and not just for being wacky. Well, partially for that. Any game where a hot dog explodes and a bunch of old people fly out is all right with me! 

You can learn more about hotdogs and old people by checking out the game's website right here. 

And that concludes the 2018 GDC Awards! Hope you enjoyed them, and please go to these people's websites to check out their games! Support indie games!

by Urian Brown