Finalists for the 2021 Australian Game Developer Awards

Finalists for the 2021 Australian Game Developers Awards (AGDAs) have been announced. If you haven’t heard of the awards they’re annual awards given by Australia’s Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA) to honour the talent and creativity of Australian games developers and their games.

Some of this year’s finalists include Brisbane-based Witch Beam and Melbourne developer Beethoven and Dinosaur. Witch Beam has been selected for its zen puzzle game Unpacking, that’s up for four awards including Excellence in Art, Excellence in Gameplay and Excellence in Accessibility, as well as the highly coveted Game of the Year award.

Unpacking is part block-fitting, part home-decoration game that taps into the satisfaction of unpacking your belongings in a new home environment. It’s expected to be released sometime this year on PC, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.

Beethoven and Dinosaur’s action adventure The Artful Escape, is up for three titles including, Excellence in Art, Excellence in Audio and Game of the Year. You play as a teenage guitar prodigy that sets out on a psychedelic journey to inspire his on screen persona and to confront the legacy of a dead folk legend.

The Artful Escape is getting lots of attention for its brightly coloured graphics and the game’s setting - a strange alien landscape known as the Cosmic Extraordinary. It’s releasing September 9, 2021, on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and iOS.

The AGDAs will be held online on October 6 at 7pm (AEDT) as part of Melbourne International Games Week. A full list of finalists can be found here.