University: University of Connecticut
Description: In Doppel Diner, it's your job to lead a small spaceship restaurant to success while unraveling deeper concepts surrounding bipolar disorder. As you manage your small '50s-style diner, you'll notice that the environment inside responds to your position in orbit around a nearby planet and begins to change around you. Each of the three new environments introduces a new challenging way of playing the game and fulfilling your customers' orders -- and in the process highlights the real-world experience of mood swings and life with bipolar disorder.
University: SUNY Polytechnic Institute
Description: Currently a prototype, Downfall: Corrupt Inquisition is an action-platformer that takes place in a semi-Victorian world. Follow Faith as she ventures back to her roots and confronts the Inquisitive Monster Hunter Group to prevent them from further corruption.
Finalist: Impact Award
University: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Description: Welcome to Emotion Adventure, a thrilling mobile role-playing puzzle game in which every character is alive and breathing with emotions! It's not just another quest to kill monsters or defeat enemies; it's a journey of discovery and empathy. Emotion Adventure is designed to teach the Theory of Mind, a crucial cognitive skill that allows us to understand and appreciate the thoughts and feelings of others. By engaging with the characters in the game, children can learn to identify and understand different emotions, perspectives, and social cues, all while having fun and playing a game they love! And with the potential to be a precursor to digital therapeutics for mental conditions, Emotion Adventure could pave the way for future breakthroughs in mental health outcomes for individuals on the spectrum and beyond.
Finalist: Technical Excellence Award
University: Rochester Institute of Technology
Description: In Eternal Sol, a mystical third-person action-adventure platformer, you'll play as an outsider trapped on an island with a group of cultists who worship four different elements: water, ice, fire, and lightning. With the help of the island's treasure, a hammer capable of manipulating these elements, you'll traverse out-of-reach areas and confront seemingly unbeatable enemies. Harness the hammer's power and navigate your surroundings to find your way through to the end!
Finalist: Excellence in Design Award
University: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Description: In this platforming skateboard beat 'em up-style game, you play as August, an elite skateboarding assassin in a seedy underworld. Compete in the underworld's most popular game show as you seek to finally set things right -- and avenge your father's unjust disgrace at the hands of Barry Bodeus!
Finalist: Excellence in Visual Art Award
University: Rochester Institute of Technology
Description: Good Luck Valley is a single-player, 2D puzzle-platformer in which you take the role of Anari, a young girl who finds herself in a mystical spirit world during a complicated time in her life. Traverse the spirit world's unusual terrain via your magical bouncing mushrooms to get home safely and unveil the truth about this mysterious world.
Winner: Excellence in Design Award
Finalist: Grand Prize Award
University: New York University
Description: In GODWALKER, a return to the classic first-person "boomer shooter" genre, it's been 10,000 years since the Great Evil has been released. The world was torn apart and is now ravaged by otherworldly robotic invaders. From the ashes, techno-wizards built you: The ultimate scrap-bot killing machine imbued with the essence of the Mecha-Gods. But none of this really matters: Eat the GODHEART. Kill the enemy.
Check out the game's website and then download the latest build(s) for free on Github!
Winner: Impact Award
Finalist: Grand Prize Award, Excellence in Audio Award
University: University of Connecticut
Description: Here There Be Bears is an interactive media project that immerses the player in the experience of post-traumatic stress disorder. Here, trauma is the bear, lurking somewhere in the penumbra of the cave, seen only in shadow and heard only in echoes. Set in the dark labyrinth of the mind of the protagonist, Sam, the player, will follow the fragmented memories of the caving accident that left her with residual trauma years later. In the midst of her panic, a mysterious voice, emanating from her phone begins urging her to push through her fear to break free. Even after making it back to reality several times, new triggers and temptations keep her revisiting the shards of traumatic memory.
Winner: Excellence in Audio Award
Finalist: Technical Excellence Award
University: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Description: What do you do with an undead sailor? Find out in High Zeaz, a PSX-styled zombie pirate movement shooter with grappling hooks! As a freshly turned zombie, a former prisoner of war, use your trusty Hook Shot and Swing Shot to zip and swing around three expansive levels on a quest to become the greatest pirate who ever died... But beware -- you're not the only affront to nature out on the ocean, so you best be prepared to take down skeletons, ghosts, and a horrifying eldritch boss along the way!
Winner: Analog Game Design Award
Finalist: Excellence in Narrative Award
University: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Description: Nameless is a table-top role-playing game about the process of self-discovery in relation to one's name. It's a representation of the struggles of processing one's gender identity through a more mystical lens -- the fae wilds. This game is about the journey to find yourself, your truest self, but it's also about every beautiful milestone you reach along that journey, the moments of understanding that make you realize you're on the way to being yourself.
Finalist: Excellence in Visual Art Award
University: University of Connecticut
Description: PAPER KAFKA is a historical adventure game that allows players to explore the life of Max Brod, a Jewish journalist and writer, as he navigates through the challenges of his time. Set in Czechoslovakia in 1939, it explores Brod's struggles as he is forced to flee from Prague to Palestine in order to survive -- and save his late friend Franz Kafka's works. Use your suitcase, which contains Kafka's texts and notes, to solve various spatial puzzles and lead Kafka's "paper ghost" to access locations out of your reach as Brod!
University: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Description: Brrrrrgh, it's cold! But that's not the case for an unlikely friendship between a penguin and an owl. Explore snowy environments and solve puzzles in this two-player split-screen experience by using the unique movement provided by a flightless bird and its soaring counterpart!
Finalist: Experimental Award
University: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Description: Play as an artist revisiting and giving new life to their old works in this colorful platformer! Move past obstacles with the power of creation and, when you're finished, save your masterpieces directly to your computer!
Finalist: Excellence in Audio Award
University: SUNY Polytechnic Institute
Description: A lightning-fast card game with a gun-believable twist! Your goal? End the round with the fewest cards by outsmarting your opponent -- and having the luck of the draw!
University: University at Albany
Description: Enter an alien world in Rootling, which situates you as the lost hope to save your village from ruin after a recent tragedy. Although currently in early development, the game is shaping up to become a story-driven, action-adventure experience set in a detailed, unique world.
Finalist: Experimental Award
University: Rochester Institute of Technology
Description: Take on the role of Arya, a young mechanic-turned-pilot desperately hungry for fame and fortune. Utilizing a junker ship she purchased from her former employer, she enters the galaxy's largest Space Gauntlet with her hopes high and nothing to lose. And while the spacecraft lacks a means of propulsion, Arya's newest invention, the Rope Tool -- a cross between a grappling hook and a stapler -- allows her to still maneuver her way around obstacles and employ rockets and floating debris as makeshift peripherals. But be careful: The strength of the Rope Tool is limited and any attachments will be knocked away if the ship takes damage!
Winner: Excellence in Visual Art Award
University: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Description: Safe Space is a hair-raising exploration-interactive story in which you play as therapist seeking to help a six-year-old child uncover the source of their trauma. To do so, you will travel through the mind of the child and meet key characters from the child's past through their disturbing point of view. The further you progress in the story, the deeper you'll delve into the child's mind.
University: SUNY Polytechnic Institute
Description: Security Detail is an ongoing project created as a multiplayer, stealth-based party game. In it, four players play as thieves attempting to impersonate security staff -- in the process, they work to build up security each day, only to infiltrate it again each night!
Winner: Experimental Award
University: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Description: Featuring three games in one, Shortest Fuse allows you to experience the full story of the Short Fuse Factory! Take the side of the employee tasked with defusing wacky bombs in Short Fuse, the person creating them in Fuse Short, and the one paying the price in Short Fuse: The Short Stick.
Short Fuse: For one reason or another, your employer has a LOT of bombs. And because you signed the paperwork (not that you knew what you were getting into), you need to defuse each and every bomb! Did we mention that these bombs are all about to explode? Don't worry, all you need to do is snip the red wires. Good luck!
Fuse Short: Way back in the time of Short Fuse, there was someone on the other end of the intercom to help you on your way. Well... not really help, but they were there, that's for sure. Now you can finally experience a piece of what's on the other side of the intercom! Play as an average office worker whose only job is to make bombs!
Short Fuse: The Short Stick: There are many facets to the Short Fuse Factory. It's what makes the bomb tick, if you will. In this adventure, it's your job to determine who is crucial to the extended success of the Short Fuse Factory. And if no one is crucial? Well I'm sure an AI can replace them. No problem! Right?
Winner: Grand Prize Award
University: City University of New York
Description: Shroomies is a floral-themed bullet hell in which you play as a grumpy mushroom and blast through waves of flowers. Shoot, dodge and survive five difficult waves of furious flora. Can't make it to the end? No worries -- because with every death comes progress! After dying, the next generation will pick up the legacy of the previous ones. Fallen mushrooms are reborn in the form of Shroomies, little helpers that provide auxiliary fire and increase your number of health points. Build up your community with each attempt and give the future generations of shrooms a better fighting chance!
Winner: Excellence in Narrative Award
University: City University of New York
Description: What does someone look like at their happiest? In snapshot, you'll play as a ghost with no memories and the power to travel through time. Click through the days, months, and years, exploring thirty years worth of memories and remembering a life that once was. Search for your happiest day in this short, hour-long narrative clicker game.
Finalist: Excellence in Design Award
University: Rochester Institute of Technology
Description: Sword of the Morel is an adventure platformer about a little mushroom named Mica. After their village is swooped away by a bird, Mica must use their grandma's old sword, the blade of grass, to save the village!
University: Rochester Institute of Technology
Description: Texas Throw 'Em is a 3D action game in which the player plays as Ace, a criminal stage magician with the ultimate goal of robbing the American Wild West with nothing but his cards. Throw different types of cards to accomplish tasks, steal money, and fight enemies, but be careful: They won't be using cards to fight back!
Finalist: Excellence in Narrative Award, Impact Award
University: Quinnipiac University
Description: The Council of Fluff and Stuff is a short interactive narrative game about a child struggling with the grief of her parents getting divorced. In order to cope with it, she hosts a council meeting with her stuffed animals and cat, each of which symbolizes a stage of grief. Will she be able to come to terms with her new life? Or has it already taken too much of a toll on her?
Winner: Technical Excellence Award
University: Quinnipiac University
Description: In this virtual reality tower defense game, you'll embody the hero of the Orna Kingdom -- and you'll use your archery skills to defend the kingdom from atop an array of towers! Follow the hero's story, gain magical abilities, and upgrade the towers' defenses in order to repel invaders from another world.
University: University at Albany
Description: Can you figure out who is behind the disappearance in Kingdom Animalia? Take on the role of the royal detective, a raccoon full of wit and persistence to solve the case! With Cat, the royal painter, missing, it's up to you to piece together the truth behind the mystery. Solve puzzles and find clues by interviewing the residents of the castle, including the snooty priest that happens to be a crow; the overworked house staff, Panda; and the overprotective resident mystic, Goat -- and act quickly before someone else is next!
University: University at Albany
Description: Venerian is a 2D, combat-oriented, side-scrolling platformer set in an abandoned floating city on Venus. The player must explore the city and fight robots until they discover the reason it was abandoned in the first place.
University: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Description: A high-security laboratory run by a corporate giant locks away unique, powerful creatures in the hopes of harnessing their supernatural abilities. One phoenix, Cinder, uses his power to possess a lowly chicken in the hopes of invading the lab and secretly freeing his allies. Play as Benedict the Chicken and sneak past the facility's guards to reach the animals' cages. Each animal will grant you their power and knowledge, helping you and Cinder unlock their cages and free them all!