The WereCleaner
Nominated for Performance
Description: Kyle is a Janitor. He’s also a Werewolf. And now he’s got the night shift. Try not to kill anyone while working to get your paycheck – in a stealth-comedy game.
Single Player
Platforms: PC, Mac, iOS mobile
Status: Released
Stealth, Casual, Cartoony, Dark Humor, Arcade, Cleaning
The Zone
Tabletop Design Award Winner
Description: A devastating play-to-lose tabletop rpg experience where 1-6 players face Phobias and Obsessions on a beautiful & horrifying mutational journey that only one will survive.
Single Player Journaling Game / 2-6 Player GM-less
Format: Tabletop
Status: Released
Horror, RPG, Play-To-Lose
Saviorless
Nominated for Impact
Description: Saviorless is a hand-drawn 2D dark fantasy platformer with multiple protagonists. where players explore treacherous landscapes, fight monsters, and unravel a mysterious, shifting narrative, accompanied by atmospheric music.
Single Player
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5
Status: Released
2D Puzzle Platformer, Action-Adventure, Dark Fantasy, Hand-drawn
Slasher U: An 18+ Horror Movie Dating Sim, Act 1
Impact Award Winner
Description: An 18+, LGBTQIA+ character-driven RPG dating sim, set in the open-world, post-Hays Code campus of America’s Horniest Horror Movie University.
Single Player
Platforms: PC, Steam Deck
Status: Released
Dating Sim, RPG, Horror, Open World, 2D Isometric, Narrative Rich
A Person Stands on an Empty Stage
Nominated for Narrative
Description: A single-player game that adds a surrealist take to the aesthetics and dynamics of an actor performing on stage to explore questions around identity and how it’s constructed and deconstructed.
Single Player
Platform: Mac, PC
Status: Released
Single Player, Narrative, 2D, Surreal, Point-and-Click, Experimental, Artgame, Aesthetic
The Quiet Things
Nominated for Performance
Description: An autobiographical narrative game, that aims to tackle the stigma surrounding abuse and the impact this has on a person
Single Player
Platforms: PC
Status: Not yet released
Adventure, Walking Simulator, Narrative, Exploration, Female Protagonist, Emotional, Atmospheric, Story Rich
No More Rainbows
Nominated for Live Action
Description: Imagine Super Mario in VR but you play as Bowser instead and move with your arms! No More Rainbows is a true adventure platformer made for VR.
Single Player Campaign / 2-6 Player Deathmatch
Platform: Meta Quest, Steam, Pico
Status: Released
Adventure, Platformer, Action, VR, Runner
Out of Hands
Developers Choice Award Winner
Also Nominated for Visual Design
Description: Out of Hands is a thriller that blends card battle, video collage and psychological horror. You, ensnared in a haunting nightmare following the loss of a loved one
Single Player
Platforms: PC
Status: Not yet released
Horror, Deckbuilding, RPG
Music Power Up
Audio Design Award Winner
Description: As a musician in the 1980s, create soundtracks for early video games. Play, learn, meet programmers, editors and musicians in the crazy decade that started the digital revolution.
Single Player
Platform: PC, Steam Deck, Android, iOS
Status: Not yet released
Creative, Retro, Audio Production
Neverlooted Dungeon
Nominated for Systemic Design
Description: Neverlooted Dungeon is a first-person dungeon crawler immersive sim emphasizing treacherous deadly traps, physics-based challenges, atmospheric exploration, offering a tremendous freedom of action, where you are a fearless dungeon raider.
Single Player
Platforms: PC
Status: Not yet released
Dungeon Crawler, Physics-based, RPG, Immersivesim, Exploration, Atmospheric, Dark Fantasy
No Case Should Remain Unsolved
Narrative Award Winner
Description: No Case Should Remain Unsolved is a detective game where players uncover and piece together memory fragments to solve a long-forgotten case.
Single Player
Platforms: Steam(PC, Mac), Switch
Status: Released
Puzzle, Adventure, Drama, Visual Novel, Detective
Miniatures
Visual Design Award Winner
Also Nominated for Narrative
Description: Miniatures is a collection of strange tales where childhood imagination and reality merge with darker undercurrents of mystery and magic.
Single Player
Platform: PC, Mac, Switch, iOS
Status: Releases 11/14/2024
Story-Rich, Surreal, Stylized, Short, Adventure, Indie
Memoirscape
Nominated for Live Action
Description: Memoirscape is a collaborative, no-need-to-escape-room offering a cozy, multi-sensory experience inside Julia’s happiest memory in 1986, with puzzles that point the player to a story of love, loss, and forgetting.
Multiplayer
Format: Installation
Status: Released
Interactive Fiction, Art Installation, Experimental, Cozy Game
LightBreak
Nominated for Audio Design
Description: A zen musical puzzle game ? Compose melodies, find hidden secrets, and unravel a magical mystery. Create harmony in a world where every note tells a story.
Single Player
Platforms: PC, Mac
Status: Not yet released
Puzzle, Rhythm, Point & Click, Hidden Object
Lil’ Guardsman
Performance Award Winner
Description: Play as Lil, a 12-year-old girl covering for her dad at the castle gate, protecting the kingdom by admitting/denying/or jailing a cavalcade of hilarious fantasy characters.
Single Player
Platforms: PC, Mac, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox
Status: Released
Adventure, Point & Click, Puzzle, Cartoon, Comedy, Fantasy
Goodbye Seoul
Nominated for Impact and Narrative
Description: “Goodbye Seoul” is a narrative-driven puzzle adventure. Join Rion in a crumbling city to uncover secrets and find hope through courage and bonds as the world nears its end.
Single Player
Platforms: PC
Status: Not yet released
Post-apocalyptic, Story Rich, Puzzle, Pixel Art, Platformer, Side Scroller
Everdeep Aurora
Nominated for Audio Design
Description: As Shell, a feline child who awakens to find her mother missing, drill downward from the surface layer through a tile-based underground and discover the Everdeep.
Single Player
Platform: Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5
Status: Not yet released
Adventure, Exploration, 2D, Pixel Art, Platforming
The Gap
Nominated for Narrative
Description: Driven by a rare neurological affliction plaguing his family, Joshua has to recover his memories by exploring parallel realities through déjà vu.
Single Player
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Status: Released
Puzzle, Exploration, Thriller, Story Rich
Diatribes
Nominated for Impact
Description: “Diatribes” is a poetic VR experience that explores the internal conflicts that arise when we’re confronted with the reality of climate change.
Single Player
Platforms: Meta Quest 3S, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro, Meta Quest 2, PCVR
Status: Not yet released
Adventure, Experimental, Horror, Interactive Narrative
Balatro
Systemic Design Award Winner
Also Nominated for Tabletop Design
Description: Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying roguelike deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos.
Single Player
Platform: PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, IOS, Android
Status: Released
Roguelike Deckbuilder, Card Battler, Turn-Based Strategy, Procedural Generation, Pixel Graphics
ChromaCorp
Live Action Award Winner
Description: Welcome to ChromaCorp, the global leader in the color industry, where employees must balance productivity and subversion, while uncovering the dark truth behind the company’s control over the world’s colors.
4 Player
Format: Installation / Pop-Up Experience
Status: Not yet released
Immersive Installation, Site-Specific, Puzzle, Stealth, Co-op, Role Playing
The Crush House
Jury Prix Award Winner
Also Nominated for Narrative
Description: Jae has scored the gig of her dreams as producer on 1999’s hottest reality TV show, The Crush House! Cast, film, and produce each season in the iconic Malibu mansion.
Single Player
Platforms: PC
Status: Released
Simulation, Action, RPG
Night Games
Congratulations to Back Off Me Booty for winning the Audience Choice Award at Night Games 2024!
Our beloved nocturnal celebration of games, interactive entertainment, and immersive outdoor experiences for players of all ages returned to the Jerry Moss Plaza at The Music Center in Downtown LA.
Check out all of 2024’s Night Games curations below!
Learn more and RSVP on The Music Center’s page for Night Games.
Synch.Live
Description: Synch.Live is a live-action cooperative game modeled on flocking birds that uses simple rules, wearable tech, and a cutting edge algorithm to mobilize our hard-wired human instinct to cooperate.
Multiplayer: 10-20 players
Platforms: Twitch, itch.io
Status: Not yet released
Live Action, Co-op, Emergent Play, Non-verbal Communication
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Splintered Fate
Description: Grab your friends, pick your favorite Turtle and jump into a roguelike adventure to save Master Splinter from the foot clan! Master ninja skills, unite in bodacious online and local co-op gameplay, and conquer iconic NYC locales.
Brace yourself for fast-paced, roguelike action where no two runs are the same. With randomized power-ups, room layouts, and boss modifiers, the excitement never ends.
Multiplayer: 4 players
Status: Released
Roguelike, Action, Co-op, Roguelite
The Score
Description: THE SCORE is an all-new kind of collaborative story game that lets you create the world’s greatest heist movie with just 18 cards in under 18 minutes of game time. It’s a revolutionary take on shared storytelling that needs no GM, no complex rules, no hefty rulebooks and gives you all the idea prompts you need to be the mastermind.
Multiplayer: 1-9 players
Status: Released
Co-op, Collaborative, Card Game, Heist, Crime, Storytelling, Party Game
Scan-It Planet
Description: Scan-It Planet is a co-op platformer where you scan in objects to bridge the wide open space between planets and help your little astronaut make it to their destination!
Multiplayer: up to 4 players
Platform: Arcade, Installation
Status: Not yet released
Alternative Controller, Co-op, Platformer, Puzzle,
Chambara
Description: Chambara is a universe you have never seen before — and if you are not careful, you’ll never see your foes either. Hide in the shadows and strike from the light in a dazzling black and white world. This nail-biting competitive stealth brawler will be your home for unforgettable local multiplayer. Play locally in intense 1-on-1 matches, or party up for 2v2 across 9 unique maps!
Multiplayer: 2-4 players
Status: Released
Multiplayer, FPS, Action
Higher Than The Stars
Description: A street game exploring the first time you make out with someone. Higher than the Stars is set in junior-high school, in which players take part in a class where they pass notes to find people to “pair” with, and then spend a night phase trying to sit close to their partner without being caught by anyone.
Multiplayer: up to 16 players
Status: Released
Nicholas Fortugno / Playmatics
LARP
