The games that have been shortlisted for the GAM3 Awards in 2022 have been made public. The first Polkastarter Gaming GAM3 Awards will take place on December 15, 2022, and will cover 16 categories.
The jury members selected their best 5 games from each of the 13 categories represented by the 106 unique games that were submitted in the first round of voting. The final candidates were reduced via this procedure to 32 unique games, which represent the pinnacle of web3 gaming.
The top 3 networks, Polygon, BNB Chain, and Solana, were each represented in 3 of the first 106 games, which were spread among 13 chains. The final 32 nominations showed a distribution of web3 games throughout several chains. With 8 games each, Polygon and ImmutableX are tied for first place in web3 gaming, with Solana and Gala coming in second and third, respectively.
Without honoring the Best Content Creator, the GAM3 Awards would not have been possible to organize. They are the key proponents of adoption and they are the ones who enlist the support of their devoted communities. Web3 gaming has a large and diverse community of content producers from different countries, cultures, and languages. Because of this, the Best Content Creator award will be decided entirely by community voting. Each nominee should ask their supporters to cast votes for them at gam3awards.com.
The Games’ Choice Award is where games honor games but in a more literal manner. Each game nominates their favorite web3 title from outside of themselves in the fifteenth category of the GAM3 Awards. It serves as a gesture of deference and demonstrates that all of the games in the area are engaged in friendly rivalry to advance the web3 gaming sector as a whole.
On November 16th, the People’s Choice Award was made available for a public vote. This is the first game-specific GAM3 Award that is entirely chosen by public vote, and it inspired a movement across all genres and chains of games. 38 games with a total social following of over 3 million sent tweets and announcements to their individual communities. From the more than 5K unique votes cast on the platform, this approach alone qualified more than 50 games for the award.
The contenders for Game of the Year at the GAM3 Awards demonstrate how far web3 gaming has come. Five of the top games now available consistently straddle the border between conventional and web-based gaming quality while highlighting the value of digital asset ownership and other blockchain components. The Harvest, Gods Unchained, Big Time, Illuvium, and Superior. Whoever wins the GOTY award will be the outcome of the game studio’s commitment, effort, and hard work in creating an impenetrable community.
The GAM3 Awards and its proactive endeavor to keep web3 game creators inspired to go on were well-received throughout the nomination stage by both games and judges. Omar Ghanem, Polkastarter’s Head of Gaming, summarizes comments as follows:
“We would like to thank each and all of the 39 jury members involved in the first round of the GAM3 Awards voting. A 100% voting participation despite the task at hand with over 100 game titles to go through, is further proof of how excited everyone is to see the web3 gaming sector’s development and growth.
The majority of jury members shared positive feedback on how pleasantly surprised they were to discover a number of hidden gems in the industry and this was further proof the GAM3 Awards is doing what it set out to do, recognize quality web3 games for their work.”
The following comment from Urvit Goel, Head of Global Games at Polygon Studios, highlights the significance of gaming’s contribution to the development of blockchain technology:
“It is an amazing list of quality games that really showcase what is coming in the blockchain gaming space. The GAM3 Awards has shown how many quality blockchain games are being built, and the passion of those builders. It’s also clear that Polygon continues to be the leader when it comes to both quality, quantity, and diversity of web3 games.”
A number of factors, including the basic loop, visuals, accessibility, factor for replayability, fun components, and overall gaming experience, will be taken into consideration while judging games. The game in question must have a live, playable version that demonstrates the aforementioned requirements in order to be eligible for any of the awards, with the exception of Most Anticipated Game.
Yoshihisa Hashimoto, the former CTO of Square Enix and the director of Sonic: Unleashed and Final Fantasy XIV Online, as well as the former Senior Director of Partnerships at Electronic Arts (Edward Chang), make up the all-star jury. The duo have decades of combined gaming expertise. For a complete list of the jury members that cast votes for the GAM3 Awards, be sure to visit gam3awards.com.
Justin Kan, the founder of Fractal, Urvit Goel, the head of global games at Polygon Studios, Itai Elizur, managing partner at Market Across, Rachel Levin, the director of venture & strategy at ImmutableX, and Matt Sorg, the head of technology at the Solana Foundation are the judges whose votes will determine which studios win a prize.
The jury’s decision will be given 90% of the vote’s weight, while the remaining 10% will be determined by community vote. In the event of a tie, the community’s vote will be used to determine the winners for all categories. On December 15, 2022, all of these announcements will be published Livestream on official social media handles.
The full list of nominations is as follows:
Game of the Year
- Illuvium
- Big Time
- Gods Unchained
- The Harvest
- Superior
Most Anticipated Game
- Illuvium: Overworld
- Shrapnel
- Star Atlas
- Ember Sword
- The Treeverse
Best Graphics
- Illuvium
- Star Atlas
- Metalcore
- Big Time
- My Pet Hooligan
Best Action Game
- Big Time
- Illuvium
- Metalcore
- Guild of Guardians
- Superior
Best Mobile Game
- Guild of Guardians
- Splinterlands
- Blast Royale
- Thetan Arena
- Skyweaver
Best Adventure Game
- Big Time
- Earth from Another Sun
- My Pet Hooligan
- The Sandbox
- Aurory
Best Casual Game
- Blankos Block Party
- Thetan Arena
- My Pet Hooligan
- Axie Infinity Origins
- Legends of Venari
Best RPG
- Big Time
- Illuvium
- Aurory
- SIPHER
- Phantom Galaxies
Best Shooter Game
- Metalcore
- EV.IO
- Undead Blocks
- Delysium
- Earth from Another Sun
Best Strategy Game
- Gods Unchained
- Cross the Ages
- Skyweaver
- Immortal Game
- Cards of Ethernity
Best Card Game
- Gods Unchained
- Splinterlands
- Axie Infinity Origins
- Skyweaver
- Cards of Ethernity
Best Multiplayer Game
- Blankos Block Party
- My Pet Hooligan
- Metalcore
- Big Time
- EV.IO
Best Esports Game
- EV.IO
- Metalcore
- Gods Unchained
- Planet Mojo
- Spider Tanks
