SXSW Sydney 2025: Games Showcase Winners Announced
As we wrap up at the ICC and Tumbalong Park this year, the SXSW Sydney Games Festival has revealed its 2025 award winners at last night’s SXSW Sydney Games and Screen Awards at Johnnie Walker Black Ruby House.
This year’s showcase brought together bold, brilliant, and boundary-pushing titles from across the globe, showcasing the creativity and innovation shaping the future of play. From emerging indie studios to global trailblazers, the Games Awards celebrate the very best in gaming.
This year’s worthy winners are:
- Game of the Year Winner – Mixtape
On their last night of high school, three friends embark on one more adventure together. Play through a mixtape of memories, set to the soundtrack of a generation. En route to their final party together, a perfectly curated playlist draws them into dreamlike reenactments of their formative memories. Players will immerse themselves in the teenage wasteland by playing through a mixtape of joyful gameplay, from skateboarding and flying to taking photos after hours at an abandoned theme park, hitting baseballs, and putting on a fireworks show from the backseat of a car. It’s the greatest hits of teenage friendship, from the first kiss to the last dance.
Studio or Developer: Beethoven & Dinosaur
Genre: Adventure, Narrative
- Best International Winner – Goodnight Universe
In the narrative adventure Goodnight Universe, you’ll play as Isaac, a six-month-old baby developing mysterious psychic abilities. What you want most is to be loved and accepted by your family, but a secretive tech corporation wants you for their own. The game features an immersive “face-tracking” mode, expanding on the innovative use of camera-based technology that the team is known for.
Studio or Developer: Nice Dream
Genre: Adventure, Sci-Fi, Narrative, Comedy
- Discovery Award Winner – Letters to Arralla
Deliver letters as a cheeky and cheeked-up little turnip for one week on the sunny island of Arralla! Letters to Arralla is a whimsical, cheeky, wholesome RPG set on a small fictional island off the coast of Victoria. You play as a newly-recruited turnip hired to deliver letters, parcels, and packages around the island using nothing but a pictogram as your “address”.
Studio or Developer: Little Pink Clouds
Genre: Adventure, Casual, Cosy, Puzzle, RPG, Comedy - WINGS Award Winner: ABYSS X ZERO
Explore an expansive world in this 3D Metroidvania with carefully crafted dungeons and stylish combat. Take control of two different characters, fated to battle each other: Codename A and Codename Z, legendary heroes with unique abilities that change how you fight and interact with the environment.
Studio or Developer: Studio Pixel Punk
Genre: Adventure, Action, RPG
- The Best Tabletop Game Award: Potion Society
A 2-4 player Potion Crafting card game where you, our newest apprentices, are tasked with crafting the best Potion according to a Recipe.Stack Ingredients into Components, cook those in the Cauldrons and fill your bottle to see whose Potion will reign SUPREME.
Studio or Developer: The Murmuring Mystic
About the Author
Adrian Gunning Adrian lives in Melbourne Australia and has a huge passion for gaming, technology and pop culture. He recently finished his a Bachelor of Journalism and is currently focusing on games journalism. When not writing and playing video games, Adrian can be found in Comics 'R' Us debating the pros of the DC Universe and cons of the Marvel Universe.
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