GAM3 Nominees Revealed Ahead of First Web3 Gaming Awards

The shortlist of games that have been nominated for the GAM3 Awards 2022 have been released. 16 categories are featured in the inaugural edition of Polkastarter Gaming’s GAM3 Awards taking place on December 15th, 2022.

The first round of voting put forward 106 distinctive games across 13 categories for the jury members to choose their top 5 from each. This process narrowed down the final nominees to 32 unique games, representing the best of the best in web3 gaming.

The initial 106 games spanned 13 chains, with the top 3 networks represented being Polygon, BNB Chain, and Solana respectively. The spread of web3 games across different chains carried over to the final 32 nominees. Polygon and ImmutableX are tied with 8 games holding the torch of web3 gaming for them, while Solana and Gala come in 2nd and 3rd place respectively.

We couldn’t organise the GAM3 Awards without giving recognition for the Best Content Creator. They are the main drivers of adoption and they are the ones that rally their loyal communities behind them. The list of content creators in web3 gaming is long, and spans across various regions, cultures, and languages. That’s why the Best Content Creator award will be 100% community voted for each to send their fans to vote for them to win the award.

The Games’ Choice Award is where game recognizes game, but in a more literal sense of the phrase. The 15th category in the GAM3 Awards is where each game nominates their favourite web3 title outside of themselves. It acts as a sign of respect and shows games within the space are all in a friendly competition to push the web3 gaming industry together.

The People’s Choice Award opened its doors for the community voting on November 16th. This is the only game-specific GAM3 Award that is 100% decided by community voting, and it sparked a movement within games of all genres and from all chains. 38 games shared tweets and announcements with their respective communities, with a combined social following of more than 3 Million. This process alone qualified over 50 games for the award tallied from over 5K unique votes submitted on the platform.

The GAM3 Awards’ Game of the Year nominees are proof of how far web3 gaming has evolved. Five of the best games in the industry continuously blurring the lines between the quality of traditional and web3 gaming, while promoting the power of digital asset ownership and other blockchain elements. Big Time, Illuvium, The Harvest, Gods Unchained, and Superior. Whoever wins the GOTY title, it will be the result of the game studio’s dedication, hard work, and effort to build an undivided community.

During the nomination stage, both games and judges alike shared a positive sentiment towards the GAM3 Awards and its proactive attempt at keeping web3 game developers motivated to push forward. The following quote from Omar Ghanem, Head of Gaming at Polkastarter, summarises their feedback:

“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.”

Urvit Goel, the Head of Global Games at Polygon Studios, emphasised the importance of gaming’s contribution to the growth of blockchain technology in his following quote:

“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.”

Games will be judged based on multiple criteria including core loop, graphics, accessibility, replayability factor, fun elements, and overall gameplay experience. To be eligible for any of the awards except Most Anticipated Game, the game in question must have a live, playable version that showcases the aforementioned criteria.

An all-star jury with decades of gaming experience includes former Square Enix CTO who directed games such as Sonic: Unleashed and Final Fantasy XIV Online (Yoshihisa Hashimoto) and former Senior Director of Partnerships at Electronic Arts (Edward Chang). Make sure to visit their website for the full list of jury members voting for the GAM3 Awards.

Judges whose votes will determine which studios walk away with a prize include Justin Kan, Founder of Fractal; Urvit Goel, Head of Global Games at Polygon Studios; Itai Elizur Managing Partner at Market Across; Rachel Levin, Director of Venture & Strategy at ImmutableX and Matt Sorg, Head of Technology at Solana Foundation.

The jury’s vote will carry 90% weight, with the remaining 10% decided by the community voting. Community will be the deciding factor if there is a tie and their vote will have an influence on deciding the winners of all categories. All of which will be announced on December 15, 2022 during our livestream across all social platforms.

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

About GAM3 Awards

GAM3 Awards 2022 is the inaugural edition of the annual web3 gaming awards. Hosted by Polkastarter Gaming, Polkastarter’s first step at reimagining the future of blockchain gaming, the awards celebrate the highest quality web3 games. The event boasts industry leaders, ecosystems and media outlets and rewards the top games developers with monetary prizes and services valued at over $300,000.

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