Freeplay, the long-running independent video game festival that takes place annually Melbourne, Australia, is currently accepting submissions for the 2021 Freeplay Awards. The Awards, which take place on the final day of the Festival, celebrates the achievements of Australian game developers and their works in a number of discrete categories.
The awards are notable in that they serve to both celebrate the strengths of the local development industry, and clearly identify some of the strongest current and upcoming independent works for a global game-playing audience.
Previous award winners have included innovative visual novel Necrobarista, cult-favourite The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game, the disturbing competitive co-op game Push Me Pull You, and Framed, the comic-book frame-swapping game lauded by Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima as his favourite game of 2014.
The 2021 Freeplay Award categories are as follows:
- Excellence in Design
- Excellence in Visual Art
- Excellence in Audio
- Excellence in Narrative
- Non-Digital Game Award
- Micro-Game Award
- Experimental Game Award
- Student Game Award
- Across The Ditch Award
The deadline for entries is Sunday 25th April, 11:59pm Australian Eastern Standard Time, and developers can enter via the website.
Read: What can the world’s oldest games festival teach the arts about survival?
Above and beyond the awards, however, Freeplay will play host to online talks, panels, and workshops surrounding game development and culture, among other things.
