Hey all,

Well I've been hashing out this "nearly" final version of the Game of the Year (GOTY) winners for 2003 (per my site Game Tunnel, there are of course many varied opinions, and other sites...so...)

Without further ado, here is what I currently have set. I'm planning on multiple awards, first by category, then more technical aspects, such as graphics, and finally an overall. Each category has five finalists. My reviewers and I will be revisiting each of these games over the next few weeks to come up with winners, which will be posted starting about the 8th of December and running through the end of that month.

Action
3D Airstrike (Divogames)
Demonstar: SM2 (Mountain King)
Marbleblast Gold (Garage Games)
Orbz (Garage Games)
Alien Shooter (Sigma)

Adventure
Dark Archon (BCSoft Games)
Mage Bros (JJ Soft)
Starscape (Moonpod)
Notrium (Ville Mönkkönen)
Dr. Lunatic Supreme w/ Cheese (Hamumu)

Arkanoid
Break Ball 2: Gold (BCSoft Games)
PowBall Deluxe (Anthony Hamilton)
Ball Attack (???)
Superball Arcade Mania (Cheeky Monkey Software)
Magic Ball (Dream Dale)

Puzzle
Train Tracking (Demonstar)
JigJag (Gavin Buttimore)
Tryptych (Chronic Logic)
Zen Puzzle Garden (Lexaloffle Games)
Dungeon Scroll (RT Soft)

Other Categories (RPG, Strategy, FPS, Sports)
Geneforge 2 (Spiderweb Software)
Necrotech (Spectre Software)
Tennis Critters (Nerdriot)
Samurai ( Klear)
Twitch (Lazy Reptile)

Game of the Year
Samurai (Klear)
Starscape ( Moonpod)
Orbz (Garage Games)
Alien Shooter (Sigma)
Marbleblast Gold (Garage Games)

Graphics of the Year
3D Airstrike (Divogames)
Starscape (Moonpod)
Orbz (Garage Games)
Alien Shooter (Sigma)
Ultra Assault (Small Rockets)

Most Original Concept of the Year
Train Tracking (Demonstar)
Notrium (Ville Mönkkönen)
Orbz (Garage Games)
Paint Defense (Gradient Studios)
Dungeon Scroll ( RT Soft)
Tryptych (Chronic Logic)

Best Multi-Player of the Year
3D Airstrike ( Divogames)
Demonstar: SM1 (Mountain King)
Demonstar: SM2 ( Mountain King)
Crimsonland (Reflexive )
Mage Bros ( JJ Soft)

Best Network Game of the Year
Samurai (Klear)
Think Tanks (Garage Games)
Orbz ( Garage Games)
Tennis Critters ( Nerdriot)
?

Best Sound of the Year
Dr. Blob's Organism (Digital Eel)
Break Ball 2: Gold ( BCSoft Games)
Samurai (Klear)
3D Airstrike (Divogames)
Starscape ( Moonpod)


So there you have it...
I went through more than 100 games to come up with the list, and eveyone will of course have their own opinions/complaints about it. If anyone wants to add a complaint/comment to this thread, I'll definately look at them all!

If there aren't any...well then this will likely be the final list. Thanks to all the developers who have given us review copies of their games and information about their games as it became available!

Russell Carroll
Game Tunnel

It looks like Juno will have to be in next years one. Which is probably not a bad thing, considering how many really cool games there are on that list. :)

Definately look forward to it!

It would have provided even more competition this year.
I'm excited whenever I look at the list, there were a lot of good games this year!

Cool list! Although, some of the games were not released in 2003 (based off memory at least).

What's the difference between the best network and best multi-player games? I'm a little surprised that Tennis Critters made it on there though, you obviously liked it more than i did. The game is a cool distration but the line calling is way off too often, and the online play is extremely unforgiving if you have even the smallest amount of lag. The lack of any real variety in courts and players hurts as well.

Your adventure section has me a little curious though. I don't see any traditional adventure games, point & click style that is. Sure, most the ones out there are free games that are really lacking in the length department, but some of them are extremely good. You might want to give The Adventures of Fatman (http://socko-entertainment.com/fatadv_index.htm) a try, it's excellent. The ug adventure scene is amazingly large and diverse, trying to keep tabs on it is frightening.

Finally, I would submit the recently released Rocknor's Donut Factory (http://www.monolux.com/games/rocknors-donut-factory/index.htm) as representing one of the best puzzle games of 2003. Its music & sound are top notch, especially the way they work together. Is it game of the year material? Maybe, I've lost more hours to RDF than any other game in recent memory.

Thanks Greg!

On the 2003 thing, I've included any games made between Nov 7 2002 and Nov 6 2003. So there are a couple of games that were from late last year. If I went through December, it would be Feb before I could post end of year stuff.

Tennis Critters is alright, but not great. I made the seperation of Multiplayer and Networked b/c I felt that networked gaming is always more fun than multiplayer on the same computer, so it wasn't fair to compare them. I was actually having trouble coming up with a list of 5 games that had a network play option, that is why Tennis Critters is on the list. I've finally come up with a 5th game in Astral Tournament...though it isn't a great game either.

My adventure category is certainly different than some. My intention for that category is for platform games, and games that have a story to them. At times it is a hard line to determine, but I feel mostly good about it. There are so many straight out action games in Indie Developing, I wanted to try and divide the group up between those that offer a little more in-depth game play and those that just offer blasting. Starscape for example is a whole lot more than blasting asteroids whereas Mutant Storm is all about blowing things up. I want there to be a seperation between the two b/c I feel those game types are very different. I also of course include games like Charlie II and Alchemist Wizard in the Adventure Category.

I'll check out Adventures of Fatman.

Argghh. That is my response on RDF. I honestly haven't had enough time to sit down and play it and it totally slipped my mind. I've been amazed how many good puzzle games there were this year. I only played Triptych for the first time a couple of days ago, and it is a lot more fun than most puzzle games I've checked out.

Thanks for the suggestions, this is in no way an exact science and I'm glad there are other sites out there with differing opinions to help give some more balance on this whole rating thing.

<continues grumbling pedantically> of course, if Starscape wanted to have a story, it would have been nice if they'd proofread it. It's irksome seeing that thing out there with what, to me, are horrendously glaring errors... I forgive crashes more easily than sloppy writing. Crashes generally happen because the user did something you didn't predict. You should have no trouble predicting that the player would have to read your messed-up text. </grumble>

First go Alien Shooter and Orbz! Alien Shooter is a blast, not perfect but right in so many ways. Those who don't like it probably didn't play long enough to figure the game out (hmm I’m channeling princec here...)

I take issue at the Networked / Multiplayer game. Simply because of how mainstream press does their GOTY. Multiplayer game of the year is a networked multiplayer game. I think what you have in your "multiplayer game" category are actually "2 Player games" or "Hotseat Games" and what you have in your Networked Games category are actually "Multiplayer Games".

Picture the headlines
Networked Game of the Year goes to THINK TANKS!
Multiplayer Game of the Year goes to CRIMSONLAND!

first of all, who wants to be networked game of the year? it's like the being the best game to include a networking feature. Seems very much like a consolation prize and doesn't do the designers justice.

and then having crimsonland win Multiplayer game of the year.. it doesn't even have network support! It seems a little counterintuitive for me, especially with established norms.

I just played through roknors doughnut factory, man that game is goign to be a hit. I bet the distribution channels would fall over eachother to get their hands on that one. Nice work Hanford!

I still have a special place in my heart for ZPG though, go zen!

Since when were we mainstream? :)

I'll take a look at that, I certainly don't want it to be a consolation prize. Perhaps we'll make it Multiplayer of the year and 2-player game of the year...hmmm...will have to work on titling it correctly but I see the point, so lets see if I can do anything about it.

I'd love to add Donut Factory, but still won't have a chance to play it for a few days. I have some beta testing to do.

Alien Shooter...this is a great game. I liked the demo, but didn't really go for it...until I got the full version. There is a WORLD of difference between the two in this case, and I think everyone should own a copy of this game. Hoping to get a review of it up before the end of the month (inbetween GOTY work). It is the one game I've had troulbe categorizing. If it had a story at all it would fall into the adventure group as it is heavy on upgrading your character.

Russell,

The Orbz team is honored to see the game nominated in so many categories! Your support is greatly appreciated. There is some amazing competition in those games listed, we are looking forward to the results in December.

Also, would you mind updating the name of the developer for Orbz to "21-6 Productions"?

Thanks again,
Justin
www.21-6.com

Yeah, I would agree about Alien Shooter. I bought it mostly because I was impressed with the look and feel of the game. But from the moment I fired up the full version, when the creepy/cool techno music kicked in (music is absent from the demo), I knew the game was going to be good. Both campaign and survival modes have their own merits, great game overall. It's one of those games you can't put down until you've seen it all.

Dan -> Couldn't agree more, the second I heard that music I was into it!

Justin -> I will do so. This was a list I was using, so the developer name is actually a link on my real sheet, and in this case the link was to Garage Games. I'm hoping to get the official release of this out on the website this weekend IN ADDITION to my calendar for December showing when each award will be announced and written up on the site. That version will show all the correct developers! Something I was already planning on, but glad to see people looking closely. Orbz is great, I should show which games got the most nominations...perhaps when I do my release of this on my site I will, Orbz is likely at the top of the list. (though my ranking in the game with all the reviews I've had to do lately is falling ever more)