The Phil Gosch Award of Absurd Game Innovations honors the memory of Phil Gosch, who shaped the Austrian game development community with his humor, passion for experiments, and love for the weird, quirky, and creative.

This award celebrates games that dare to be different: absurd, funny, playful, and innovative. Games that don’t just impress with polished mechanics but push boundaries with a wink, make us laugh, and remind us: games are allowed to be crazy.

The award is based on a jury-only decision. It’s not about sales or technical perfection, but about the courage to stand out – just the way Phil would have loved it.

Rules

• The applicants assure that the submitted game has been developed primarily in Austria. GameDevGraz is authorized to conduct a plausibility check for this purpose.
• Both released games and prototypes can be submitted, as long as they are in a playable state.,
• The jury will specifically look for creativity, humor, absurdity, and boldness. Games may be weird, funny, experimental, or even confusing – as long as they would have made Phil (and us) smile.
• Digital games that have been or will be released after the end of the previous submission phase and no later than December 31, 2026, can be submitted.
  (To clarify: the (expected) release date must be between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2026.)
• Submitting the same game to multiple categories is allowed.
• The Phil Gosch Award is a jury-only award. There is no public voting. The jury will decide at its own discretion which game best embodies the spirit of creativity, fun, and absurdity.

Registration – Deadline: 16.01.2026