SAGA Award 2023

SAGA Award 2023

We’re proud to announce that this year the 6th edition of our StyriAn Games Awards – SAGA – with a total value of EUR 1.500 will be awarded!

Have a look at the previous years: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017

Here are the details:

** Grand Prize **
* Audience Choice Award *
* Local Star Award *

There will be seven named finalists selected by a jury for the Grand Prize (Value: 1.000€; Sponsored by WKO). Finalists will be given free passes to the Button Festival and space at the festival to present their games. The Audience Choice Award (Value: 200€; Sponsored by GameDevGraz) will be voted at the Button Festival by the audience of the festival from the finalists.
The Local Star Award (Value: 300€; Sponsored by GameDevGraz) will be awarded to the best game from developers from/living in Styria.

Criteria:

  • Open to all independent game developers from Austria.
  • The game must be developed fully or partly in Austria.
  • The competition is also open for entries in the prototyping stage, and finalists will be mainly judged based on their potential.
  • Games must be in a playable stage for the Button Festival and must be presented at the festival.
  • Award-winning games from previous years are not eligible for re-submission.

Deadlines:

February 10, Submission Deadline
March 11, Award Ceremony @ Button Festival

Submission Form: Here

Jury

Get to know the games

EndCycle VS (12B3 Games)

Build your deck, choose your fighter and take on ever evolving enemies in this epic roguelike adventure. With over 4,000 combinations, you can battle against the oncoming Noise or take the fight online. Will you have what it takes to beat your enemies and end the cycle?

Features:

  • Inventive Deckbuilding: Create a unique playstyle with thousands of custom attacks!
  • Roguelike Adventure Awaits: Vanquish your foes throughout an increasingly challenging world, choose different cards and even different characters as you try to break the Cycle!
  • More Than Just a Roguelike: Battle it out against waves of enemies to perfect your build, before taking the fun online and testing yourself against other players!
  • Invent, Innovate and Imagine: Create entirely new maps, characters and builds with the easy-to-use Creative Centre.

Soul Passage (Emrah Özbay)

Soul Passage is an action-adventure game with RPG elements that follows the journey of Obligor, an honorable warrior who makes a pact with the Soul Keeper to bring his family and village back to life. The Heartless Soul Keeper gives him a long task to complete in order to free his family and people.
From that day forward, the nameless warrior is known as Obligor. He is obligated to gather the souls of his enemies and send them through the Soul Passage to complete the Soul Keeper’s task.

As players take on the role of Obligor, they will engage in fast-paced combat and defeat enemies to gather their souls. Along the way, players will encounter puzzles that must be solved in order to progress through the game and unlock new abilities. With RPG elements, players will be able to level up and customize their character’s abilities and equipment, making each playthrough unique.
The game is set in a unique fantasy world with a dark aesthetic, where the player will explore different locations and experience a story full of twists and turns.

Soul Passage is developed by a solo developer, who is dedicated to creating an immersive and engaging experience that keeps players on the edge of their seats. With a mix of fast-paced combat, challenging puzzles, and a captivating story, Soul Passage is a true passion project that has been crafted with care and attention to detail. Despite being developed by a single person, Soul Passage offers a big and rich gaming experience that stands out in the crowd. This game is a true testimony of what one person can accomplish when they set their mind to it.

Infested Fortress (Bitmen Studios)

Dig into the mountain, collect resources to build your fortress, grow your population and keep them alive (and happy), learn new deadly skills, gather and refine materials to craft powerful items so you can fend off the many dangerous monsters threatening your colony in turn-based tactical combat.

A Webbing Journey (Fire Totem Games)

In A Webbing Journey you play as a little spider and embark on a journey through stunning islands on the quest to collect the most exotic flowers for your spider date. You are accompanied by your friend Buzz, a fly, who will help you solve puzzles, engage in conversations and help you overcome your fears, and your friend Turbo, a turtle, who will help you travel between the different islands.

As it’s typical for a spider, you are able to explore your environment by climbing on all surface, even up-side-down. You can also make webs to build bridges for yourself and others, swing around to traverse the islands faster and use them to solve physic-based puzzles and quests.

The main story and side quest of the game centers around love and friendship. The gameplay will exclude any form of violence and combat but instead will feature a wholesome and relaxing gaming experience which focuses on exploration, quests and puzzles.

Draw Defend Collect Combine (Mellifluous Lemon Games)

Draw Defend Collect Combine is a unique game where you collect different paints and use them to defend your heart from waves of incoming enemies.

Each paint has its own abilities and can be used in different ways. There are frontline paints that work as walls, there are ranged paints that shoot to kill the enemies, there are healers, mages, summoners and many more. Also every paint is a member of a class. If you buy enough paints of a specific class you can activate more powers and buffs to help your team. You have to choose your paints carefully while also managing your gold and combining offense and defense to create the ultimate team.

Then you put your strategy to the test as it’s time to defend your heart. You have to draw using the paints you choose directly in the battlefield, trying to defeat the upcoming enemies.

As you play you will encounter different enemies, with different abilities, that will require to optimize your strategy and your team composition. As the levels will become more difficult, you will also be able to upgrade your shop in order to acquire stronger paints.