congratulations to all finalists for the Pavs 2024!
Here you’ll find the cream of the crop of New Zealand & Australian games for the year – though really, everyone who managed to keep creating in the age of Covid deserves a round of applause! This year we received around 50 submissions from studios and indies across New Zealand and Australia, which our judges and jury whittled down to the below finalists.
Allogloom
Galactic Ghosty
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
The Poetic Serving: Excellence in Narrative
Chaos has descended upon the town of Gruesome Grove and its fate rests in Nora’s hands. Join her on an oftentimes gory journey through a beautifully hand-drawn world. Discover forgotten truths, make peculiar friends, encounter monsters and solve puzzles in this mysterious and macabre adventure.
Arcane Crimes Division
Imaginary Empire Games
Nominated for:
The Diverse Delight: Excellence in Representation
The Tactile Taste: Excellence in Physical Games
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
Arcane Crimes Division brings light-hearted buddy-cop style action to a fantasy city bursting with magic and thick with scheming villains and ruthless scoundrels. The focus of the game is the relationship between detectives, as they crack cases, engage in thrilling chases, and confront criminal masterminds.
Bird Kind
Runaway
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
Enter the enchanting world of Bird Kind and join a spirited forest community, working together to restore bird life to this magical domain. Enjoy the relaxing tranquility of the forest while nurturing and collecting birds. From tiny hummingbirds to vibrant parrots, you’ll encounter some of nature's most exquisite birds!
Bloons Card Storm
Ninja Kiwi
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Accessible Ambrosia: Excellence in Accessibility
Bloons Card Storm is a deep strategy card game where players build a balanced deck that combines defensive Monkey cards with offensive Bloons cards. Players will also have access to a host of powerful and fun Power cards and play some of their favorite Bloons heroes
Bronzebeard's Tavern
The Mermaid MenZ
Nominated for:
The Students Slice
Bronzebeard's Tavern is a goofy and playful restaurant manager sim where 1-8 players can work as a team with multiplayer co-op. Fulfill a number of different roles, serve a diverse range of customers and cook up delicious dwarven cuisine.
CShip
In2Games
Nominated for:
The Composed Segment: Excellence in Audio
A narrative shoot-em-up except the player doesn't shoot
Escape the Horde
Infectious Games
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Tactile Taste: Excellence in Physical Games
"Escape the Horde is a fast—paced, exciting multiplayer collaborative card game of strategy, teamwork, and a little bit of luck. Survivors work together to avoid becoming infected, while Patient Zero and their relentless horde of zombies attack at every chance they get.
Can you escape the horde?"
FLOPFISH
Cookiecrayon
Nominated for:
The Composed Segment: Excellence in Audio
Battle your mate with a randomly generated flopfish!
Kuwi & Friends Wharewhare
Illustrated Publishing
Nominated for:
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
Kuwi & Friends WHAREWHARE (BINGO) is a whānau friendly kēmu/game packed with Māori and English words, for hours of learning and fun. Featuring a range of engaging illustrations and kupu (words) from the award-winning Kuwi & Friends Māori Picture Dictionary - He Papakupu Whakaahua.
Neo-Witch
Cookiecrayon
Nominated for:
The Composed Segment: Excellence in Audio
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
Neo-Witch is a spell-casting game that makes you feel like a magician or wizard, casting spells just by using your arm and hand movements (like Dr. Strange!) made for the Nex Playground system.
Pavé
Frost Flame Game
Nominated for:
The Accessible Ambrosia: Excellence in Accessibility
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
The Tactile Taste: Excellence in Physical Games
"A two player path building game played across a grid that is deceptively simple, emergently complex, and ruthlessly competitive, Pavé is a timeless game for all ages.
Pavé is a very simple game to play and understand. It has fewer rules than you expect."
Piracy
Matthew Ireland
Nominated for:
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
Become a treasure-hungry pirate captain in this quick but exciting push-your luck game. Players will join each other in missions to gain a split of treasure - but be careful - if too many krakens are rolled the mission will fail and any players who can't abandon it in time will take the fallout!
Ring Zero
Ring zero team
Nominated for:
The Accessible Ambrosia: Excellence in Accessibility
The Students Slice
You play as a space ship with a single use bullet to beat all the oncoming aliens. Not to worry though, as you have a counter shield that can deflect all oncoming enemies if you face their attacks.
The Good Weapon
ninecoffees
Nominated for:
The Diverse Delight: Excellence in Representation
The Poetic Serving: Excellence in Narrative
Will you nuke the world to save it?
The Temple
The Temple team
Nominated for:
The Poetic Serving: Excellence in Narrative
The Students Slice
You play as a person that got transported to an arcade haunted by the god Dionysus.
The Wizard Party
Nobones // Jack Harnett
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Wizard Party is a whimsical point and click adventure game with a surreal twist.
Ulterior Design
Cheeky Parrot Games
Nominated for:
The Diverse Delight: Excellence in Representation
The Tactile Taste: Excellence in Physical Games
Compete to have the trendiest home that catches the eye of design experts from Decor Rate magazine. All's fair in love and decor: be the first neighbour to win three awards to win this quick card game for 2-6.
Undead West
Deathless Games
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
Undead West is a western themed roguelite bullet hell where the player utilises an array of weapons, whiskey infusions, and buffs gained from defeating bosses to complete each stage.