Congratulations to all finalists for the Pavs 2025!
Here you’ll find the cream of the crop of New Zealand & Australian games for the year!
This year we received over 50 submissions from studios and indies across New Zealand and Australia, which our judges and jury whittled down to the finalists below.
Abiotic Factor
Deep Field Games
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
The Poetic Serving: Excellence in Narrative
The Accessible Ambrosia: Excellence in Accessibility
Abiotic Factor is a survival crafting experience for 1-6 players set in the depths of an underground research facility. Caught between paranormal containment failure, a military crusade, and chaos from a dozen realms, the world’s greatest minds must survive against the universe’s biggest threats.
Be Brave, Barb
Thomas K. Young
Nominated for:
The Poetic Serving: Excellence in Narrative
Barb the cactus has lost her positive affirmations! How will she get through the day? How will she face her fears? How will she defeat King Cloudy and his evil henchmen? I have no idea. Maybe you should play this gravity-bending platforming adventure right now and find out?
Bento Blocks
Sometimes
Nominated for:
The Students Slice
Bento Blocks is a puzzle game that combines culinary creativity with brain-teasing challenges. Slice, arrange, and perfect your bento-making skills as you craft delicious lunch boxes at your own pace.
Blackheart
Hyporeal
Nominated for:
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
Weaving together action RPG and top-down shooter elements, Blackheart tells a tragic tale centred around the royal Blackheart family and the internal conflicts that are consuming them from the inside out.
CareTaker
Fuzzy Logic
Nominated for:
The Students Slice
Tasked with investigating mysterious disappearances of local children, you are pulled into another world. In this horror/puzzle game, work your way through a mysterious playland dimension using toys to navigate and solve puzzles to uncover secrets. Be careful, something might be waiting for you...
Chronodrive
Team Chronodrive
Nominated for:
The Students Slice
Play as A11, a friendly, time-traveling robot who wakes up in a distant future to find his robot friend destroyed in the wreckage of the world. Transport your consciousness through time and gather the replacement parts necessary to bring your friend back, and reunite at long last.
CONSCRIPT
Jordan Mochi
Nominated for:
The Guest Plate
During the First World War, a lone French soldier must navigate twisted trenches, scavenge for limited supplies and solve complex puzzles - all whilst fighting for survival in the midst of mankind’s most brutal and horrifying conflict. CONSCRIPT is a new take on classic survival horror.
Crab God
Chaos Theory Games
Nominated for:
The Guest Plate
Crab God is an atmospheric underwater strategy game. Guide your Crabling colony through wild ocean depths, and defend the egg of the next Crab God. Restore and protect diverse coral reefs, making a difference in the real world as you progress in-game. Make waves, praise the claw!
Cryptmaster
Paul Hart & Lee Williams
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Composed Segment: Excellence in Audio
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
SAY ANYTHING in this bizarre dungeon adventure where words control everything. Fill in the blanks with text or voice to uncover lost abilities, embark on strange quests, and solve mindbending riddles. Can you conquer the crypt and uncover the mystery at the heart of CRYPTMASTER?
Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers
Purple Moss Collectors
Nominated for:
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
Battle your way through a seedy tavern filled with gambling addicted townspeople in this Blackjack Roguelike Adventure. From aces and face cards to tarot cards, business cards and more, create your unique deck to beat the house.
Endeavor: Deep Sea
Designers: Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray. Publisher: Burnt Island Games
Nominated for:
The Tactile Taste: Excellence in Physical Games
In Endeavor: Deep Sea, you head an independent research institute with the goal of developing sustainable projects and preserving the fragile balance of marine life. Throughout the game, you’ll recruit field experts and use their abilities to explore new locations, research dive sites, publish critical ecological papers, and launch conservation efforts.
Feed the Deep
Luke Muscat
Nominated for:
The Guest Plate
A lovecraftian roguelike. Dive into procedurally generated undersea caves. Collect gold, upgrade your equipment, and Feed the Deep.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn
A44 Games
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Composed Segment: Excellence in Audio
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
The Accessible Ambrosia: Excellence in Accessibility
The Diverse Delight: Excellence in Representation
From games studio A44, makers of Ashen, comes an explosive Souls-lite, where Gods and guns collide in a battle for the future of humanity.
Fool's End
Alan Higgs
Nominated for:
The Students Slice
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
Fool's End is a fast-paced single-player mining game. Dig and destroy everything in your path, outsmart monsters and mine your path to complete each level.
Glimstone Grab
Cheeky Parrot Games
Nominated for:
The Tactile Taste: Excellence in Physical Games
Every man, woman, child, and beast of Much Middling is after the magical gems found in the forest. Unfortunately, a clutch of greedy trolls has settled into a clearing, snatching gems and children. Help Wizard Widdershins and Esmeralda banish the trolls and save the day!
Honey Grove
Runaway
Nominated for:
The Diverse Delight: Excellence in Representation
Honey Grove is the cozy gardening and farming game you’ve always wanted to play! Plant and nurture an ever-changing garden of flowers, vegetables, and fruits, with each bloom and harvest bringing you closer to rebuilding the town. Design your dream garden with real flower species and adorable decorations you collect along the way!
JankyBot
Snickerdoodle Games
Nominated for:
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
JankyBot is a boisterous bot-building physics puzzler. Attach different types of blocks to a robot to solve physics puzzles and explore a mysterious abandoned spaceship.
Night Bus
Liquid Static Studio
Nominated for:
The Poetic Serving: Excellence in Narrative
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
Night Bus is a thrilling public transit simulator that puts you on the edge of the bus driver's seat! It's your first night on the job: Pick up passengers, take their fares, enjoy the beautiful countryside, and please ignore That Which Has No Eyes.
Silly Qs
Silly Play Co.
Nominated for:
The Accessible Ambrosia: Excellence in Accessibility
A game where families connect while being (very) silly! Both adults and children will laugh uproariously as they learn funny things about each other and do silly tasks alongside the game?s lovable, quirky characters ? the Silly Qrew. The Qrew?s characters were dreamt up by well-known Kiwi artist Kyla K who hand drew each colour-filled illustration in the game. Developed in consultation with child development and family wellbeing experts, Silly Qs was created for 5-10-year-olds and their families. We know that supportive caregiver-child interactions develop confidence and resilience. Silly Qs makes those interactions easy and fun for the whole family!
Spellcaster
Spellcaster Education
Nominated for:
The Accessible Ambrosia: Excellence in Accessibility
Spellcaster is a web-based 16 bit spelling game where players adventure through a series of tech infused fantasy realms engaging with increasingly complex spelling.
Storm Raiders
Arkus Games
Nominated for:
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
The Poetic Serving: Excellence in Narrative
The Tactile Taste: Excellence in Physical Games
Race, raid and salvage across Atlantis to become the greatest Storm Raider in this new 1-4 player game designed by Shem Phillips.
Super Mayor
Indever Games
Nominated for:
The Diverse Delight: Excellence in Representation
A 100% free, feel-good 2D platformer where you play as a councillor to a rural farming district in New Zealand! Solve problems, meet the public, and become MAYOR in this hilarious, story-rich adventure.
Swords: Cut the Deck
Pointy Bits
Nominated for:
The Tactile Taste: Excellence in Physical Games
Try to outwit your opponent in a fast-paced clash between two heroes wielding magical swords, by playing Move cards in a sequence of 3 and revealing them to dictate the flow of battle.
Tales of the Shire
Wētā Workshop Game Studio
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Composed Segment: Excellence in Audio
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
The Diverse Delight: Excellence in Representation
Welcome home, Hobbit! Live the cosy life of a Hobbit in the wonderfully serene landscape of the Shire. Discover, decorate, & share in this idyllic corner of Middle-earth. Join friendly Hobbits & familiar faces awaiting your arrival in Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings™ Game.