congratulations to all finalists for the Pavs 2022!
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.
To see the list of winners from 2022, click here.
11pm Onwards
Endroll Games
Nominated for:
The Student’s Slice
2.5 D psychological thriller puzzle game
There's something not quite right about Vegas Valley Diesel gas station...
Battlecruisers
Mecha Weka
Nominated for:
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
RealTimeStrategy X TowerDefence X AutoBattler
A stylish real time strategy game for PC. Featuring futuristic naval warfare, Battlecruisers combines addictive RTS with casual gaming in short, satisfying bursts: 1. Trash-talk (humor, rather than nastiness) 2. Deck out your cruiser with weapons you've collected 3. Explode your enemy's cruiser 4. Win a new epic weapon 5. Repeat the process
Clusterduck
PikPok
Nominated for:
The Accessible Ambrosia: Excellence in Accessibility
Idle
CLUSTERDUCK is about hatching as many ducks as possible. As more ducks hatch, the more strange things happen. The ducks begin to genetically mutate! With each generation of ducks that hatch, the chances of things going horribly wrong increase at an alarming rate. Ever seen a duck with a sword for a head, or horse hoof for a wing?
Dread Hunger
Digital Confectioners & Slowdrive Studios
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
Social Deception / Survival
A game of survival and betrayal. Eight Explorers path their ship through the unforgiving Arctic. Among the crew, two traitors call on dark powers to undermine them.
Grimguard Tactics
Outerdawn
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Composed Segment: Excellence in Audio
Tactics RPG
Grimguard Tactics: End of Legends is an epic, dark fantasy RPG with an expansive Hero summon gacha and turn-based tactics style gameplay. The Primorva, an ancient evil, has awoken from the shadows & to save the world of Terenos, recruit and band together its most powerful, legendary, and dangerous forces to drive back the oncoming darkness!
Her Jentle Hi-ness
Sky Bear Games
Nominated for:
The Poetic Serving: Excellence in Narrative
The Diverse Delight: Excellence in Representation
Visual novel/life simulation
In Her Jentle Hi-ness, you have to serve a jealous queen who has banned the letter G after being cheated on and abandoned by her consort King George. Playing as the lady-in-waiting Eorina (formerly Georgina), you have to try and survive the mad whims of the queen. Are you fast enough to keep up with her linguistic gymnastics?
Hohi 1816
Ruth Lemon and Richard Durham
Nominated for:
The Accessible Ambrosia: Excellence in Accessibility
The Tactile Taste: Excellence in Physical Games
Educational, Narrative
A cooperative story-exploration boardgame Hohi 1816 is a journey back to some early Māori and Pākehā relations leading to Aotearoa New Zealand's first western-style school near Rangihoua Pā. In a boardgame reminiscent of point-and-click adventure video games, you will journey across a span of 3 chapters covering 25 years. You'll explore locations and help historical figures involved in real events. With direct input by Dr. Alison Jones, the intent of this game is to explore Māori perspective on events that often have only been told from a colonial perspective in order to show why it was so hard for Māori and Pākehā to set up equitable educational relationships. Travel back into our past and discover how it informs our present and future.
Instruments of the Chrysanthemum Throne
Imaginary Empire Games
Nominated for:
The Poetic Serving: Excellence in Narrative
The Tactile Taste: Excellence in Physical Games
Dark Fantasy
Explore a world of myth and magic where you must balance the terrible evil of the sentient object you carry, with the enormous power it grants.
JUSTICE SUCKS
Samurai Punk
Nominated for:
The Guest Plate
Stealth action
JUSTICE SUCKS is a stealth/action game about a killer robot vacuum cleaner on a quest for vengeance through a 90s TV universe. Stalk your prey, hack smart devices, turn them into deadly traps and consume the blood of your enemies to unleash devastating powers.
Kaupapa
Kura Rēhia
Nominated for:
The Accessible Ambrosia: Excellence in Accessibility
The Diverse Delight: Excellence in Representation
The Tactile Taste: Excellence in Physical Games
Board Game, Bilingual Game, Language game, Word description game
With 900 words spanning rākau to rangatira, KAUPAPA is your chance to have hysterical fun, use your reo and expand your Māori vocabulary at once! It is a word description game that can be played at any level - beginners can use it to learn new words, and fluent speakers can create a fast-paced, playful Māori language immersion environment.
Matcha
Delphinium Games
Nominated for:
The Composed Segment: Excellence in Audio
Puzzle / Education
Matcha is a simple puzzle game, built around the beautiful Korean writing system, Hangul. Combine, split and match characters to solve the puzzle, discovering a deeper understanding along the way.
Nitro Kid
Wildboy Studios
Nominated for:
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
The Composed Segment: Excellence in Audio
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
Roguelike deck builder
Nitro Kid is set in a dystopian future. Humanity is almost doomed. The goal? Travel back to the 80s, save the kids, and rewind humankind's biggest catastrophe.
Realising Utopia
PlayAble
Nominated for:
The Diverse Delight: Excellence in Representation
Educational
Realising Utopia is an educational game all about the United Nations Disability Conventions, developed in collaboration with the Dunedin disability community.
Sapiens
Majic Jungle
Nominated for:
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
City Builder/Simulation
Evolve your primitive hunter gatherers through thousands of years of technological advancement. Feed, protect and grow your tribe, build towns and industry, and advance through the primitive ages in this first person civilization builder for PC.
Tana's S.H.A.P.E.
Tana Tanoi & Poppy de Raad
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Perfect Recipe: Excellence in Design
The Composed Segment: Excellence in Audio
Puzzle
Move shapes from A to B using a range of wacky tools, like Portals, Magnets, Springs, and more in Tana's Shape Handling and Postage Enterprise, or S.H.A.P.E.!
The Forgotten City
Modern Storyteller
Nominated for:
The Guest Plate
Narrative-driven adventure
The Forgotten City is a narrative-driven time loop adventure in ancient Rome. Discover the ruins of an ancient underground city, travel 2000 years into the past, and unravel the mystery of who destroyed it by cleverly exploiting the power to wind back time. The fate of the city is in your hands.
The Many Misfortunes of Kyran Pierre Cadenza the First
[SAMPLE TEXT] Studios ltd
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Student’s Slice
Strategy RPG
The Many Misfortunes of Kyran Pierre Cadenza the First (and others) is a blend of ‘choose your own adventure’ style storytelling and grid-based strategy combat set within a satirical take on the traditional fantasy setting.
Unpacking
Witch Beam
Nominated for:
The Guest Plate
zen puzzle
Unpacking is a zen puzzle game about the familiar experience of pulling possessions out of boxes and fitting them into a new home. Part block-fitting puzzle, part home decoration, you are invited to create a satisfying living space while learning clues about the life you’re unpacking.
Wanderer
Wanderer
Nominated for:
The ‘Slice of Heaven’ Grand Prize
The Poetic Serving: Excellence in Narrative
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
Adventure, Mystery, Puzzle
Built from the ground up for VR, Wanderer has a unique blend of escape room style puzzles, tactile hands on interactions and action arcade sequences to bring you the ultimate time travel adventure. Are you ready to walk in the footsteps of those who have gone before you?
Webbed
Sbug Games
Nominated for:
The Guest Plate
Action / Adventure / Indie
Webbed is the story of a happy little spider on an adventure to save her boyfriend from a big mean bowerbird. Swing through the trees, spin sticky webs, and make friends with bugs! Be the adorable spider you’ve always wanted to be.
What Draws Me In
Antmarch
Nominated for:
The Student’s Slice
2D Platformer
An artist wakes up to find himself trapped within his own sketchbook. Befriending one of the characters he had drawn, the two journey together to find a way to escape as they confront and question their place in the world.
Winning Love by Daylight
Cutlass Boardgames
Nominated for:
The Poetic Serving: Excellence in Narrative
The Decorative Piece: Excellence in Visual Art
The Accessible Ambrosia: Excellence in Accessibility
The Diverse Delight: Excellence in Representation
Visual Novel
Winning Love by Daylight is a Visual Novel that puts you directly amongst the action as a High School student who slowly uncovers the secret that several of their classmates are actually magical girl super heroes!
Zeitgeist
[SAMPLE TEXT] Studios ltd
Nominated for:
The Student’s Slice
Adventure
Equipped with your pot plant companion, travel through the roots of time delving into the past and present depths of an ancient submerged city. Exploring grand halls, navigating between walls, and taking advantage of ancient mechanisms on your mission to steal the heart of the city.