2022 Aggie Award Nominees
Written by Ivo Teel
It will take you 6 minutes to read this feature.
And the Nominees Are…
Ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of the year again! The 2022 Aggie Awards are just around the corner, and we couldn't be more excited to recognize and celebrate the best adventure games released in the past year.
Despite the challenges of 2022, the adventure game genre saw a wealth of new releases, each with unique stories, puzzles, and experiences. Narrowing down the list of contenders was no easy feat, but we're thrilled to announce the top nominees for each category.
This year's categories include the endlessly debatable controversial "Best Non-Traditional" and "Best Traditional" awards, along with the coveted "Game of the Year" award. And as always, we want to hear from you! Our reader poll opened yesterday, and we encourage you to vote for your favorites in each category.
So without further ado, let's dive into the world of adventure games and celebrate the nominees for the 2022 Aggie Awards. Stay tuned for the awards presentation on Friday, February 24th, where we'll reveal the winners of the golden (and silver) Aggie statuettes!
Best Story
One of the core components of any adventure, the game’s narrative must engage the player’s interest and imagination. Entertaining in its own right, a good story also immerses the player in a believable game world and serves as motivation to overcome the challenges presented. While often accompanied by quality writing, the plot is a distinct feature that may or may not be ably supported by the actual dialogue.
The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow
Best Writing – Comedy
Arguably the hardest genre to write well, comedy done right can amuse and uplift, finding humour in the ordinary and laughter in the unexpected. Often dismissed for not being “serious writing” (oh, the irony!), comedy has long been a beloved adventure staple and deserves appropriate recognition.
Lucy Dreaming
Justin Wack and the Big Time Hack
Best Writing – Drama
If comedy lifts the soul, then drama explores and challenges it. Though sometimes misrepresented as dry and boring or overly theatrical, a gripping drama simply engages players on a deeper emotional level. Quality writing is essential in maintaining the player’s connection to the characters, game world, and the story unfolding.
The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow
Best Character
Gabriel Knight… April Ryan… Guybrush Threepwood. These names roll off the tongue of any adventure gamer as a testament to the importance of compelling protagonists in an adventure. But just as important are the villains, sidekicks, and significant supporting characters, which are often the juiciest parts. This category recognizes those who have made the most memorable contribution, regardless of role.
Best Gameplay
Puzzles are an integral aspect of adventure gameplay, but not the only one. Good pacing, rich exploration, and variety of activities are all factors in player enjoyment as well, all suitably integrated into the storyline. The best games seek the right balance of these elements for the most rewarding gameplay experience, whatever the approach.
Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit
Best Concept
A somewhat ambiguous category meant to highlight any unusual, distinctive element. A creative concept can run the gamut from unique story premise to clever game mechanics, from stylistic choice to technical innovation. For the purpose of this award, it doesn’t even need to have been successfully implemented, as it’s the idea itself that deserves the acknowledgement in a genre renowned for its conservative approach.
Best Setting
Adventures can transport us to memorable places we’ve never been before, including those we never even imagined. Or perhaps to locales inspired by real-world locations, but never quite like this, making them feel fresh and new and awe-inspiring all over again. In these games, the setting is like an integral character of its own, inseparable from the story taking place within its borders.
Best Graphic Design
If a picture is worth a thousand words, this category speaks volumes. Regardless of technique, this award recognizes games that are not only visually attractive but stylistically distinctive. One look at a screenshot should elicit not only jaw-dropping admiration, but intuitive recognition of the game to which it belongs. This award includes both game world and character design, but not cinematics.
Best Music
As a complementary element playing in the background, often a game’s music is noticeable only when it becomes intrusive, but a strong score and attention to timing can add so much to the ambience. Dramatic escalations can heighten tension at just the right moments, while a catchy theme song can make a soundtrack truly memorable, and an in-game number even more so. Whatever its particular strengths, the game that excels musically deserves its accolades, even if its impact is subtle.
Best Acting (Voice or Live Action)
Often under-valued by publishers but never by gamers, good acting can enhance a player’s investment in characters as surely as poor acting can ruin it. With so much international localization, voice-overs can be difficult to skillfully oversee, but any game benefits greatly from proper direction and believable acting. Live acting, meanwhile, adds an entirely new realistic dynamic, but the added realism makes it that much harder to pull off successfully. This category refers to the overall quality of performances in a game, not to individual characters.
The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow
Best FMV Adventure
In the 90s we all thought it’s the future, when we played Phantasmagoria, Gabriel Knight 2 or Tex Murphy games, and stared in awe to live actors in an adventure format. But faster than you can say “Oh my Hell!” the trend faded away with the rise of 3D graphics in the late 90s. And much longer than you can say “Schattenjäger” the genre seems to be making a surprising comeback to the gaming market.
Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus?
Best Non-Traditional Adventure
A genre that’s remained largely unchanged for decades has a rich history of experimental titles pushing the creative envelope in unique, memorable ways. They don’t “evolve” or “redefine” adventures, but rather expand our understanding of what an adventure can be with their bold vision. Purists may resist, but this award honours those games that stretch beyond traditional genre conventions to offer something completely new, or at least present the familiar in imaginative new ways.
Best Traditional Adventure
Why mess with a good thing? While innovative adventures provide a welcome breath of fresh air, the lifeblood of the genre continues to be the many games that closely adhere to the comfortable, tried-and-true design formulas. Full of inventory and/or logic puzzles, memorable character dialogue, epic storylines and immersive exploration, they may not have changed much since Monkey Island and Myst – or even the original Zork for some – but they’re no less enjoyable when done well.
The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow
Best Adventure of 2022
Best of the best. Or, as Del Boy would say, here’s creme de la menthe of adventure games in 2022.
The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow
Final Notes
To be eligible, a game must have been commercially released in English for the first time in the calendar year 2022.
Any series designed to be episodically completed in 2022 is eligible, even if the series was begun earlier. Conversely, any series begun in 2022 but still needs to be completed is ineligible.
Ports and remakes of commercial games released in previous years are generally disqualified from contention, though updated re-releases of former freeware games are eligible.
Finally, I'd like to highlight Diego from the Adventure Gamers forums, who undertook a lot of efforts to get the Aggies for 2022 going, including the initiative to organize it on the forums and supported getting that effort incorporated as part of the official Aggies for 2022!